Madeleine McCann

do you lock your door at night?

chances are you're never going to be broke into but you still lock the door....

we're not talking grown children here we're talking kids. children, INFANTS.

in what time and reality is leaving a bunch of toddlers alone REGARDLESS of whether you're just down the hall, just nipping down the shops, just nipping next door for 5 minutes acceptable?

it's never and yes plenty of people do it and face no negative consequences.

plenty of people get tanked up and drive home, that doesn't make it right or just.

Call us paranoid but we watch our kids all the time . We just wouldnt nip out for 5 minutes and leaves the kids on their own .Its just too risky these days especialy knowing that there are peadophiles in our town.

I'd rather call it 'worried'...
In a way it's sad that we HAVE to act this way these days .....

I'm actually going to grow as a human being and not argue the toss over every little point here.

I'm sure it would be possible to make a legal case against the parents, but probably far harder to make a moral one.

By far the most important of the reasons I gave initially was 4) it would just be plain ****ing cruel. Particularly to the other children in the family. The law should always be applied with mercy, even when punishment is the main aim of it's application. In this case, though, I can't imagine any punishment that would be greater than losing a child, nor any greater deterrent for similar behaviour than the publicity surrounding this abduction, nor can I imagine the parents repeating their behaviour in the future.

I just don't see what would be accomplished by it.

I wouldn't say it so strongly myself, but the parents are ****ing idiots.

How old was everyone here when they were first allowed out on their own - say to the local town centre?

I'm pretty sure i was about 9 or 10 and there was nothing unusual in that at the time. By 11 I had an hour long train/bus/foot journey to school through a big city. Most often with others, but not always.

Well I was much older than 4 for a start.

My parents - well my Dad moreso than my Mum - has always been very protective. When I was 10 I'd have friends come over here and we could play in the house or the garden, but if I wanted to go to their houses (less than a mile) my Dad would walk me there. I probably didn't go to town or whatever just with me and friends until I was probably 13 or 14. I think I was about 12 or 13 (and I have a sister 3 years younger) before I was left in the house alone.

It varies from family to family - but as Jim said, with anyone it'd be a hell of a lot older than 4!

I walked to school at about 7 by myself but that was 1955 and things were very different in that neighborhood than they are now. I was allowed to take the bus and go to the movies at about 10 years old - again - that was 1958.

I now live in a small town in northern Jersey and my kids walked into town to go the movies at 10 also.

However 10 year old and a 4 year old are very different people. No 4 year old should be expected to shoulder that kind of responsibility - either for themselves or for their siblings. That's the parents job.

Kathleen

You can put up security measures all around you there will always be a risk. I think there's also a recent case of a british kid kidnapped in Nigeria? (She's been freed now) And she was just sitting in the car next to her parents when kidnapped. Should the parents be blamed for driving their kid to school in a car rather than a tank?

Safety is very much a matter of feeling. Where one might feel safe someone else might feel at risk. I believe them when they say they felt safe and even if I wouldn't have in the same situation, I can't blame them.
They were the ones in the situation, and I'd be ready to bet many people, including some who are asking for them to be prosecuted, would have done the same.

The child was kidnapped, not abandonned.

Also, I agree with who ever said blaming the parents was similar to blaming rape victims for dressing up provocative.


Ponrauil