Thanks to Catholic Light for the link to the story on the mother of six who left the kids home alone for a 17 day excursion through Italy with her paramour.
I was sure that I had heard about this on the TV but didn’t see it in print anywhere. I was starting to think it was a hallucinatory product of a bad dream brought about by obsessing over finding someone to watch Eddie while I was at work on Saturday morning and Rick wanted to attend Martha’s track practice. Chuck is old enough to babysit, but he doesn’t command the same respect from his little brother as he would from other children and I am not comfortable with the thought of leaving them alone together for an extended period of time (i.e. more than fifteen minutes) I am still reeling from the bike accident that took off the end of Eddie’s finger last spring while I was at work. Rick was gone for about 15 minutes. Fran (age 21) was in charge, but with no car she had to call 9-1-1. Fran had all the blood cleaned up and Rick was at the hospital with Eddie by the time I left work and returned home ASAP.

AND I FELT LIKE A ROTTEN MOTHER!

When Jennifer Farrell learned her six children had been taken into police custody and placed with relatives and in foster homes while she was vacationing, she decided to stay in Italy for two more weeks to finish her trip.

he concluded that the children were in good care, said her boyfriend Hank DePetro.
"She said, 'The kids are being taken care of, they're already out of the home, so there's nothing I can do,' " said Mr. DePetro, 60, who invited Mrs. Farrell to accompany him on the 17-day trip.
In what's been dubbed the "Home Alone" case, Mrs. Farrell, 33, faces the prospect of neglect charges after leaving her six children, ages 14 to 6, at their Greeley, Colo., home while she toured Italy with her boyfriend. She returned to Colorado on Thursday.