Vacationing Austin Woman Leaves Children Alone, Books Dog in Hotel

Kristine Noffsinger of Austin, TX was arrested after she left her 8-and-10-year-old daughters home alone for two days.  She did find the time and money to book the family dog in a dog hotel at a local Petsmart.

Noffsinger went to St. Louis for three days, and the girls were in charge of taking care of themselves. She did not bother to find a way for them to get to and from school.

Child Protective Services (CPS) received an anonymous tip and reacted right away. The girls are now in Illinois with one of their fathers. CPS told KTBC in Austin:

“We have guidelines as far as what is neglectful supervision and that is placing a child in a situation where they’re not mature enough to handle and leaving children home alone for several days, having them get themselves to school, make themselves breakfast, lunch, dinner, those types of things would be considered neglectful supervision,” said Julie Moody, a CPS spokesperson.

Moody also told KTBC it is not illegal to keep your children home alone. “There’s a difference between I’m going to run to the store for 30 minutes and pick up a few things and be back versus I’m going to go to dinner, to a movie, I’m going to go out dancing, I’ll see you in about 10 hours,” Moody said.