I will continue to maintain that regardless of economic or educational status who not only recreationally use drugs, but have been arrested for it multiple times, lost custody of their kids over it, etc... do not necessarily have the judgement needed to truly put their kids first. And regardless of the neighborhood it is done in it makes your kids more vulnerable to predators than the home it is not a factor in.
If this was a 25 year old mother, who had drug charges in her past, left her toddlers home alone with a teenager that should be in school 24/7, a teen that appears to not be altogether there, and one of the kids disappeared under this teenage boys watch (known him a few months).... the mothers on here would rip her apart. It is not about money. It is about judgement and priorities.
We all make bad calls. Some of us get lucky and nothing horrible happens. Make enough bad calls and those around you that are most unable to defend themselves will have a much higher chance of picking up that tab.