Lisa loves Pooh
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2004
- Messages
- 40,449
A few years ago I was friends with a girl whose sister had given birth to a baby girl. The sister was attending night classes to get a degree and left her baby with the her boyfriend while she went to school. One night she came home and found the baby unresponsive and called 911. At the hospital they found that the baby had eaten toilet paper and had inhaled some. The boyfriend had left a roll in the crib.
The baby was a mess. They managed to save her but weren't sure if there would be any brain damage from the incident.
The baby was removed from the home and put in foster care. Both of them were arrested for child abuse/neglect and other things I don't remember. They reduced moms charges but she still wasn't allowed to have the baby back. She had to attend all sorts of mandatory classes. The courts had determined that she was the ultimate caregiver for the child regardless of the fact that she wasn't home.
Without knowing the case..it would seem that the reason that occurred was probably under some premise that she should have known better. Perhaps she should have used better judgement, according to authorities and the courts.
If I leave my children with someone who was trusted and vetted and then something happened, I would not necessarily be held responsible as the ultimate caregiver. Say it was with their grandparents or an aunt or uncle?
But if I leave my child with someone who has been in trouble with the law and is of questionable character in questionable conditions..then *I* as the ultimate caregiver should have known better. Say, I left my child in the caregiver of a relative with known dementia?
There probably more to the story that we don't know for the courts to draw that conclusion. It isn't as simple as leaving your child with someone over the age of 18 and your duties as caregiver are relieved.