I thought it could be worse. The author could have brought in all kinds of external problems....child protection or police that would hold and separate them, an accident that they can't find help for, thugs mugging them, or simply running out of cash and lying on the streets for nights on end.
Instead the author went the minimum necessary antagonistic plot route to get us riled up and brought in the mother we already knew about. Not a new "villain", and a single person against whom the nameless MC conceivably has a chance against.