system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Is abandoning your family if you're a parent illegal?

I understand that child support needs to be paid and such but is abandoning your family a crime? Why or why not?
gpt
Depends on what you mean by abandoning.

If you leave them with people who can/will take care of them and just leave. Then no, it's not illegal, immoral, but not illegal.

If you go into the gas station on your way home from disneyland and then decide to hitch a ride with a trucker and leave your family stranded in the middle of Kansas with no way home. Then yes, you can be held criminally accountable.