My neighbor's kid has been eating dinner at my house for 6 months. Today I found out why.

So this might be long but I need to get this off my chest

About 6 months ago this little kid from my neighborhood started showing up at my door around dinner time. First time I thought he was lost or something, he's maybe 8 or 9? Real quiet kid. Said his parents told him to "make new friends" and I seemed nice. I was like okayyy weird but whatever, so I fed him.

Then it became a thing. Every single day. 5:30pm on the dot. Like clockwork. I'm not gonna lie, at first I was kinda annoyed but he's so polite and always helps clean up and I got used to having him around. He calls me "friend" and tells me about his day at school and I help with his homework sometimes. I even got him a birthday present when he mentioned it was coming up.

Fast forward to today. His actual mom shows up at my door BAWLING. Like hysterical. I'm freaking out thinking something terrible happened or they're gonna accuse me of something weird.

Turns out... this kid's parents are going through the worst divorce imaginable. Dad moved out, mom works two jobs and isn't home until like 11pm most nights. They haven't had a real family dinner in months. Kid was literally coming to my house so he could feel like he had a normal family dinner again.

I'm just... idk man. I'm sitting here looking at the extra plate I set out for him tonight and I can't stop crying. This kid has been eating my burnt chicken and overcooked pasta for 6 months just to feel normal for an hour a day.

His mom asked if I could keep having him over and she'd pay me for groceries and I was like NOOOO OF COURSE NOT but now I'm wondering if I'm doing enough? Should I be doing more? I'm just some random person who happened to be home at dinner time.

What do I even do here? I'm not a parent, I don't know how to help a kid through something like this. I just know I can't stop having him over for dinner now.