Abu Dhabi mother fined Dh80,000 for leaving child with nanny despite father's offer

An Abu Dhabi mother has been fined Dh80,000 after leaving her very young daughter in the care of a nanny for eight days while she travelled abroad, despite the child's father being available and willing to look after her.

The Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court found that the arrangement endangered the child's safety and breached the parents' joint-custody arrangements. The mother appealed, but the Court of Appeal rejected her challenge and upheld both the fine and its amount.

The case does not establish that parents cannot leave children with nannies. Instead, the court's ruling focused on the circumstances of this case — particularly that an available co-parent was bypassed and the child was left in the nanny's care for the entire eight-day absence.

The child, a minor daughter of divorced parents who share joint custody, was left with a nanny when her mother travelled abroad. The father told the court that he had been available throughout the mother's absence and was ready to care for the child himself.

The court also found that the child had been staying in the same room as an unrelated adult man during the mother's absence.

During the eight days, the child was scratched by a cat and had to start a rabies vaccination protocol. The mother did not dispute that the incident occurred.

The court did not consider the use of a nanny, by itself, to constitute neglect. Rather, it assessed whether the mother's actions complied with the parents' joint-custody rights and whether the child's safety had been adequately protected.

Under Abu Dhabi's civil family framework, joint custody gives both parents equal rights and responsibilities in relation to their child. Article 40 of Resolution No. 8 of 2022 allows the court to impose financial fines where a parent fails to comply with joint-custody arrangements or an order or measure issued by a judge. The amount and method of calculating the fine are left to the court's discretion.

In this case, the court concluded that the mother should have turned to the father, rather than leaving the child with hired help while she was abroad.

The fine was calculated at Dh10,000 for each of the eight days of the mother's absence, bringing the total to Dh80,000.

The ruling does not set a fixed number of days after which leaving a child with a nanny becomes unlawful.

The court assessed the circumstances before it, rather than establishing an eight-day threshold. The Dh10,000-per-day calculation was the court's remedy in this particular case, not a statutory daily rate.

The judgment also sets out expectations for future travel. If the mother travels while the father is in the UAE, the child is to be handed to him rather than left with hired help.

If the mother wants to travel abroad with the child, she must obtain the father's consent or judicial permission. The court also ordered that the child should not be left without the care of at least one parent.

The ruling was issued by the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court at first instance and subsequently challenged by the mother. The Court of Appeal rejected the appeal in full, making the decision final.