The Parents Who Left Their Kids "Home Alone" to Vacation in Mexico | The Oprah Winfrey Show | OWN

Y’all worried about them being alone.. I’m concerned about what was actually going on in the household when they were home

“Every child deserves a parent, but not every parent deserves a child.”

Them going to Mexico was the best thing that could have happened to those girls - it led to their rescue!

I had something like this happen to two children my daughter knew at school years ago. Two little girls ages 9 and 11, good friends of my daughter, got left at home by their parents while they went on holiday overseas. They told my daughter that they were hungry and being the type of girl my daughter is, she told me. I did a bit of investigating and found out they had been left home alone. They were allowed to go to school but that was it, no play dates with friends etc. Apparently they had run out of food by the time I had found out. I went straight to the shop and brought them a week or more worth of groceries and continued doing so until the parents came home. My daughter and I had told the school but the girls refused to make a complaint and said they were fine, that they had an aunty looking after them. This being the late 80s schools and social services weren't as vigilant as they are today.. I instantly went to the local shop and did an over sized shop for them, the poor precious girls were terrified and starving, they were ever so greatful. Every morning I made them breakfast, did their lunches for school and made them dinner. I absolutely hated leaving them there at night so most nights I stayed with them, on the nights I couldn't my son did... After four weeks all up the parents came home, they saw the fridge full and the cupboards, the girls told their parents about me and every year at Christmas they would bring us over a large hamper. I told them that they should be ashamed of themselves and if I couldn't look after them I would have put them into social services. They didn't know they had done anything wrong, apparently it was done a lot in their country, in Asia somewhere, but they never did it again as far as i'm aware.. Then there was the boy, about 15 years old, that came to my door one day asking for food, he said he hadn't eaten for days and could I spare something, my heart broke so I gave them what I could and he went away digging into his food like he hadn't eaten for a month. If he had asked for money then I don't think I would haven given him any, but asking for food was a different thing. I never forgot him over the years, my son saw him now and then, once he was at Pizza Hut asking for any left over pizza, they gave him a whole one to eat. Many years went past then a few months ago my daughters boyfriend of 4 years told her of the time he'd been thrown out of home at 14 and had to live off of the streets, he told her of a kind lady who gave him food, well that kind lady turned out to be me. All the years she had been with him and we never knew. I cried when I found out, he had become such a wonderful man, gentle and kind when his life could have taken an opposite way.. I knew back then that he was special, now I call him my child!! Sorry that was such a long post, but I had to share it lol

If they can afford a trip to Mexico then they can afford a nanny.

Something tells me that these kids were better off without them.

My mom did the same thing to us in early 1988 three times. I was only 10, my brother's 8 & 5, and she didn't even tell us she went to Mexico for the weekend with her neighbor friends. We got up Saturday, went to the townhouse pool asking people if they saw her, only to be told that she was in Mexico! Yet no one batted an eye or called child protective services. We were also latch key kids- woke up alone at 5 am, after she already left for work-walked to bus alone & got off bus alone. Go to bed before she'd get home at night (afterwork she'd go on dates, friends etc). She put me through narcissistic abuse my whole life. Wish someone could have helped us.

The parents ended up terminating their parental rights and the girls were adopted. IMO, parents should have done jail time.

Why do they only talk about the mother? Where was the father? He’s just as culpable.

Nearly everyone can have kids. But not everyone should.

It’s like people be punishing kids for being here but yet, their the reason they’re here ? Poor babies. This goes on more than you’d ever think!

I adopted 4 siblings out of foster care who lived a life similar to these 2 in this story - being left alone almost daily by birthparents who were completely incapable of caring for children but kept having them. The system tried for years to work with the parents -- especially the mother -- to teach them how to parent and to give her the kids in their own home if she would divorce the dad and keep away from him, but she chose husband over the 4 kids, which the older ones always knew. It was one of the worst cases of neglect that CA county had ever seen in 2002 -- the 3rd and final time the 4 children were removed from birthparents. When they were placed with me for adoption, they were 7 and 10 (girls) and then 11 months later I was asked to take their little brothers (3 and 7) They are fully biological and birthparents still live together and are married 16 years later. My 4 still deal with trauma from their early years, and they are a blessing to my life and to our entire family. They are now 19, 23, 24, and 27...joys of my life.

I don’t even leave my two cats alone for more then a day without someone who will take care of them! These people don’t even deserve to be called parents

Damn, this is something Matildas parents would do wtf

I was 10-11 when I started being left home alone daily to care for my infant sibling. It's amazing how normal it can seem when it's all you know. Hopefully these kids see as adults how their parents failed them.

Stories like this really make me appreciate my parents.

DONT GET PREGNANT IF YOU DONT LIKE OR WANT KIDS! WTH?

I wish they would go after child predators this way.

"The water splashed into the vents and set off the alarm." What? Who's ever heard of this? Weird.

My parents left 3 of us alone at least 3 times to vacation in Acapulco and other places in Mexico and South America. They only took my youngest sibling who was my stepdad’s child. Only once they had a family member come check on us. I guess that was a way different time. Now as a grown woman, I look back abs realize we should’ve been removed from our home and put in foster care.