France has been startled by an extreme case of child neglect. Two boys aged 6 and 4 were left on the footpath in the Department of Aisne. The kids were just wearing pajamas and sitting in the rain. They cried. Both the father and the mother said: “they did not want to take care of them anymore,” BFM TV says so.
The harrowing event took place at the beginning of last year. When the couple from the Thierache divorced, co-parenting was agreed. But neither of them really wanted to take care of the boys.
One morning the father, in his thirties, dropped the children off at the mother before she could take action to stop him. During the course of the day, the mother tried to bring the boys back to their father, who turned out not to be home at the time.
Neighbor
The regional newspaper L’union writes that the mother dropped the children with their bags in front of the father’s House and left them in the rain. The oldest kid was still chasing the car. The two little boys then sought refuge with the neighbor who in turn informed the police. When the mother was contacted by telephone, she said that “she no longer wanted them”, just like their father.
Ping-pong
“The mother has something else to do, she works, her situation does not allow her to take care of the children in good conditions,” said the lawyer representing the children. “The father on his side does not want to take the little ones under his care either. To make sure he doesn’t have to take care of them, he told social services that he could lose the trappers and beat his kids at any time. So the parents continued to play ping-pong and the children were sent from one parent to another.”
Course
Both parents have now been sentenced to eight months in prison with a continuance. The father also has to take a course on the responsibilities of parenthood at his own expense and transfer 3,000 euros to each son. The mother received similar punishment. She has to transfer 2,000 euros to each child. The children are housed in a foster home. The parents are allowed to visit their sons for an hour a month.
