There’s no denying that parenting can get really tiring sometimes, but you have to suck it up and push on. Well, not this Ukrainian couple who decided to take a break from their kids by abandoning them on the side of a road, near a homeless people camp.

Andrey, 3, and his younger brother Maksim, 2, lived for a week with homeless people and drunkards in Zaporozhye, southern Ukraine, after their young parents abandoned them on the side of a road under pretext of going to buy some food. The boys were placed in the care of total strangers allegedly for a few minutes, but their parents didn’t return for a week, and would have probably taken even longer to retrieve their kids if someone didn’t call the police. When asked why they had abandoned their two children, the young couple said that they felt tired and needed a break.

“A young couple came and asked us to look after their children,” one of the people in the homeless camp told reporters. “The boys were completely naked and barefoot. The parents said they would go to a store to buy some food and come back in a few minutes. Then they left and never came back.”

Seeing that the parents were taking their time, the homeless people in the camp started sharing whatever food they had with the two boys, but there was only so much they could do to take care of them. They kept an eye on them to make sure they didn’t hurt themselves, but the boys still rummaged through trash, drank water from a nearby river, and got extremely dirty.

Andrey and Maksim were finally rescued after a passerby called the police. Olena Tashevska was walking along the Dnieper River, looking for a good sunbathing spot, when she noticed the naked boys playing around the homeless people camp. She was shocked and immediately called the police.

At the hospital, doctors disgnosed the two brothers with viral infections and malnutrition. They were very weak and barely able to walk, but knew their own names and ages. Interestingly, they never once asked about their parents while in the care of hospital staff.

Police were eventually able to track down the boys’ parents, 20-year-old Bozhena Synychka, and Volodymyr Zaitsev, 25. When questioned about the motives for abandoning their children, the couple, who make a living collecting and selling scrap metal, said that they felt very tired looking after them and needed some rest.

An investigation has been opened in this case, and the parents face deprivation of paternal rights and up to 5 years in prison for neglecting their parental duties. The boys have been taken to an orphanage until the courts reach a decision.