Kids Left Alone

[PLM]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Texas

My ex-husband is going to exercise his extended summer visitation rights for the first time since we divorced seven years ago, purely out of anger and spite. He works full time and he intends to leave the kids home alone every day. I can be at home with them if they stay with me.

The boys are 15 and 10 (soon to be 11), which seems old enough, but they both have ADHD, are immature for their ages, and fight constantly. The younger child also has a health condition that requires supervision of his diet. Not life-threatening, but it can cause serious issues.

I'm concerned about their well-being. Is there anything I can do?

Thank you for any advice.

[aardvarc]

If you think you'd be able to convince a judge that the 15 and 11 year olds need CONSTANT supervision, by all means go to court and ask the court to order that. But if you've EVER left them home without supervision for 10 minutes, you're not likely to convince the court that such level of supervision is needed at their ages for longer periods of time - especially if there hasn't actually already BEEN some incident that would indicate such supervision would be appropriate. In other words, at their ages, most judges aren't going to curtail dad's decisions regarding the children while on his time based on "what ifs".

[PLM]

Thank you for your response, it was very helpful. I'll give it some more thought.

[Disagreeable]

Thank you for your response, it was very helpful. I'll give it some more thought.

At what age do you think your children are going to be competent without adult supervision? Were you planning on having them committed as adults?