July 11, 2026
Couple Drinking at the Pool Leads to Felony Child Endangerment Charges
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RSS Feed A Florida couple thought they could dip down to the pool and have a drink while their young kids were in cribs upstairs at their Key Largo Resort over the Fourth of July weekend. Hotel staff heard the kids crying and called police who promptly arrested the couple and placed the kids in protective custody. We go over the details of the case, including the fact that mom and dad were gone for approximately 40 minutes, and ask if the punishment fits the crime.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Saturday, July eleventh, and a couple was arrested at a Florida resort while they were enjoying drinks at the pool.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Well, what's wrong with that?
00:00:14
Speaker 1: Well, here's the problem. While they were drinking at the pool, they had left their two young kids in the crib upstairs in the hotel room.
00:00:22
Speaker 2: And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Wrobe.
00:00:25
Speaker 1: Some people might hear that and still say, well, what's wrong with that? How many parents have actually done this before?
00:00:30
Speaker 3: I would, I would be willing to bet more than you would think.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: No, and nobody will admit.
00:00:35
Speaker 3: It exactly, but judging. We'll get to the comments later. But I was actually surprised at how many people said, what's the big deal?
00:00:44
Speaker 1: Really, Okay, this is great. This happened on the fourth of July. We'll take you back. It's Kei Largo, right, it was a couple fourth of July.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: They're hanging out. They've got two kids. Now.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: Key to this story, Robes is the age of the kids. We will continue and get to that. But the two kids were left in a crib. Someone heard the kids crying and screaming, so they called They went into the room and they saw the kids were abandoned.
00:01:03
Speaker 2: They were alone.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: Police were called found the parents downstairs drinking. So we're all cut up now. These two folks are facing felonies.
00:01:11
Speaker 3: Oh, this is a serious, serious charge leveled against them. Yes they are. They were arrested, they were booked, Their children were taken away from them. They have lost custody of their children based on this incident. We're talking about forty three year old Brian Kanela and forty year old Alison Canela. And yes, it was the fourth of July, so exactly a week ago they were found. I like how they were described lounging by the pool with alcoholic drinks in their hands.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: Did they have to say all that they read the pool they.
00:01:44
Speaker 3: Added lounging by the pool with alcoholic drinks on their in their hands. And look also of note, and this will be this is such an interesting debate that we will get into. But according to the police, as you mentioned, it was hotel staff leave. The cleaning crew heard a baby crying, two young children alone, so yes they got in. It was around one forty five in the afternoon.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: That's key as well. This was in the middle of the night.
00:02:09
Speaker 3: It is. It's key because I think any parent who has young kids or who had young kids, know that one forty five pm is usually nap time. So I think it might be fair to assume that this couple got their kids sleeping. They're asleep. What should we do. Let's tiptoe out of the hotel room, go downstairs, have a quick drink, and come back up. Who's gonna notice? What's wrong with that? Everything apparently?
00:02:40
Speaker 1: Well, okay, I'll get to the who has done this before? So you keep going here with the story.
00:02:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they actually have security footage because police recalled. Yes, they make sure the kids were okay, and by the way, the kids were perfectly fine. There was no physical harm to them. They were alone in their cribs, so yes, they were fine. When they go through, they find the parents lounging by the pool, they go through the security footage. They talk to the witnesses who were there around the pool to find out when the parents got there, how long they had been there, And this is also key. So it turns out those kids were left alone, according to police, approximately from forty minutes to one hour, and again the children were unharmed. Now the Department of Children and Family Services were called to the scene and they were transferred to the custody of a family friend first because they wanted the parents. They couldn't even go see their kids. They like absolutely did not even let the parents be with the kids. They handed them over to a family friend and then they were taken into custody with the Department of Children and Family Services.
00:03:43
Speaker 2: That's tough.
00:03:44
Speaker 1: That sucks, that's serious, and that is very serious. So now we get into just how serious it is based on what everybody else is, how everybody else is viewing this story, And I guess we have to start roads with the age of the kids.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: That has to be key.
00:03:59
Speaker 3: Or is it?
00:03:59
Speaker 1: Does it matter there was a six month old versus a three year old?
00:04:03
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. I know that it seems as though they've been only described as young children police left out. I'm sure that was deliberate. The ages of the kids. I don't know why they left that out, because it feels like that would be super important in determining how serious these charges should be, even what public sentiment is on this, because a lot of people are asking, why don't we know the ages young children? They said crib slash beds, so I don't know. Could a seven year old have been sleeping with a one year old in the crib? I don't know what the ages with the dynamics were, but the one at least one or both of the kids were crying. That's scary. That's not okay, that's awful.
00:04:45
Speaker 1: Can I ask, though, what age would the kids have had to be for it not to be child neglect?
00:04:51
Speaker 3: That is a very gray area. There is no specific agent. We'll get into this in a bit, because I went and looked up the laws and it varies by the way, from date to state. Is actually super confusing.
00:05:02
Speaker 2: And it's not just by age I assume no, well.
00:05:04
Speaker 3: Some of it's like a age range. There are recommendations, there are questions you should ask yourself and your children before leaving them alone. There are all sorts of guidelines that we can get into. But this is a question that I have had, that you have had. Even you and I became a couple and Sabine was nine, and you were asking questions, how is it okay to leave her alone for an hour in the apartment? Is it okay to leave her alone for three hours in the apartment. It is oftentimes left up to the parents, and yet at a certain point, obviously, as we're seeing in this case, you have state officials and police stepping in and determining that they believe it's neglect. Because the two couples were booked on two felony counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and romes.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: It's individual.
00:05:51
Speaker 1: I stopped short of criticizing any other parent and their parenting. I don't know what their circumstances are. I don't know what goes into but I know parenting is hard, and I know robes we do. We all do the best we can, and very good people make mistakes. Very good people make judgment calls that end up not going their way. Very good people robes make mistakes. So I don't I'm stopping short of what they understood their circumstances to be kids being. Maybe they were sleep Maybe they understood how their kids usually function, how they usually are, and we don't know the ages. So, like the it's an interesting debate, stopping short of judgment of these parents. So I am very I am so curious about this particular topic because we've all struggled with this before.
00:06:37
Speaker 2: Robes.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: There's been times you and I what's Sabine? Like, Oh, we're going out for a run? Do we even want to go out for a run and.
00:06:43
Speaker 2: Leave her home for a little while.
00:06:45
Speaker 3: That's when she was nine.
00:06:45
Speaker 1: There are times we wanted to leave me that well, she's sleep and we should be probably back before she even gets up. But still then you don't want to do so Yeah, man, this is parents do this.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: I had this. I had this issue arise when Ava was ten and Annalise was seven and my babysitter didn't show up and I was alone in charge of the kids and I had to be at work at four am. What do I do? They were fast asleep, they weren't going to wake up until seven when their alarms were off, and so yes, I went to work, but I was crying, and I actually ended up having a producer. They said, we need you in the studio, but the producer came driving down and actually got there at the same time. My babysitter finally woke up, but the kids were alone for about forty five minutes. They never knew it, but I was freaked out as a parent, and they were ten and seven. I didn't want my kids waking up the middle of the night saying where is anybody? Where is everybody? And that I didn't want them to feel that fear. That was the thing that I knew they were physically going to be okay, but I worried about their mental or their emotional reaction to possibly waking up and feeling alone and scared.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: And sometimes you want to leave a note do you think about all these things about your kids?
00:07:54
Speaker 2: And please let that be just as an aside.
00:07:56
Speaker 1: We always talk about this business robes, this industry loved and loved being a part of. But it makes you crazy, and it makes you do things, and it makes you irresponsible, and it doesn't support you in something like that, a mother saying, hey, I got kids at home, and the still the priority. I'm not knocking you for this. I've been there and done that. Got to get to work. Got to get to work. This is the priority. So how are the kids going to be okay? Well, they're gonna have to be okay because I gotta get to work. It's just crazy how our mindsets always are. This is not the same as being down at the pool lounging, right, And.
00:08:25
Speaker 3: That is the distinction because I def leave the note and I cried the hallway there and I was freaking out, like, am I doing the wrong thing? What? But imagining now putting that situation in place, and the goal is to go downstairs and have some fun. Now. I do believe that they believed their kids weren't going to wake up. They knew how long their kids typically not. But they were taking a chance with their children's emotional health, no question, but interesting.
00:08:50
Speaker 1: I think we all do that, and I think maybe we're giving them a hard time because of their motivation. Correct, plenty of parents have had to I gotta go get to work, I got to catch that train and childcare didn't work out if somebody was late or something.
00:09:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, parents make these decisions all the time.
00:09:05
Speaker 1: It's not whether or not to get a Piniclada exactly exactly.
00:09:08
Speaker 3: And by the way, the only thing we know about this couple because I was trying to do a little bit of a deep dive. Alison Canela. She's forty. She has a pretty public image. She is a luxury real estate investor. She's got home renovation, she's got a big social media presence. She's been described as a luxury real estate influencer, and so her private Instagram account shows her luxury real estate projects, her renovation projects. She says she's a lawyer and a real estate investor, so she's a lawyer. These are folks who could afford to go down to Key Largo for the Fourth of July, bring their kids with them, and thought they could sneak away for an hour. I don't think that makes them horrible people. But now think about this, they could end up being convicted felons. We don't know when they're going to get their children back, and this one stupid last minute probably hey let's just sneak away for forty five minutes has now probably most certainly upended their lives and had and will have significant consequences going forward.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: And that's that.
00:10:10
Speaker 1: We just don't know these people. But Ropes, I don't I don't wish this upon them. I'm not sure what lesson they can learn.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: Rose.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: How can you teach them a lesson short of breaking up the family and putting them in jail.
00:10:23
Speaker 3: And that's the hard part about this. Because of a mistake they made for forty five minutes, the children were unharmed. Those children are now I would argue being significantly harmed by being ripped away from their parents, being put into the I guess the security of strangers look.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: And I say it was a friend of something family.
00:10:44
Speaker 3: Initially until they gave them over to the Department of Family Children and Family Service Kids.
00:10:50
Speaker 2: They're literally in the system.
00:10:51
Speaker 3: They are literally in the system right now. They are not with a family friend. They were only temporarily allowed to go with a family friend until Florida state officials arrived.
00:11:00
Speaker 1: To state officials. Don't they have to? Aren't they trying to do balance it differently? They are trying to protect two kids, and in their minds, they're protecting two kids by putting them away from the two people who threatened correct them with this incident. But roads, where do you balance these are also the two people who have birthed them and have cared for them and who.
00:11:18
Speaker 2: Do love them.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: Are these the biggest threat to these kids? That's a tough balancing act for government officials.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: I agree, And I looked up from what I could gather Florida, the state of Florida, and this does We'll get into it after the break about different states. But Florida does not have clear laws that specify an exact age for when children can legally stay home alone. It is up to parents to decide when their children are old enough. Now, I do think if you've got kids who can't speak, kids who can't walk, obviously you don't need that to be specified in a in a legal document. But I'm a parent pretty.
00:11:54
Speaker 1: Often, and I know my children are special and at one year old, that one year old can communicate and cook breakfast, warps out ib he needs to What if you've given it the discretion of the parent, can I come in and say, yeah, my kids are always good. I've been with them for the past three years, and I know they know how to handle themselves hilarious.
00:12:11
Speaker 3: So I don't think anyone's going to buy that. Now. What I am wondering because look, I remember, especially with Ava, I had to get stuff done, and I remember I would be by myself for most of the day and I had stuff to do, like out in the yard I wanted to pull weeds or I wanted a garden and she was sleeping. What I would do is being out of the house but still being close by. I would have the baby monitor with me. I'm just wondering, like, could they not have brought a baby monitor with them and just as soon as the baby cried, ran back upstairs. I'm just I'm surprised they didn't want any sort of like some sort of way to know or to monitor.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: I just, especially now Rosevel, with the apps and everything, you can always be able to monitor a Yeah, they may whatever call and who knows, maybe they did have that. I couldn't function, No, I could not having eyes on child hanging out at the boss.
00:13:00
Speaker 3: All I would think about is Madeline McCann as well. Some look, we'll get in these comments are so shocking from people. We're going to read them too after the break. But some people, one person at least, brought up Madeline McCann, the situation in Portugal where the couple went just downstairs, left the little girl sleeping Madeline McCann, and they came back and she was gone. Into this day, they still don't know where she is. That would always be in the back of my mind.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Well, I just said, it's not my choice, it wouldn't be my hall. Do we then immediately well again, how about this Robes what age could you hear the children are that you would absolutely turn on these parents and say hell.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: No, oh, if you had. I feel like, if you have, like you know, a six month old or less, and a like a toddler, a two year old next that is far too young. That's scary. Anything could happen. I would be worried about my little baby choking or being smothered by a blanket, anything that could happen with as soon as they cry, I want to be able to attend into them. I think any kid who can't walk needs to be monitored at all times.
00:14:05
Speaker 2: Okay, so what are we going up to? Eighteen months?
00:14:08
Speaker 1: Oh, to me, two years.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: To me three years.
00:14:11
Speaker 3: I would never leave a child under under the age of for me in a hotel room alone while they're sleeping and they don't know.
00:14:20
Speaker 1: I'm gone.
00:14:23
Speaker 3: I'm going into like you have to be school aged and I have to leave a note.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: See, I'm even thinking I would be hesitant to even go downstairs to the front desk to get an extra toothbrush. Yeah, to leave a child that young, that's me that they know their kids, and I'm just I just want to stop short of criticizing with this, I'm curious to hear more details. But yeah, we're all just the potential for something. The potential.
00:14:44
Speaker 3: Yes, I don't think the punishment fits the crime, though. I think that having their kids taken away from them I think causes more harm at this point.
00:14:52
Speaker 1: But can't we not look and go obviously, you all aren't good parents.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: You are a dam.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: Bad choice in a moment. Who knows if they had already had a couple in them and made a bad choice. And you could argue, well, then you should. But look how many people have had some sort of mind altering substance around their kids, whether it's alcohol, whatever, it's marijuana, whatever, people do it every single day. Does that make them horrible parents? I don't know.
00:15:17
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about the case we just covered Ropes, Florida as well. Dad left his kid in the car accidentally, completely right, didn't think is he going to be charged?
00:15:26
Speaker 2: Some arguing that he made a mistake, an awful mistake. Why do you punish him more?
00:15:29
Speaker 1: That kid died? That kid died, That was an honest mistake. What do you do with folks here? This isn't maybe an honest mistake, but it seems to lean towards the side of stupidity a little bit.
00:15:41
Speaker 3: Yes, a little it was stupid. Is it criminal? That's the question when we come back, wait until you hear the comments about what happened to this couple. They are mostly supportive. Welcome back everyone to this Saturday edition of Amy and TJ, and we have a talker. This story jumped out because I think a lot of parents, well, they definitely will have opinions, but you might, if you're being honest, have done something adjacent to this. You've got a couple in their forties, so these are an older set of parents. Some people would argue you should know better. But they dip down to the pool a week ago on the fourth of July for a drink pool side while their two young kids were sleeping, or so they thought, in their hotel room. You had a staff member hear the crying. They got into the hotel room and found that these two young children were left alone. Bottom line, these two parents are now facing felony charges. They've lost custody of their kids for now pending an investigation, and a lot of people have feelings about just how terrible this crime, this alleged crime actually was.
00:16:56
Speaker 1: Wait, worlds, we said, and we're assuming they thought the kids would stay asleep. I guess it's possible, they said. Bye to them, and Dadd'd be back shortly. I mean, we don't know the age.
00:17:06
Speaker 2: Of the kids.
00:17:07
Speaker 1: Yes, so we don't know.
00:17:09
Speaker 3: Okay, So you.
00:17:10
Speaker 1: Found that funny the thing they said bye to the kids bye.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, because the kids be like, don't leave me. What kid would be okay with that? Almost none unless you're sixteen at thirteen and you're like happy to have your parents away. Other than that, no kid wants to hear that, And no kid would be okay with that, no young kid that is this is hilarious. Stephanie writes that never happened. When I was a kid. My dad took me right into the bar with him, would sit there with his buddies drinking beer for hours while I got the Shirley temples and played tabletop hockey with sawdust to keep the bucks gliding. That's how it was in the dark ages. I imagine most of us raised in the seventies would have all been placed with CPS in today's standards.
00:17:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, you make a point. Is that better?
00:17:49
Speaker 1: How would you have looked at the parents if they had two kids down at the pool and pinicolatas in.
00:17:53
Speaker 3: Their hands, Not a problem at all? See it every single time including present party inclusion.
00:17:57
Speaker 1: Well, we wouldn't have had no one it would have looked at that issue. What if they would have been inside a bar or sitting at the bar with the kid with anybody no resort.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so at all. This other person wrote, Yep, my cousin and I were no Lie seven and four years old, and we would play this game called get Lost, and we would walk until we didn't know where we were. This was in a city, and literally would have to find our way back home after walking for hours. No one panicked at home, no one came looking for us, and no one messed with us. No creeps pulling up. It's sad those days are gone. Year was that I would love to know someone was writing that this is just called parenting in the eighties. The one wrote that was growing up in the eighties, people out of mind there on business. Wasn't a hot car or an abandoned house. Would I have done it?
00:18:45
Speaker 1: No?
00:18:46
Speaker 3: But were they in danger?
00:18:47
Speaker 1: No?
00:18:47
Speaker 3: And I think that was kind of a very level headed way to look at it. Look, you and I both know when I was growing up in the eighties, my mom locked the doors and said go have fun. I'll see you at dinner time. We had rules and boundaries where we were supposed to go and not supposed to go. But we were two kids on a bike and my mom will walk the us.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: This is a this is modern day outrage, right because a lot of people are looking at this back in the day and so kids were safe in a room and one of them was crying.
00:19:18
Speaker 3: Yes, that is what the response has been. And I think it's people who are our age, who did grow up either in the seventies or the eighties, and this was a very different way of parenting back then. We didn't wear seatbelts. Think about that. My mom didn't know where I was most of the time because we didn't have cell phones. And my mom trusted neighbors and the community around her and folks to be and to have our backs. And you could argue that maybe these parents were like thankful to the staff to say, hey, your kids are crying, Oh my god, thank you. Look that was a different time. Now, obviously that is unacceptable. Someone even wrote this doesn't even sound that serious, and drinking alcohol is perfectly legal in Florida. I think they were pointing out that the police report made it seem extra horrific that they were lounging by the pool drinking. What if they were drinking coffee in the hotel lobby would have been a different there would there have been a different response.
00:20:16
Speaker 1: Don't know, you know what that that does. I didn't like the Yeah, I think that that has to be a part of the neglect they have to bring that.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: It's not just not being present. Is the neglect?
00:20:29
Speaker 3: Is it?
00:20:29
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:20:30
Speaker 3: Can you just part of it? Well?
00:20:32
Speaker 1: My question to your point, would the charge be the same if they were found just walking along the beach? Would the charge be the same if the parents were downstairs doing something in the business center? Would the charge be the same at the spa?
00:20:48
Speaker 3: I don't think it would have been. Well, the spa maybe.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: Because it seems like loungey.
00:20:51
Speaker 1: That's not necessary, it seems you but you left your kids for an hour. The charge should be the same no matter what the hell you were doing.
00:20:59
Speaker 2: Should it not?
00:21:00
Speaker 3: Yes? But I do think maybe it could be an aggravated circumstance if they were getting wasted. I don't know how much alcohol they had had. If it was their first pina colada of the day and they thought thank God, the kids are sleeping, Let's go have our first drink. I don't we don't know any of those details.
00:21:15
Speaker 2: Alcohol have to do with the neglect.
00:21:17
Speaker 3: That you were impaired in some way. That's every parent around a pool at a resort almost certainly from what I've gathered when I look around with everyone with their bottles of champagne and rose.
00:21:29
Speaker 1: So they can't charge them for being neglectful parents just because you're maybe drunk parents.
00:21:34
Speaker 3: Oh I don't. Yeah, I don't think.
00:21:36
Speaker 1: Sure, I'll be serving twenty five to life.
00:21:40
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. So this is interesting in terms of the law I mentioned Florida, they don't have a specific age. Other states do. Kansas allows children six to nine to be left home alone for short periods of time, and children ten and over to be left alone for somewhat longer periods. That is the law in Kansas.
00:21:57
Speaker 1: Good I don't know if you have a year on it, but that that's old school to me. That sounds like there's an understanding of, yeah, we gotta be out in the farm, in the field, we got stuff to do, and the kids gotta bel I love the growing.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: Up in Missouri because that was my formative years. My mom. I remember, right when I was eight, for the first time, said I'm going to go to the grocery store for thirty minutes. I'll be right back. My brother was six. I remember like getting excited about having the responsibility but being nervous at the same time. That falls right into that six and nine. I specifically remember the first time I was left home alone.
00:22:28
Speaker 2: Hey, we don't have that concern in that worry.
00:22:30
Speaker 1: I know there were times I left Sabine alone when she was younger. I don't know what age it might have been, but robes, there's iPads, and there's phones, and it's all this stuff. Before I get to the elevators, Oh, before we get to the elevator, you good, you did, You're good?
00:22:48
Speaker 2: Even now thirteen, she walks out fake.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: Before she gets to the corner, she'll get a text from me annoyingly, so you're good. Are you walking this way? Are you walking that way?
00:22:57
Speaker 2: And I have life three sixty yeah.
00:22:59
Speaker 3: No, and I agree. And for me, I think ten for me was where it was I felt okay with that. Ten was kind of like my number that I started to let ava but listen to this, this can't be real. Illinois law says any person who leaves a child under fourteen years old without supervision for an unreasonable period of time is guilty of neglect. There's a lot of gray area there and what is an unreasonable period of time? But under fourteen? Are you kidding me? My kids were baby I was babysitting at thirteen, So I think.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: Your kids were babysitting my kids?
00:23:34
Speaker 3: Yes, at thirteen? Yes, so that that's a very state Illinois. That is surprising to me. Who knows if it's actually actionable, if anyone's actually used that law to prosecute anyone. But several states like Tennessee and Washington State, they don't have an official age, but they have a recommendation that anyone, any child needs to be at least ten before they stay home alone. I mean, that seems like the reasonable recommendation. But the National Safe Kids Campaign says kids should not be left alone before the age of twelve and that other older siblings should not supervise children until they're fifteen. That's that's older than I actually I went by.
00:24:19
Speaker 1: I guess they're giving an average or giving a range, but obviously there are some kids that are thirteen I would trust to drive the car. There are some kids that are nineteen that I wouldn't allow to get me a drink out of the refrigerator. I'm just saying, the kids are different, and I guess they're leaving some space and with the averages and discretion, but yes, around that area is about right.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: And you know what, it's so interesting you say that because the National Safe Kid Campaign they suggest you ask these questions to yourself before you make these decisions, and among them, I thought this was interesting. Can my child tell time? Can my child lock and unlock the doors and windows of our home? Is my child comfortable, confident, and willing to stay home alone. Has my child demonstrated good independent judgment and problem solving skills in the past. Is my child able to stay calm and not panic when confronted with unexpected events? All of this makes a lot of sense.
00:25:14
Speaker 2: I hear those questions.
00:25:16
Speaker 1: Fine, you could go through the list if you want to, but that's all the things we're talking about. You know, whether or not they'rees. I'm pretty sure that was one of your kids you would give more responsibility to than the other at certain ages and about even certain things. Even now you would say, okay, you take this. I trust you with this, and it's just how it goes. And you know your kid and you know what kid you should leave alone and the one you.
00:25:36
Speaker 3: Shouldn't, Yes, exactly, and that is true. And that's the point. You have to be able to communicate, communicate with your kids before you leave them alone. And clearly, this couple, it seems as though it's almost certain these children were too young to be able to communicate with for them to understand what is happening. And that is why a crime has been least, it's been described as a crime, and these parents are facing felony charges. So we'll follow up on this one. They have their next court hearing is September first, and it will be interesting to see what happens to them and how the state of Florida, Florida decides to proceed. And this is a warning. This is a warning to parents who may think it's okay. Apparently it is not.
00:26:24
Speaker 2: Can I ask damn it? No, we need to wrap up.
00:26:27
Speaker 1: I just wonder if the location would have been different if they kept if they had left their kids alone for an hour in their own home and had gone to the bar up the street, right, I just wonder what the circumstance is.
00:26:38
Speaker 3: Well, if a neighbor found them and heard them screaming, it would be the same.
00:26:41
Speaker 1: But it's the same neglect. It doesn't how much have to do with where they were. That was a public place or public space.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they were really close they were. I'm sure they could have gotten probably up to the room within five minutes, but that's fazing. Anything could have happened. Thankfully it didn't. The kids are safe and the parents well, they'll have to deal with their legal mass as they go forward, but without everyone we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm made me Robach alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Saturday, July eleventh, and a couple was arrested at a Florida resort while they were enjoying drinks at the pool.
00:00:13
Speaker 2: Well, what's wrong with that?
00:00:14
Speaker 1: Well, here's the problem. While they were drinking at the pool, they had left their two young kids in the crib upstairs in the hotel room.
00:00:22
Speaker 2: And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Wrobe.
00:00:25
Speaker 1: Some people might hear that and still say, well, what's wrong with that? How many parents have actually done this before?
00:00:30
Speaker 3: I would, I would be willing to bet more than you would think.
00:00:34
Speaker 2: No, and nobody will admit.
00:00:35
Speaker 3: It exactly, but judging. We'll get to the comments later. But I was actually surprised at how many people said, what's the big deal?
00:00:44
Speaker 1: Really, Okay, this is great. This happened on the fourth of July. We'll take you back. It's Kei Largo, right, it was a couple fourth of July.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: They're hanging out. They've got two kids. Now.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: Key to this story, Robes is the age of the kids. We will continue and get to that. But the two kids were left in a crib. Someone heard the kids crying and screaming, so they called They went into the room and they saw the kids were abandoned.
00:01:03
Speaker 2: They were alone.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: Police were called found the parents downstairs drinking. So we're all cut up now. These two folks are facing felonies.
00:01:11
Speaker 3: Oh, this is a serious, serious charge leveled against them. Yes they are. They were arrested, they were booked, Their children were taken away from them. They have lost custody of their children based on this incident. We're talking about forty three year old Brian Kanela and forty year old Alison Canela. And yes, it was the fourth of July, so exactly a week ago they were found. I like how they were described lounging by the pool with alcoholic drinks in their hands.
00:01:41
Speaker 1: Did they have to say all that they read the pool they.
00:01:44
Speaker 3: Added lounging by the pool with alcoholic drinks on their in their hands. And look also of note, and this will be this is such an interesting debate that we will get into. But according to the police, as you mentioned, it was hotel staff leave. The cleaning crew heard a baby crying, two young children alone, so yes they got in. It was around one forty five in the afternoon.
00:02:07
Speaker 1: That's key as well. This was in the middle of the night.
00:02:09
Speaker 3: It is. It's key because I think any parent who has young kids or who had young kids, know that one forty five pm is usually nap time. So I think it might be fair to assume that this couple got their kids sleeping. They're asleep. What should we do. Let's tiptoe out of the hotel room, go downstairs, have a quick drink, and come back up. Who's gonna notice? What's wrong with that? Everything apparently?
00:02:40
Speaker 1: Well, okay, I'll get to the who has done this before? So you keep going here with the story.
00:02:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, so they actually have security footage because police recalled. Yes, they make sure the kids were okay, and by the way, the kids were perfectly fine. There was no physical harm to them. They were alone in their cribs, so yes, they were fine. When they go through, they find the parents lounging by the pool, they go through the security footage. They talk to the witnesses who were there around the pool to find out when the parents got there, how long they had been there, And this is also key. So it turns out those kids were left alone, according to police, approximately from forty minutes to one hour, and again the children were unharmed. Now the Department of Children and Family Services were called to the scene and they were transferred to the custody of a family friend first because they wanted the parents. They couldn't even go see their kids. They like absolutely did not even let the parents be with the kids. They handed them over to a family friend and then they were taken into custody with the Department of Children and Family Services.
00:03:43
Speaker 2: That's tough.
00:03:44
Speaker 1: That sucks, that's serious, and that is very serious. So now we get into just how serious it is based on what everybody else is, how everybody else is viewing this story, And I guess we have to start roads with the age of the kids.
00:03:57
Speaker 2: That has to be key.
00:03:59
Speaker 3: Or is it?
00:03:59
Speaker 1: Does it matter there was a six month old versus a three year old?
00:04:03
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. I know that it seems as though they've been only described as young children police left out. I'm sure that was deliberate. The ages of the kids. I don't know why they left that out, because it feels like that would be super important in determining how serious these charges should be, even what public sentiment is on this, because a lot of people are asking, why don't we know the ages young children? They said crib slash beds, so I don't know. Could a seven year old have been sleeping with a one year old in the crib? I don't know what the ages with the dynamics were, but the one at least one or both of the kids were crying. That's scary. That's not okay, that's awful.
00:04:45
Speaker 1: Can I ask, though, what age would the kids have had to be for it not to be child neglect?
00:04:51
Speaker 3: That is a very gray area. There is no specific agent. We'll get into this in a bit, because I went and looked up the laws and it varies by the way, from date to state. Is actually super confusing.
00:05:02
Speaker 2: And it's not just by age I assume no, well.
00:05:04
Speaker 3: Some of it's like a age range. There are recommendations, there are questions you should ask yourself and your children before leaving them alone. There are all sorts of guidelines that we can get into. But this is a question that I have had, that you have had. Even you and I became a couple and Sabine was nine, and you were asking questions, how is it okay to leave her alone for an hour in the apartment? Is it okay to leave her alone for three hours in the apartment. It is oftentimes left up to the parents, and yet at a certain point, obviously, as we're seeing in this case, you have state officials and police stepping in and determining that they believe it's neglect. Because the two couples were booked on two felony counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and romes.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: It's individual.
00:05:51
Speaker 1: I stopped short of criticizing any other parent and their parenting. I don't know what their circumstances are. I don't know what goes into but I know parenting is hard, and I know robes we do. We all do the best we can, and very good people make mistakes. Very good people make judgment calls that end up not going their way. Very good people robes make mistakes. So I don't I'm stopping short of what they understood their circumstances to be kids being. Maybe they were sleep Maybe they understood how their kids usually function, how they usually are, and we don't know the ages. So, like the it's an interesting debate, stopping short of judgment of these parents. So I am very I am so curious about this particular topic because we've all struggled with this before.
00:06:37
Speaker 2: Robes.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: There's been times you and I what's Sabine? Like, Oh, we're going out for a run? Do we even want to go out for a run and.
00:06:43
Speaker 2: Leave her home for a little while.
00:06:45
Speaker 3: That's when she was nine.
00:06:45
Speaker 1: There are times we wanted to leave me that well, she's sleep and we should be probably back before she even gets up. But still then you don't want to do so Yeah, man, this is parents do this.
00:06:55
Speaker 3: I had this. I had this issue arise when Ava was ten and Annalise was seven and my babysitter didn't show up and I was alone in charge of the kids and I had to be at work at four am. What do I do? They were fast asleep, they weren't going to wake up until seven when their alarms were off, and so yes, I went to work, but I was crying, and I actually ended up having a producer. They said, we need you in the studio, but the producer came driving down and actually got there at the same time. My babysitter finally woke up, but the kids were alone for about forty five minutes. They never knew it, but I was freaked out as a parent, and they were ten and seven. I didn't want my kids waking up the middle of the night saying where is anybody? Where is everybody? And that I didn't want them to feel that fear. That was the thing that I knew they were physically going to be okay, but I worried about their mental or their emotional reaction to possibly waking up and feeling alone and scared.
00:07:51
Speaker 1: And sometimes you want to leave a note do you think about all these things about your kids?
00:07:54
Speaker 2: And please let that be just as an aside.
00:07:56
Speaker 1: We always talk about this business robes, this industry loved and loved being a part of. But it makes you crazy, and it makes you do things, and it makes you irresponsible, and it doesn't support you in something like that, a mother saying, hey, I got kids at home, and the still the priority. I'm not knocking you for this. I've been there and done that. Got to get to work. Got to get to work. This is the priority. So how are the kids going to be okay? Well, they're gonna have to be okay because I gotta get to work. It's just crazy how our mindsets always are. This is not the same as being down at the pool lounging, right, And.
00:08:25
Speaker 3: That is the distinction because I def leave the note and I cried the hallway there and I was freaking out, like, am I doing the wrong thing? What? But imagining now putting that situation in place, and the goal is to go downstairs and have some fun. Now. I do believe that they believed their kids weren't going to wake up. They knew how long their kids typically not. But they were taking a chance with their children's emotional health, no question, but interesting.
00:08:50
Speaker 1: I think we all do that, and I think maybe we're giving them a hard time because of their motivation. Correct, plenty of parents have had to I gotta go get to work, I got to catch that train and childcare didn't work out if somebody was late or something.
00:09:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, parents make these decisions all the time.
00:09:05
Speaker 1: It's not whether or not to get a Piniclada exactly exactly.
00:09:08
Speaker 3: And by the way, the only thing we know about this couple because I was trying to do a little bit of a deep dive. Alison Canela. She's forty. She has a pretty public image. She is a luxury real estate investor. She's got home renovation, she's got a big social media presence. She's been described as a luxury real estate influencer, and so her private Instagram account shows her luxury real estate projects, her renovation projects. She says she's a lawyer and a real estate investor, so she's a lawyer. These are folks who could afford to go down to Key Largo for the Fourth of July, bring their kids with them, and thought they could sneak away for an hour. I don't think that makes them horrible people. But now think about this, they could end up being convicted felons. We don't know when they're going to get their children back, and this one stupid last minute probably hey let's just sneak away for forty five minutes has now probably most certainly upended their lives and had and will have significant consequences going forward.
00:10:09
Speaker 2: And that's that.
00:10:10
Speaker 1: We just don't know these people. But Ropes, I don't I don't wish this upon them. I'm not sure what lesson they can learn.
00:10:19
Speaker 2: Rose.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: How can you teach them a lesson short of breaking up the family and putting them in jail.
00:10:23
Speaker 3: And that's the hard part about this. Because of a mistake they made for forty five minutes, the children were unharmed. Those children are now I would argue being significantly harmed by being ripped away from their parents, being put into the I guess the security of strangers look.
00:10:42
Speaker 2: And I say it was a friend of something family.
00:10:44
Speaker 3: Initially until they gave them over to the Department of Family Children and Family Service Kids.
00:10:50
Speaker 2: They're literally in the system.
00:10:51
Speaker 3: They are literally in the system right now. They are not with a family friend. They were only temporarily allowed to go with a family friend until Florida state officials arrived.
00:11:00
Speaker 1: To state officials. Don't they have to? Aren't they trying to do balance it differently? They are trying to protect two kids, and in their minds, they're protecting two kids by putting them away from the two people who threatened correct them with this incident. But roads, where do you balance these are also the two people who have birthed them and have cared for them and who.
00:11:18
Speaker 2: Do love them.
00:11:19
Speaker 1: Are these the biggest threat to these kids? That's a tough balancing act for government officials.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: I agree, And I looked up from what I could gather Florida, the state of Florida, and this does We'll get into it after the break about different states. But Florida does not have clear laws that specify an exact age for when children can legally stay home alone. It is up to parents to decide when their children are old enough. Now, I do think if you've got kids who can't speak, kids who can't walk, obviously you don't need that to be specified in a in a legal document. But I'm a parent pretty.
00:11:54
Speaker 1: Often, and I know my children are special and at one year old, that one year old can communicate and cook breakfast, warps out ib he needs to What if you've given it the discretion of the parent, can I come in and say, yeah, my kids are always good. I've been with them for the past three years, and I know they know how to handle themselves hilarious.
00:12:11
Speaker 3: So I don't think anyone's going to buy that. Now. What I am wondering because look, I remember, especially with Ava, I had to get stuff done, and I remember I would be by myself for most of the day and I had stuff to do, like out in the yard I wanted to pull weeds or I wanted a garden and she was sleeping. What I would do is being out of the house but still being close by. I would have the baby monitor with me. I'm just wondering, like, could they not have brought a baby monitor with them and just as soon as the baby cried, ran back upstairs. I'm just I'm surprised they didn't want any sort of like some sort of way to know or to monitor.
00:12:46
Speaker 1: I just, especially now Rosevel, with the apps and everything, you can always be able to monitor a Yeah, they may whatever call and who knows, maybe they did have that. I couldn't function, No, I could not having eyes on child hanging out at the boss.
00:13:00
Speaker 3: All I would think about is Madeline McCann as well. Some look, we'll get in these comments are so shocking from people. We're going to read them too after the break. But some people, one person at least, brought up Madeline McCann, the situation in Portugal where the couple went just downstairs, left the little girl sleeping Madeline McCann, and they came back and she was gone. Into this day, they still don't know where she is. That would always be in the back of my mind.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: Well, I just said, it's not my choice, it wouldn't be my hall. Do we then immediately well again, how about this Robes what age could you hear the children are that you would absolutely turn on these parents and say hell.
00:13:36
Speaker 3: No, oh, if you had. I feel like, if you have, like you know, a six month old or less, and a like a toddler, a two year old next that is far too young. That's scary. Anything could happen. I would be worried about my little baby choking or being smothered by a blanket, anything that could happen with as soon as they cry, I want to be able to attend into them. I think any kid who can't walk needs to be monitored at all times.
00:14:05
Speaker 2: Okay, so what are we going up to? Eighteen months?
00:14:08
Speaker 1: Oh, to me, two years.
00:14:10
Speaker 2: To me three years.
00:14:11
Speaker 3: I would never leave a child under under the age of for me in a hotel room alone while they're sleeping and they don't know.
00:14:20
Speaker 1: I'm gone.
00:14:23
Speaker 3: I'm going into like you have to be school aged and I have to leave a note.
00:14:27
Speaker 1: See, I'm even thinking I would be hesitant to even go downstairs to the front desk to get an extra toothbrush. Yeah, to leave a child that young, that's me that they know their kids, and I'm just I just want to stop short of criticizing with this, I'm curious to hear more details. But yeah, we're all just the potential for something. The potential.
00:14:44
Speaker 3: Yes, I don't think the punishment fits the crime, though. I think that having their kids taken away from them I think causes more harm at this point.
00:14:52
Speaker 1: But can't we not look and go obviously, you all aren't good parents.
00:14:56
Speaker 2: You are a dam.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: Bad choice in a moment. Who knows if they had already had a couple in them and made a bad choice. And you could argue, well, then you should. But look how many people have had some sort of mind altering substance around their kids, whether it's alcohol, whatever, it's marijuana, whatever, people do it every single day. Does that make them horrible parents? I don't know.
00:15:17
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about the case we just covered Ropes, Florida as well. Dad left his kid in the car accidentally, completely right, didn't think is he going to be charged?
00:15:26
Speaker 2: Some arguing that he made a mistake, an awful mistake. Why do you punish him more?
00:15:29
Speaker 1: That kid died? That kid died, That was an honest mistake. What do you do with folks here? This isn't maybe an honest mistake, but it seems to lean towards the side of stupidity a little bit.
00:15:41
Speaker 3: Yes, a little it was stupid. Is it criminal? That's the question when we come back, wait until you hear the comments about what happened to this couple. They are mostly supportive. Welcome back everyone to this Saturday edition of Amy and TJ, and we have a talker. This story jumped out because I think a lot of parents, well, they definitely will have opinions, but you might, if you're being honest, have done something adjacent to this. You've got a couple in their forties, so these are an older set of parents. Some people would argue you should know better. But they dip down to the pool a week ago on the fourth of July for a drink pool side while their two young kids were sleeping, or so they thought, in their hotel room. You had a staff member hear the crying. They got into the hotel room and found that these two young children were left alone. Bottom line, these two parents are now facing felony charges. They've lost custody of their kids for now pending an investigation, and a lot of people have feelings about just how terrible this crime, this alleged crime actually was.
00:16:56
Speaker 1: Wait, worlds, we said, and we're assuming they thought the kids would stay asleep. I guess it's possible, they said. Bye to them, and Dadd'd be back shortly. I mean, we don't know the age.
00:17:06
Speaker 2: Of the kids.
00:17:07
Speaker 1: Yes, so we don't know.
00:17:09
Speaker 3: Okay, So you.
00:17:10
Speaker 1: Found that funny the thing they said bye to the kids bye.
00:17:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, because the kids be like, don't leave me. What kid would be okay with that? Almost none unless you're sixteen at thirteen and you're like happy to have your parents away. Other than that, no kid wants to hear that, And no kid would be okay with that, no young kid that is this is hilarious. Stephanie writes that never happened. When I was a kid. My dad took me right into the bar with him, would sit there with his buddies drinking beer for hours while I got the Shirley temples and played tabletop hockey with sawdust to keep the bucks gliding. That's how it was in the dark ages. I imagine most of us raised in the seventies would have all been placed with CPS in today's standards.
00:17:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, you make a point. Is that better?
00:17:49
Speaker 1: How would you have looked at the parents if they had two kids down at the pool and pinicolatas in.
00:17:53
Speaker 3: Their hands, Not a problem at all? See it every single time including present party inclusion.
00:17:57
Speaker 1: Well, we wouldn't have had no one it would have looked at that issue. What if they would have been inside a bar or sitting at the bar with the kid with anybody no resort.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so at all. This other person wrote, Yep, my cousin and I were no Lie seven and four years old, and we would play this game called get Lost, and we would walk until we didn't know where we were. This was in a city, and literally would have to find our way back home after walking for hours. No one panicked at home, no one came looking for us, and no one messed with us. No creeps pulling up. It's sad those days are gone. Year was that I would love to know someone was writing that this is just called parenting in the eighties. The one wrote that was growing up in the eighties, people out of mind there on business. Wasn't a hot car or an abandoned house. Would I have done it?
00:18:45
Speaker 1: No?
00:18:46
Speaker 3: But were they in danger?
00:18:47
Speaker 1: No?
00:18:47
Speaker 3: And I think that was kind of a very level headed way to look at it. Look, you and I both know when I was growing up in the eighties, my mom locked the doors and said go have fun. I'll see you at dinner time. We had rules and boundaries where we were supposed to go and not supposed to go. But we were two kids on a bike and my mom will walk the us.
00:19:08
Speaker 1: This is a this is modern day outrage, right because a lot of people are looking at this back in the day and so kids were safe in a room and one of them was crying.
00:19:18
Speaker 3: Yes, that is what the response has been. And I think it's people who are our age, who did grow up either in the seventies or the eighties, and this was a very different way of parenting back then. We didn't wear seatbelts. Think about that. My mom didn't know where I was most of the time because we didn't have cell phones. And my mom trusted neighbors and the community around her and folks to be and to have our backs. And you could argue that maybe these parents were like thankful to the staff to say, hey, your kids are crying, Oh my god, thank you. Look that was a different time. Now, obviously that is unacceptable. Someone even wrote this doesn't even sound that serious, and drinking alcohol is perfectly legal in Florida. I think they were pointing out that the police report made it seem extra horrific that they were lounging by the pool drinking. What if they were drinking coffee in the hotel lobby would have been a different there would there have been a different response.
00:20:16
Speaker 1: Don't know, you know what that that does. I didn't like the Yeah, I think that that has to be a part of the neglect they have to bring that.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: It's not just not being present. Is the neglect?
00:20:29
Speaker 3: Is it?
00:20:29
Speaker 2: I don't know.
00:20:30
Speaker 3: Can you just part of it? Well?
00:20:32
Speaker 1: My question to your point, would the charge be the same if they were found just walking along the beach? Would the charge be the same if the parents were downstairs doing something in the business center? Would the charge be the same at the spa?
00:20:48
Speaker 3: I don't think it would have been. Well, the spa maybe.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: Because it seems like loungey.
00:20:51
Speaker 1: That's not necessary, it seems you but you left your kids for an hour. The charge should be the same no matter what the hell you were doing.
00:20:59
Speaker 2: Should it not?
00:21:00
Speaker 3: Yes? But I do think maybe it could be an aggravated circumstance if they were getting wasted. I don't know how much alcohol they had had. If it was their first pina colada of the day and they thought thank God, the kids are sleeping, Let's go have our first drink. I don't we don't know any of those details.
00:21:15
Speaker 2: Alcohol have to do with the neglect.
00:21:17
Speaker 3: That you were impaired in some way. That's every parent around a pool at a resort almost certainly from what I've gathered when I look around with everyone with their bottles of champagne and rose.
00:21:29
Speaker 1: So they can't charge them for being neglectful parents just because you're maybe drunk parents.
00:21:34
Speaker 3: Oh I don't. Yeah, I don't think.
00:21:36
Speaker 1: Sure, I'll be serving twenty five to life.
00:21:40
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness. So this is interesting in terms of the law I mentioned Florida, they don't have a specific age. Other states do. Kansas allows children six to nine to be left home alone for short periods of time, and children ten and over to be left alone for somewhat longer periods. That is the law in Kansas.
00:21:57
Speaker 1: Good I don't know if you have a year on it, but that that's old school to me. That sounds like there's an understanding of, yeah, we gotta be out in the farm, in the field, we got stuff to do, and the kids gotta bel I love the growing.
00:22:08
Speaker 3: Up in Missouri because that was my formative years. My mom. I remember, right when I was eight, for the first time, said I'm going to go to the grocery store for thirty minutes. I'll be right back. My brother was six. I remember like getting excited about having the responsibility but being nervous at the same time. That falls right into that six and nine. I specifically remember the first time I was left home alone.
00:22:28
Speaker 2: Hey, we don't have that concern in that worry.
00:22:30
Speaker 1: I know there were times I left Sabine alone when she was younger. I don't know what age it might have been, but robes, there's iPads, and there's phones, and it's all this stuff. Before I get to the elevators, Oh, before we get to the elevator, you good, you did, You're good?
00:22:48
Speaker 2: Even now thirteen, she walks out fake.
00:22:50
Speaker 1: Before she gets to the corner, she'll get a text from me annoyingly, so you're good. Are you walking this way? Are you walking that way?
00:22:57
Speaker 2: And I have life three sixty yeah.
00:22:59
Speaker 3: No, and I agree. And for me, I think ten for me was where it was I felt okay with that. Ten was kind of like my number that I started to let ava but listen to this, this can't be real. Illinois law says any person who leaves a child under fourteen years old without supervision for an unreasonable period of time is guilty of neglect. There's a lot of gray area there and what is an unreasonable period of time? But under fourteen? Are you kidding me? My kids were baby I was babysitting at thirteen, So I think.
00:23:32
Speaker 2: Your kids were babysitting my kids?
00:23:34
Speaker 3: Yes, at thirteen? Yes, so that that's a very state Illinois. That is surprising to me. Who knows if it's actually actionable, if anyone's actually used that law to prosecute anyone. But several states like Tennessee and Washington State, they don't have an official age, but they have a recommendation that anyone, any child needs to be at least ten before they stay home alone. I mean, that seems like the reasonable recommendation. But the National Safe Kids Campaign says kids should not be left alone before the age of twelve and that other older siblings should not supervise children until they're fifteen. That's that's older than I actually I went by.
00:24:19
Speaker 1: I guess they're giving an average or giving a range, but obviously there are some kids that are thirteen I would trust to drive the car. There are some kids that are nineteen that I wouldn't allow to get me a drink out of the refrigerator. I'm just saying, the kids are different, and I guess they're leaving some space and with the averages and discretion, but yes, around that area is about right.
00:24:40
Speaker 3: And you know what, it's so interesting you say that because the National Safe Kid Campaign they suggest you ask these questions to yourself before you make these decisions, and among them, I thought this was interesting. Can my child tell time? Can my child lock and unlock the doors and windows of our home? Is my child comfortable, confident, and willing to stay home alone. Has my child demonstrated good independent judgment and problem solving skills in the past. Is my child able to stay calm and not panic when confronted with unexpected events? All of this makes a lot of sense.
00:25:14
Speaker 2: I hear those questions.
00:25:16
Speaker 1: Fine, you could go through the list if you want to, but that's all the things we're talking about. You know, whether or not they'rees. I'm pretty sure that was one of your kids you would give more responsibility to than the other at certain ages and about even certain things. Even now you would say, okay, you take this. I trust you with this, and it's just how it goes. And you know your kid and you know what kid you should leave alone and the one you.
00:25:36
Speaker 3: Shouldn't, Yes, exactly, and that is true. And that's the point. You have to be able to communicate, communicate with your kids before you leave them alone. And clearly, this couple, it seems as though it's almost certain these children were too young to be able to communicate with for them to understand what is happening. And that is why a crime has been least, it's been described as a crime, and these parents are facing felony charges. So we'll follow up on this one. They have their next court hearing is September first, and it will be interesting to see what happens to them and how the state of Florida, Florida decides to proceed. And this is a warning. This is a warning to parents who may think it's okay. Apparently it is not.
00:26:24
Speaker 2: Can I ask damn it? No, we need to wrap up.
00:26:27
Speaker 1: I just wonder if the location would have been different if they kept if they had left their kids alone for an hour in their own home and had gone to the bar up the street, right, I just wonder what the circumstance is.
00:26:38
Speaker 3: Well, if a neighbor found them and heard them screaming, it would be the same.
00:26:41
Speaker 1: But it's the same neglect. It doesn't how much have to do with where they were. That was a public place or public space.
00:26:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they were really close they were. I'm sure they could have gotten probably up to the room within five minutes, but that's fazing. Anything could have happened. Thankfully it didn't. The kids are safe and the parents well, they'll have to deal with their legal mass as they go forward, but without everyone we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm made me Robach alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.