Hate Mob: If you care so deeply about neglected children, what do you do for neglected kids living near you?

Question

So you've spent the last FOUR AND A HALF MONTHS whining about how evil/cruel/neglectful the McCanns are for leaving their kids alone for barely half an hour. I can guarantee you that within whichever putrid housing scheme you waste your life, there will be parents treating their children far FAR worse. You've spent so long whining about the McCanns. What are you doing for the neglected kids in your neighbourhoods. Nothing?

Be honest here, you can tell me :-)

Answer 1

Fair one, but the reason is because this is such a high profile case.
The one thing i do is look after and treat MY children with respect. I know how important a good childhood and upbringing is as mine was horrific.

Answer 2

Firstly, the McCann's did not live in a putrid housing scheme, so child neglect is obviously not confined to any class or neighbourhood.

As for parents treating their children far worse - we don't know what's happened to Madeleine yet. But, yes, some children suffer really badly at the hands of their parents..

I am not one of the hate mob in the sense that I have no knowledge of the facts of the case and therefore will not jump to conclusions. I have never said the McCanns are evil or cruel - just stupidly irresponsible, selfish and neglectful.

Half an hour is just too long to leave 3 infants alone in a strange flat - even two minutes is too long!

They also committed a crime. Or at least, it's a crime under Scots law and I would hope under English law too. I can only speak for Scots law as that is the area in which I work. Yes, and part of my job is dealing with people who abuse or neglect children. It can be a heartbreaking and thankless job at times, but I wouldn't want to do anything else.

Sometimes neglect arises through naivety, sometimes through lack of education, sometimes through lack of affordable child care which, although cannot be excused, at least can be understood . Obviously none of that applies in this case.

This was deliberate neglect by two selfish people.

Is that honest enough for you!

Answer 3

What exactly is a putrid housing scheme?

I don't live in a neighborhood but in a small town and I have only 1 neighbor who is in his 90's. Have phoned child welfare recently to inquire as to what the laws are regarding children being left home alone and there are no laws in my state. I knew of a 9 year old that was being left home alone 9 hours a day this summer during break. Though it is not illegal and based on maturity of child if something would have happened to this child while alone serious the parents would have been faced with neglect is what they told me so I offered to babysit the child for free but the parents refused. I have babysat for free many children in my town who would have been left alone after school under the age of 12. Because my kids are so active in athletics and I at the school we know many of the kids in our small town and more then half the parents and kids in my town know they always have me in case of emergency. I am the resident stay at home mom. If I thought and was sure a child was being physically abused or left for alone all hours of the night repeatedly I would phone social services if the parents did not want to take me up on the free babysitting. So I do hope you answered that question. I am very much against child abuse and neglect. I am very much against leaving children alone without proper supervision until they are mature enough to do so. My oldest child just became mature enough to stay home for an hour or 2 at age 14 and so did his brother who is almost 13. The 13 year old was probably mature enough at 10 but I still didnt do it. All kids mature differently.



Edit: And Big kahuna you are clearly filled with so much love for others. It is obvious in each and every one of your posts.

Snorky must be a relative or friend since she knows exactly what is going on in the McCann house.

Answer 4

Well to start with as we have found out from the recent news 'putrid housing schemes' don't seem to be where children are being neglected as a rule, it might be where we would presume it was happening but we have been awoken to the fact that this isn't always so and I think there is probably a lesson there for all of us.

I can quite honestly say that I do nothing at all for neglected kids because I don't know of any, that's the thing, looking at those beautiful McCann children you wouldn't realise that they were being left in an at risk situation would you really. That's the problem.

I volunteer at my childrens school, but I would have no idea how many of those children are left at risk either, probably some, hopefully none.

I have three of my own who I look after, not fabulously I'm sure, but hopefully they'll grow up knowing that they were loved and involved in everything we did when they were young and in turn when they are fathers they will be in a position to pass the same on to their children.

Be happy - you'll give yourself an ulcer carrying on like that.

Answer 5

I am not aware of any neglected children in my small village. If there were any the parents would be reported & not just by me the majority of residents. The children in my village are all well adjusted & much loved.
As for living in putrid housing , how dare you make such an assumption about people you dont even know, just because they have a different opinion to you.
do us all a favour & crawl back under the stone you crawled from under.

Answer 6

Number 1,- I haven't spent the past 4 1/2 months whining. To tell you the truth, I'm getting tired of hearing about this particular news item online and on the tv.

Number 2,- I have gone to my youngest daughters home and yanked the kids right out of her arms whenever I find out about one of her wild parties or if I find out that she is messing around with drugs. I have stopped her on the road and taken the kids out of her car if I knew that she was drunk/high. My husband stopped her boyfriend on the road with the kids once (and once was all it took) and found him "stinking" drunk. After he loaded up the kids in his truck he commenced to pounding on the boyfriend.

I work at a pre-school and I have called Social services several times. I have never hid the fact that I will take action in such cases. I haven't made a lot of friends but I would rather have the friendship of the child than of the parent.

My daughter has since straightened her life out, has a full time job and every so often thanks me for the things I've done. In her words; "if it wasn't for you mom, I might not have my kids today"

I can't imagine that I am the only one who feels this way. I'll bet that there are a whole lot of people who do just what I've done and will still do. They just might not be as open about it as I am.

Answer 7

My home is open to the neighborhood kids. I watch them for free after school and during the summer. I remember their birthdays. I buy Christmas presents for their parents to give to them when I hear they're having trouble. Once, one family had my cell phone when they lost phone service.

The economy is tough for many people. Good, hardworking people are working longer hours and unintentionally neglecting their children. It is not their fault: sometimes people have to make tough choices.

Judgementalism doesn't help. People who complain about other parents are forgetting that those other parents are the models of the next generation. Complaining about them is one way of shutting the families out. That doesn't work because it isolates the people who need the community the most.

The gifts that I get in return for opening my door are priceless: I get to meet the kindest kids in the world and my fridge is full of art. Try it sometime!

Answer 8

My sister in law continually left her two small babies at home alone in their cots while she went out to the pub.
I was told about it from a neighbour.
I told her if she did it again, I would report her to social services.
She left them, and I carried out the threat, phoned the police and social services.
They keep an eye on her, she wont speak to me, hasn't for years, but I don't care.
The children are safe.
I lost a child when he was 5, and wont stand back and allow abuse of children.
I know what it feels like, have been there, and waited, praying, until they found my child.
I was a mess. That's why I cant understand the McCann's attitude. I pray they are innocent, and Maddie will be found.

Answer 9

At the end of the day we are all legally responsible for our OWN children NOT the whole neighbourhoods.

When my 3 children were all under 4 and me and Mrs 17pdr went on holiday to Clacton, UK (yes we of the 'putrid housing scheme' could not afford Greece (2006) and (Portugal 2007) we looked after the children and kept them in our sight 24/7. and guess what ? NONE OF THEM WENT MISSING !

I have to ask this but have YOU even got any children ?

Answer 10

I'm on your side but I think you're targetting one audience and are naive to make those points about these people not reporting other child abuse. There are all kinds of people pointing the finger at the McCann's and you've touched a nerve - look how long their answers are! People are too quick to judge without knowing the full circumstances and they are obviously fairly ignorant and full of hate. Good on you for voicing your opinion but you'll probably be reported by the lynch mob. I think these people are quite scary. By the way I'm a responsible and protective mother of 2 before people say "you don't have kids" etc. I just can see all sides to the story, won't judge until the truth comes out and don't have an ignorant nasty bone in my body. All I care about is if they find Maddie and I'm fed up with this whole circus.

Answer 11

Well, I dont live in a putrid housing scheme.

If I was aware of any child neglect going on I would of course report it. Most of these things happen behind closed doors and the victim is scared to death to tell anyone.

You can't do anything if you dont know about it.