Yesterday evening when I was parking I saw that Terrance was outside with Autumn and the neighbor kids whom are brother and sister. They are 4 years old and 6 years old, and always playing out side on their own. As I was walking up I asked Autumn if she wanted to go inside and make a cake. The 6 year old girl exclaimed "I want to help, too!" and so did her little brother. I told them they could help so long as they asked their momma.
They ran inside, their mother had said yes and I verified this by making sure she saw them come in and by waving at her from the back door. We made the cake (well, I did, they were distracted by Autumn's mountains of toys) and while we waited for it to bake we did some crafts. I took some construction paper to make "books" and had the kids decorate their own books with markers, ribbon, other paper, crayons, and lots of tape. When the cake was done and cooled, I frosted it and cut them each a slice.
After we cut the cake and ate, I told the kids we had to leave to run an errand so I packaged up some cake in a throw away plastic container and sent them through the back door and watched them walk onto their steps. That's when the 4 year old stuck his head back outside and said "My mom and dad are not here."
I was baffled. The parents had left their two young children at my house without telling me? Why would they do that? I've only lived by them for two months, and rarely have spoken to the parents besides a quick "Hello" in passing. I almost didn't believe the 4 year old so I walked up to their door and yelled a little "yoo-hoo" to see if anyone was inside. Then, as I'm starting to tell the kids to head back to my place while we wait for their parents they pull up behind me and park.
They were in my house for at least an hour and a half. They are 4 and 6. They do not know me well. They never told me they were leaving. I don't care how long they were gone for, it's rude to leave your kids at some one's house and not tell them you're leaving. Especially at 8pm at night when it's usually time to get things ready for bed. However, them being rude is not my concern. They literally left two young children at a strangers house for an extended period of time and LEFT their house in their CAR. WHAT?!
Even if they "trusted" me, as a stranger, what if I had let them run home without checking and something happened to them there?
She's 6. and He's 4. We don't live in a really great neighborhood. We live close to downtown, which is both beautiful and scary. It's historical yet warn, and it's definitely got a very wide range of individuals who live in the area. It's scary, I would never want to leave my children alone. Especially because of the parking situation, it's easy to tell when your car is missing.
Now I'm concerned about letting them come inside to play with Autumn again. How would I even confront them on this matter? I did state to her "Oh wow, I didn't even know you left, I was too worried to leave them here alone so I was going to bring them back to my house until you got back." to which she replied "Oh they would've been fine. She knows how to lock the door."
Any advice?
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