When divorced with children, can a parent leave the children at other family members houses and not be present?

[Peekabu]

E.g it’s Mum’s turn to have the kids and she leaves them at aunties house or grandmas house and Mum goes back to her house to do some chores, or goes shopping or whatever it may be, and then collects the kids after?

Yes, of course.

Yes of course, why not?

Of course it's OK. Why wouldn't it be

Of course - otherwise there would be millions of children missing out on valuable time with grandparents and other relatives.

I thought I read somewhere that if a parent isn’t going to have the child on their day and is going to leave them elsewhere, that the other parent gets the opportunity to have them first before they are left elsewhere

Err yeah, why not?

Yes. It’s up to them to arrange care or provide care.
If the other parents wants more time with the children they would need to negotiate with the other parent or go to court.

Ah ok - I get you now.

Some couples will have a first refusal system so if you need childcare out of the ordinary you ask the other parent first. If they aren't able to help you find someone else.

It's not a requirement though and sometimes it might not be practical

Yeah of course they can. Although if they only have the child 1 or 2 days a week it's a bit crap

While it's nice to offer the other parent extra time I would assume they would be working or doing there own thing

Of course. Or at a friends house too.

its normal parenting, sometimes you leave your dc with others for one reason or another. as long as the children are cared for by a sensible adult, then thats fine.

if there is a safeguarding issue, then thats not fine.

@Peekabu

I thought I read somewhere that if a parent isn’t going to have the child on their day and is going to leave them elsewhere, that the other parent gets the opportunity to have them first before they are left elsewhere

This is something some parents decide to do but it isn’t mandatory

Wouldn’t it depend on the relevant separation/divorce agreement? And if there was a safeguarding concern with a potential childcare alternative wouldn’t that be brought up as part of the divorce negotiations?

If the agreement is silent I would expect the discretion of the “leaving” parent would govern. I’m a lawyer but not a divorce lawyer (and am not even qualified in the U.K.) and I’ve never been divorced, so I could be wrong, but that’s just my common sense view.

And this is why the courts have a backlog for anyone wondering why their own case is taking a while to process

I think that would come to to individual choice op.

If you've got a good relationship with your ex and a flexible approach to time, then it might be that you're both willing to be each others back up child care and first port of call.
However its perfectly acceptable for a parent or let their kids have time with their family without the ex partner being involved.