My dd, 12, had a new friend to stay over on Friday night after a bonfire party in our village.
We arranged with the friend's mother, a single parent (this isn't judgemental btw, just an explanation that there isn't another parent we could contact), that we'd bring her home at 5pm yesterday.
But when we pulled up outside the friend's house, it was all in darkness.
The child phoned her mother on her mobile who was in the pub, drunk and who told her she wouldn't be home for about another 5 hours.
We brought the girl home and she's still with us - absolutely no problem for us, but left me and dh wondering what, if anything, we should say/do in regard to her mother.
We've left messages on the mother's phone saying where her daughter is and asking her to call us, but no response.
The family seem to live in some chaos - when I called around to pick up the child for a previous sleepover, the mum, who was very pleasant and friendly, asked me in.
The house was a tip - not just untidy, but with rubbish piled up everywhere.
It seems from what the daugher says that her mum may be on antidepressants. She certainly has problems with her older teenager, 15, who has been excluded from school and may be going to live with the father 200 miles away.
What would you do? Say nothing, but tell the child she can come and stay with us whenever she likes?
Say something to the mother? If so, what?
I feel very sorry for the child - although she seems very mature (I suppose she has to be) and at 12 is able to fend for herself I suppose.