Missing school often is too many....

A single parent mentioned one day during a school week that her and her child was going to the gym instead of going to school.
I feel like the parent might be viewing the child more as a friendship/buddy thing than a parent to a child.
Why couldn't they go the gym afterschool?

Lets just say the child missed a lot of days from school either due to parent oversleeping or both parent or child being sick but hours later would be ok and on device playing games. Might be some structure and routine issues at play. I just hope the kid don't grow up making missing school habitual.