Leaving kids for 5 minute late night walk?

No proof the OPs neighbours have either

This. It’s not great parenting but those saying Social Services need to be involved need some perspective.

Yeah a good reason why I never ever left my son alone.

No take it in turns to walk the pets. I was a lone parent I never left my son at all he was with me wherever I went.

5 min walk - what is the point? Why not sit in the garden with a drink/picnic for an hour? Or book a babysitter and go out once a week?

I just don’t think the risk is at all worth it. My brother’s neighbour house went up in flames due to a faulty charging battery. They only JUST had time to get all the kids and pets out.

You seem to know an awful lot about them, are you one of them?

At those ages? Unreasonable. But not illegal as soon as I know, so I guess it’s their risk to take. Not something I would do.

It was unreasonable when they did it to Madeline

Absolutely unreasonable you can’t just leave your kids because you feel like you need to have a walk and we all know it was more than 5 minutes. Never, EVER leave them alone at that age if something happened you’d never forgive yourselves and if child services find out, you will lose your children. Take a walk with the kids.

I wouldn’t, but they’re not breaking the law..

There is no minimum age to leave a child or children alone and unattended in their home. It only becomes an offence when they are put at risk.

I would imagine, that as it was late at night and they were sleeping and it was for 5 mins, parents judged that risk to be low, taking everything they know about their children, home, neighbours, community and location into account.

Is there some other reason you’re concerned about their welfare? If so, you know what to do.

Are you sure no one is in? I'm sure my neighbours sometimes think I've abandoned my kids when I run over the road to the shop but either my mums wfh or my mother in law has called in, she'll often come in the back so the dog doesn't bark

In fairness my dog will not poop in our yard so I'd say SOMEONE probably needed to walk the dog. But only 1 and if they both wanted a bit of air then one of them does a round the block and they swap. Which sounds mental I know but we juggle that way regularly

How can you say there’s zero evidence? The parents left the kids alone and she disappeared! There’s zero evidence of anything else, so this is by far the most likely explanation surely!

Exactly!

The sensible answer to this is that they go for their 5 minute walk separately so one is with children

Good job that you were watching them then

Something unpredictable could happen that you didn’t foresee. On two occasions I have been locked out of my house. Once I was in the garden and I had chips in the oven on number 8. A family member went out and automatically locked the back door and I could not get back in. Fortunately my two small dc were with me but started to panic as I was worrying about the oven being on!

The other time my young teen was in bed and a family member left them to collect me and we lost the house keys and couldn’t get in. We could not wake dc up and were outside for hours. Imagine if that was a little one.

I would never have done that, but this thread is kind of crazy.

A lot depends on the circumstances. Was their house in view the whole time? Is it a quiet, low traffic neighbourhood? Do they have apps on their phones so they can see the children and the house? Was there potentially another adult in the house?

And, honestly, I can't believe you know how many times they've walked their dog, OP.

And as for fire or a child falling out a window. Those things are more likely to happen during the 7ish hours both parents are likely to be asleep than in 5 minutes. Are there posters on here who tag team their sleep with their partners?

This. If you needed fresh air last thing when it was cooler why would you go together why not one pop out for 5 min then the other.
You should no way have done this with children that age.

Well how would the OP know who else might've been in the house unless she's spying on them 24/7

Definitely not ok report to SS they both didn’t need to together they could be doing it more than you know just ring SS with concerns parents are leaving kids alone with windows open. The dog obviously means more to them than the kids. As long as you know for sure they didn’t have an adult visiting report them.

There is zero evidence of an abduction in that case. Regardless leaving a 3 and 5 year old is inexcusable OP.

Well what if all those medical issues happened to the child if parent was asleep or in bath for example? You may not hear anything. Unless you are meant to sit and gaze at the kids 24/7 " just in case"

And in the case of the OP she doesn't even KNOW the kids were alone. Grandma or a friend could be indoors with the kids Such jumping to conclusions

Totally ridiculous for both adults to leave the house if the children were alone, but maybe there was another adult there?

I was actually thinking the same thing tbh. I am a bit of a helicopter parent, have 5 children aged between 6 and 21 and would never have left them alone young. However, there is lots of hysteria in this thread without knowing the full facts. When my youngest three were all under 12 and my husband was away on an overnight for work I had to walk our dog around the estate. My older two were out with friends so my brother popped over for half an hour to sit with the kids, I’m not sure my neighbours would have realised this.
Obviously if there were no other adults in the house then it’s not acceptable to leave two very young children alone while they were sleeping but we really don’t know the full facts. And the OP isn’t returning with an update either.