Category: Let's talk
Many of us will have heard about Madeleine Mccann, a little girl who disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal in May of this year.
The speculation as to what happened to her has been rife, from being abducted to order by a paedophile ring, to having met with an accident in the apartment which led to her death. No-one really knows, and some believe that no-one will ever know what happened to her, because the Portuguese police are bound by very strict secrecy laws which prevent them from disclosing information about the case, even to the parents. The only information published about this case has come from unofficial sources, and these have not always been deemed to be reliable.
There is, however, one aspect of this case that has divided opinion hugely, and that is the fact that on the night Madeleine disappeared, the children had been left, unsupervised, in a ground-floor apartment, with the door unlocked, while the parents dined at a restaurant nearby. When I heard of this story I was absolutely horrified to read that the children had bee left, but visit any parenting site, tune into any radio discussion, and it becomes very opvious that opinion is very divided on this matter.
Some people will happily admit that they have done the same, some admit that they never would, but that they do not see fit to judge as the family have most likely paid the ultimate price for their actions, and the ones that express horror at the family’s actions are often shot down and accused of being uncaring/unsympathetic.
So do we really have the right to judge other peoples’ actions? Given that this family have probably lost their daughter for good, should we refrane from comment over the part they had to play in their daughter’s disappearance? Or should the question be asked as to why it was deemed acceptable to leave such small children unattended, in the hope that another family will think twice about doing the same in future, and similar tradgedies will be avoided?
By judge, doyou mean have an opinion, or do you mean officially ask the family why they did what they did (the parents that is).
I, personally, do not understand how Madeleine's parents ever thought of leaving their children like this. Admittedly being abducted is not one of the risk a family should have to think aout when going out for dinner, in Portugal, or anywhere else, but with three such little children alone a number of things could happen, from one of them falling out of bed, to the parents being involved in an accident and children starving, to spilling boiling water etc. All of these are reasonably large risks and ignoring them to leave your kids alone at this age seems simply horrible to me. Yes, the parents definitely have paid and the mere fact this is all over the news, I think, will suffice as a warning (why parents in general need such a warning is beyond me).
In general I think we have the right to opinions, to question actions and inactions and the judgement of others, that's what our brains are for, after all. We need to be polite and careful about how we express our opinion and try to not mix up having an opinion and being arrogant. I'd never leave my child (or children in future may be) alone like this but I'm sure I am infinitely far from being a perfect dad and I never will be. I'll make my mistakes and do things other will find strange or incorrect.
when you have a child, you automatically open yourself to the responsibility of caring for that human being. this is why people should think more closely about having a child.
one of your dutyies to that child is to take care of it, and leaving them alone while you go off and eat isn't doing that duty.
I get really pissed off when i hear about parents going off to the pub or something and leaving their little child in the back seat of a car with no air. it's just common sence, if they had brains they wouldn't do it.
but loui, it was common place in this resort. apparently children are not allowed in the restaurants after 7 so the parents leave them in the rooms and some have baby listening and some don't.
but after this happened, there were several phone-ins etc about it and many people seemed to think this is acceptable practice.
If it was commonplace at the resort, my opinion would be that the parents chose the wrong resort when booking. As already said, when you have a child, you take on that responsibility and change your lifestyle accordingly.
Maybe that's why I don't have children, and although I feel deeply for the McCan family, I hope that other parents will think more carefully in the future before leaving their small children.
first I don't have children, but I could never let them be by themselves. Its like the stupid people that leave children in a car with the windows closed and they die or the car gets stolen. If you have children, they should always be your first thought. they brought them into this world so until they can take care of themselves, its the parents responsibility. Sorry for the families loss but that's just freaking dumb.
i agree they should have taken every precaution to make the children safe, leaving them alone is unacceptable these days.
Well, there are more angles on this than we know about. Firstly they raised over one million pounds following Maddie's disappearance. Yet the parents are not even using this money to pay for their own accomodation or expenses. Secondly their actions following the circumstances they could not change - the disappearance of their daughter after the event - were within circumstances they COULD change, and they have done their utmost, even leading to the possibility of a new Europe-wide sex offenders register being implemented, and better systems in place to deal with missing children.
But then there is the dark side. The moment that the Maddie campaign site was launched, a plethora of websites were set up with similar domains loaded with advertising, by totally unscrupulous internet racketeers who are willing to cash in on anything. But worst of all has to be the fact there are now maddie jokes going around, of the sickest nature. If you would like to read such vomit-worthy material see sickipedia at
http://www.sickipedia.org/get.php?tag=madeleine%20mccann
Where there are over 7 pages of them.
The fact of the matter is, this world is f*cking sick. And all the while, whether she was murdered, stolen or worse, as a simple child who cannot possibly have done anything wrong, Madeleine McCann is entirely innocent.
"Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven"
"whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
"Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!"
"Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven"
"your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost."
(Matthew 18, Holy Bible).
Why in the name of Merlin, would you put that site URL in a board post/
Of course we have the right to judge, and we've even more of a right when this story is being shoved down our throats at every given opportunity. Everytime somebody says I saw Madeleine, never mind if they really did or not, their claim gets automatically put to the top of the news. If somebody gets arrested, we are given lots of information about them, even though they may not be guilty. Everytime Madeleine's parents want some attention, they get it. People usually judge what gets reported, so the more a story is reported, the more it will be judged. As stupid as what Madeleine's irresponsible parents did is, what's done is done. However, their stupidity is nothing in comparison to the stupidity of the media and those who are so gullable as to accept what the media says. The media has been criticising the Portugese police for a long time. Obviously they are so critical as part of an effort to put pressure on the police to let the media have its way. However, we the people should be able to realise that Portugal isn't the UK. Their police aren't as good as ours, and they do things differently. In fact, if we had a more intelligent population, perhaps they'd think about that before going abroad for a holiday. We shouldn't have sent any police to Portugal. Our polifce are employed to police our country, that's what they should be doing. Portugal's police are employed to police Portugal, that's what they should be doing.
I think to say portuguese police aren't as good as ours is a little harsh. I think it's true to say that Portuguese aren't as experienced in dealing with these types of cases as the brittish police though, think this says more about britain than portugal...