To have abandoned them

[Iyjd]

We live about 35 minutes drive from DSCs Mum and we usually have them every weekend for the full weekend, this weekend she had plans so asked if she could have them from 10am yesterday and she would pick them up, DP normally does all pick ups and drop offs.

I had an appointment 10 minutes from her house at 10:15 so offered to meet her at 10 somewhere local and then drive the extra 5 minutes to my appointment instead of her driving here and back. I was on time with her DDs (9&11). At 10:10 she hadn’t arrived and I was worried about my appointment, it was important to me and I had prepaid so didn’t want to lose my money, there is a costa next door so I drove and parked up and put DSCs in there with hot chocolate and went to my appointment, oldest DSC messaged her Mum telling her where to pick them up from as we drove down.

I came out of my appointment and they were still sat in Costa without their Mum so I sat with them until about 10:45 when she arrived, when she came in she said sorry to her DDs for being late because she “got chatting to her friend in Tesco” and seemed to smirk at me. When they went to hug me bye she told them they didn’t have time and she blanked me.

A couple of hours later she’s been ringing my DP constantly and screaming down the phone about me putting her children in danger and that she will be contacting the police, social services and my work (I’m a teacher) about how I am unsafe around children. There have been some horrific texts about me saying she will let everyone know that I’m a danger and how I neglect children. I cannot get pregnant and a few years ago DSC1 asked if I would have a baby and DP explained that I can’t (with my agreement) and she must have told her Mum, this is now plastered all over her Facebook saying it is gods way of protecting the child from my harm (my friend checked her Facebook and called me after I had mentioned the incident yesterday, I didn’t ask and didn’t really want to know and she’s agreed not to in future).

I’m just wondering if it was acceptable to leave them in Costa, people I know irl have said yes but I’m not sure if they are just backing me up out of kindness.

Am I the only one desperate to know what the appointment was for?

I’m guessing eyebrows.

Depending on the state, leaving the children could be considered endangerment and you could be arrested if they're too young. You could also impact the fathers custody arrangement with mom. In Maryland the age is 13, a younger child must be in the "protection" of another child no less than the age of 13, so that's the minimum age for babysitting.
YABU, the kids were in your care. You should not have left them even though mom was late. If something had happened, it would've been your fault you were the adult in charge of the situation and would've been held legally responsible.
The mother may be an asshole but you still shouldn't have left the children.

Completely OTT. This is the UK. And kids age 11 routinely get buses to and from school. Did you also miss the part where the OP says that this coffee shop is where the kids’ mother regularly drops them off ?

You know, I think OP might just be one of the dozens of people worldwide who don't live in the USA.

There are dozens of us!

What thread are you reading - Y5, not Y3 !!

Oh ffs, you left them in Costa with a nice hot drink for what half hour? If would have been less if she'd turned up on time.

She d have a point of you left them outside, but they were safe, they had phones, the oldest is 11. Probably a nice treat for them and a bit of independence in yr6. She's looking for a reason to kick off. And costa is fiipping expensive.