The Exosystem refers to the indirect environment that the child may not interact with, but still influencethe child's life. Such environments and people can include a parent's workplace or extended family members.

Developing the safety plan goes well and Ann feels a little better about how to navigate Linda's mood swings while she is around. While things are going smoothly with Linda, Ann's girlfriend ends up breaking up with her. They had been dating for about six months and Ann didn't really see the breakup coming. The breakup causes Ann to become very emotionally distressed and she doesn't feel like she has the energy to be very engaged with Maxine and Tony. Between the stress of the breakup and the anxiety she feels over Linda's occasional mood swings, she becomes less and less invested in her job. Lately, she has been on her cell phone a lot and ignoring the children's bids for attention. One day as Ann was engrossed in her phone, she doesn't notice that Maxine had woken up from her nap. Maxine wandered around unsupervised for about 30 minutes before Ann noticed Maxine wasn't in her bed. Ann eventually found Maxine eating dog food from the dog's food dish and noticed Maxine had a big scratch on her cheek. Ann quickly picked up Maxine and asked Maxine how she got the scratch on her cheek, but Maxine wouldn't say. Ann feels terrible and eventually tells Linda what happened later on.