Madeleine the missing girl.. what about her parents????

Question

Hasnt anybody picked up on the fact that her parents have behaved in a very unusal way that is not deemed as being "normal".

What parents in their right mind would simply leave their children in an apartment in a foreign country that they are not familiar with, and walk of to a restaurant so that they can enjoy a hassle-free dinner.

Im sorry, but you just DONT leave your kids on your own, EVER.

Forget looking for a suspect. The police should be talking to her stupid thicko brained parents. I just cant believe what im seeing. On a final note, lets all pray for the safe return of little Madeleine, and hope that the police will find her.

I feel bad now for blaming her parents, but if they were there then this whole case may have been prevented.

Sorry, of course i dont mean dont look for a suspect. I just think that the parents were just as bad, it questions their parenting skills and lack of judgement in this case.

At the end of the day, if they had stayed put, it probably would never have happened. I believe that someone was watching what was happening and watched her parents leaving the apartment.

Answer 1

Educated people means Jack sh*t....

I am still astounded why you would leave three under 3's alone, i would't leave my two boys and they are 12 & 14.

Sorry they should be prosecuted, and i hope that little girl turns up safe and sound!!!

Answer 2

I am more horrified by the judgmental bigots on this page than I am at Madeleine's parents. I very much suspect that many of the judgemental people on here do not have kids and their ignorance shows. Those who do have children are speaking very high and mightily and I doubt can say that they have never made a mistake with their parenting. I am sure many many parents have lost sight of their children for 10 seconds and have had that "panic". Thankfully 99.9% of the time you find them within seconds.

In fact, the lack of sympathy being shown towards the parents (indeed the total vilification in many cases) leads me to suspect that many of the people who have commented so heartlessly on the parents on this page, show through their comments and lack of empathy that they are probably themselves not the perfect parents. One thing you do learn when you have children is that children themselves make many mistakes (people do- that is life) and wrong decisions.

The person we should be thinking of first and foremost is Madeleine. Secondly her family, particulalrly her parents who will be going through something none of us can imagine.

We do not know the circumstances really at all. News reports are conflicting and scant, because of the inability legally of Portuguese police to give much detail (this also prevents the McCanns from saying much about what happened).

We have two children (4 and 18 months) and have been on this kind of holiday. We have not left them in the room on their own like this but I have seen others do it when they go to the pool or when they go to the complex restaurant. Often they have baby monitors with them. I understand that the McCanns were with a large group of friends who had children and I can well imagine that all of the parents in that group did the same thing and that there was discussion about whether to do it or not. When we are on holiday, we relax and do things we would not do at home. Life seems slower, more relaxed, safer. They were in a family apartment complex of a well known travel co with an excellent reputation providing expensive family friendly holidays/ environments.

I can see and understand that in that moment in that location, the parents made that choice not out of malice, neglect or any of the other terrible accusations levelled at them on this page but with the knowledge that they could see the apartment from the restaurant, would check back every half hour and telling themselves (and probably others telling them) that it would be fine.

They will pay the price for that moment of complacency forever if Madeleine is not found safe and well. Surely that is too much punishment in itself, let alone the additional punishment some of you want to place on them.

I do agree though that the British press are probably not criticising them due to their class, which is wrong. No parent in this situation in these circumstances should be criticised by the press. It may be that the press (for once) are being considerate and waiting for the storm to clam and that the criticism will start later.

I also agree that parents have a different (and probably unrealistic) view these days of wanting to maintain the life that they had before children as far as they can. I think this is often particularly the case where both parents work hard outside the home (not the case in earlier generations) and also society tells people that kids should not mean they cannot socialise/ work etc...

This is a time for empathy and a time to thank god (or whoever you believe in) that this has never happened to you and pray that it never will.

Answer 3

I am sorry only for the poor child that has gone missing and for her younger siblings.
I have a 10 yr old son and also a 7yr old daughter with special needs. I have NEVER felt the need to leave my children in a room unattended for any length of time. For the people who say that the parents were on holiday, yes they were but they were on a FAMILY HOLIDAY which to me means the family remains together at all times. The thought that those so called parents were not that far away means nothing to me. The FACT IS THEY LEFT NOT 1 BUT 3 SMALL CHILDREN UNSUPERVISED WHILE THEY FED THEIR STOMACHS.
I just hope and pray that that little mite is safe and well, I also hope that her younger siblings are taken into care as soon as possible because how are you able to TRUST parents like these again. I REALLY WOULDN'T WOULD YOU.
And she's a GP and he's a Cardiologist .
I cannot understand people who say that they sympathised
with the parents, they wanted a child free night and that is what they got. The problem is that they got caught out BIG TIME and a innocent poor child is now suffering.
Why are people going on about the fact that she has been abducted/kidnapped when the fact is this would not have happened if the parents had not gone out to feed themselves

Answer 4

When you have kids you lose your freedom -

Not that this is a bad thing but thats the reality of parenthood, my daughter is the same age as Maddy and I honestly wouldn't dream of leaving her alone in her own home never mind a foreign country. There could have been a fire or any of the kids could have woken up and got scared. They should have done what everyone else does, get some food and take it back to the apartment. But have you noticed nobody in the media is saying anything bad at all, if it had been Jade Goody there would be an outcry!!!

Answer 5

I agree with some points of your argument - I cannot understand parents leaving a child who is three years old in a hotel room, without a guardian, IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY! I may not be a parent myself, but I can't imagine someone doing that to a child - not only does it anger me, but it puzzles me more as to why a parent would do that in the first place! Additionally, why would you leave an infant in a strange place, unknown to them? Why not make the child FEEL safe in the first place? I can't understand it.

I really hope they find her. It's really upset me and although the parents acted without much care (undeliberately), I still feel very sorry for them and for their sake, I hope they see their little girl again.

Answer 6

I agree with you this would never of happened if they had stayed with their children...i just can't understand y u would even think about leaving young children by themselves. I hope Madeleine is safe and is returned. I'm just so confused on y they left them alone when they have a creche facilitie on the resort as well as that. End of the day though they have to live with themselves for letting this happen. The parent's had a few excuses such as we checked on them every half an hour, we could see the apartment door or it was only 40 yards away...personally i think there is no excuse...if i had children that age i wouldn't take my eyes off them for a second.....

Answer 7

we go on holiday with our 3 year old all the time, we did leave her in the hotel room one night and go for a drink for 1/2 hour checking on her every 10 mins. But we later thought this was incredibly dangerous, so we said we would never do it again. When you are on holidays it's about the kids, more often than not they are so tired after a day in the pool that they pass out with tiredness no matter where they are. I saw the double buggie that the parents had for the twins, equipped with a cover. They could have easily brought the kids with them and they would have fallen asleep in their buggies.

It's a mistake on the parents behalf...a very costly one. I hope she is found. One thing did occur to me, why werent there any security cameras in the place?

Answer 8

I'm fed up of hearing people say that the parents did nothing wrong, a specialist who works with children was saying this on TV- AM I GOING MAD???? We've all seen what happens when you do this, so HOW ON EARTH can you say they did nothing wrong???

I'm also fed up of hearing people say we shouldn't be pointing fingers, YES WE SHOULD... because if we don't, we encourage others to make the same mistake we also encourage social services to dismiss a VERY serious situation, which clearly needs dealing with!! I know pointing fingers doesn't make the parents feel any better, it's not supposed to. I agree with Bluto... If it was Jade Goody you ALL would have been grilling her!! Look at how she was treated with regards to that BB situation which was NOTHING compared to this!!!

What makes people think it's alright to leave children in a 'SAFE' family hotel?? WAKE UP, THIS IS THE REAL WORLD - Paedophiles are EVERYWHERE, ESPECIALLY IN FAMILY HOTELS if anything!!!

Suppose one of the kids started choking in their sleep??
What if one started crying and it woke them all??
What if there had been a fire??
So many hazardorous scenarios within one stupid decision!!!

We all make our own choices and you people choose to feel sorry for those irresponsible 'parents' while the rest (we) would rather feel sorry for the poor little girl, who unfortunately didn't have a choice and her only option was to be left alone with her siblings who are younger than her!!

I hope to God that Madeline is safe and is returned ASAP!! xxXXxx

Answer 9

Maddy's parents have made a mistake that could end up costing them dearly. I sincerely hope they find Maddy and quickly, and I'm glad that the majority do not dwell on them leaving their children in the apartment because it does nothing to help the family or make them feel better in such a terrible situation.

I hope that you never make mistakes! Unfortuantely though, I'm sure you will, as we all have and luckily most of us do not have to pay dearly for them. I wish people would stop pointing the finger at Maddy's parents, it does nothing to help them at this awful time!

Thicko brained parents? My God, have some empathy and quit judging people who you know NOTHING about!

Answer 10

"Forget looking for a suspect" I don't think so!! But yes, it seems foolish (very) to leave your kids (3 year old daughter, and I don't know how old the twins were) alone, well out of eyesight/hearing of the parents ESPECIALLY in a foreign (non-english speaking) country!! I don't want the parents to necessarily get punished or feel totally guilty, because they are probably really blaming themselves now, and they don't need lots of extra condemnation/pain. But all parents need to aware that leaving their (young) kids like that is really not okay!
I want to know what happened to her. At the best, I can see her being adopted out to a NICE family somewhere for a large price. I hope that's what will happen (IF she doesn't get found/returned to her parents). All my other ideas about what might happen to her are considerably worse. I think she will be kept alive, but I don't know that that is good. I pray God will be with her. And I pray police will have 'leads', that everyone who knows anything will tell what they know, and that Madeleine is found and returned, and that she is safe!! I really hope for that... It makes me so sick, when I hear of girls who are kidnapped like this, or on their way to school... that really shouldn't happen. What is annoying, is that Madeleine's parents should have known better (and their friends who they were eating with also should have known better - they should have been concerned about the young children left alone. Did they have kids too, sleeping alone in their room?). Madeleine was 3. Even if she had not been kidnapped from her room, she still could have woken up in an unusual room/bed/house without her mummy and daddy, and she could have wandered off in search of them, and got herself lost somewhere dangerous...

Answer 11

There are many aspects of this sad story and the way it is being reported that bugs me.

The parents were on holiday with a group of other doctors and their kids - why not arrange a rota system of some sort so each couple could get some time alone?

Why not use the baby sitting service?

If a single working class mother made the same mistake the media would have shredded them by now.

Why have IVF then neglect your children?

Why are they refusing to aknowldege that the poor wee girl might have woke up scared from a nightmare and went looking for them?

Why are the papers and news acting as if it is somehow OK to leave 3 children alone in a hotel room so you can go out and eat? Again if it was a single mum that had done it to go to a pub all hell would break loose.

Hell mend them - idiots.

I hope that wee girl is ok though.

Will social services be looking into them? I doubt it, gain because they are well heeled doctors.

Good to see the class system alive and kicking eh?