They weren’t left alone for just 30 minutes, though, Gukumatz. They were left alone for longer than that, and the parents were alternating going to check on them every 30 minutes. At least that’s how the article read.
I don’t know… I’m not a parent, but I’ve taken care of enough very small kids to know that I wouldn’t want them to be left unattended while they were sleeping. I can recall every one of my younger siblings as toddlers waking out of a sleep vomiting, for instance… usually unpredictably, i.e., they hadn’t been sick prior to that.
But to leave three toddlers alone in a room? I don’t have kids, so I never know what they can do at what age, but can’t three at that age get themselves into a lot of trouble? I mean, if one wakes up and starts crying, aren’t the other two going to follow suit?
I can’t imagine ever leaving a three year old alone like that. My aunt and uncle lived next door to my grandmother, my grandmother cared for my little cousins during the day since they were infants. When one of my cousins was three, one cold Febuary night my grandmother woke up, she barely heard a little noise… she almost went back to sleep but then she heard it again. She got dressed, went to the front door and there in her nightgown was my cousin, at 3am… pounding on the door with her little fists, shaking saying “let me in 'ganny, I’s COLD…”. She had gotten up in the middle of the night, let herself out of her house, walked next door in the middle of the night and it could have been REALLY bad. That was with two adults sleeping in the same house, her door LOCKED (they then installed a deadlock too high for her to reach) and she still wandered about like that. Nope… no way, leaving aside any abduction issues… No Way.
I don’t think we’re the same culturally in the UK than they are in Norway. There have been a couple of high profile cases over here and there is a lot of fear (whipped up) concerning paedophiles. I don’t know a single parent that would consider it anything but an incredibly bad idea to leave children alone in a situation like this.
I’ll usually defend the BBC but they seem scared to bring up the issue of their questionable parenthood. They’d rather show yet another church service, complete with hymns, or family and friends telling the world how much they loved their children more than anything…
Of course, I hope the girl is found soon and has suffered no lasting harm. I hope they get a second chance to be good, responsible parents (and that they take better care of their remaining children).
When I visited DK for the first time (I’ve been going almost every year for almost ten years) I noticed that in small towns and suburbs there were strollers parked outside in many houses. I was surprised that people were not afraid of the strollers been stolen. What was even stranger was to find out there was a kid in one of the stroller. I turned to my now-husband and asked alarmed if we should call the police about a kid abandoned. He gave me a :dubious: followed by an explanation that kids sleep better in “the cool”, I gave him a :eek: followed by a :smack:.
People do leave their babies to sleep outside the house. And close the door. Nice country.
FWIW, I can recall being left alone with my sister in our parents’ car in public places several times, including while we were on holiday in other European countries (I’m a Brit). This would have been in the late sixties and early seventies. I’m not sure how many Brits would have considered this normal behaviour at that time (my Mum’s a pretty strange person), but nowadays it does seem irresponsible especially given the hysteria over paedophiles in the tabloid press.
Having said that, without having seen the place Madeleine was taken from I couldn’t make a judgement about whether it seemed reasonable to her parents to leave her and their other children alone. I’m not sure I would do it, though.
She is 8 now, but when she was 3 or 4, I left her in the car one night while I ran into the corner store. It was a cool night, no hot sun, and she was in full view of the store counter.
I will admit that I had to go to the back of the to grab the soda, and that took all of 45 seconds. Then I was right back at the counter, with my eyesight fixed on my precious pea.
The couple behind me,
“I can’t believe you would leave that baby unattended. That is a shame!”
I couldn’t help but ponder exactly why my actions were so wrong? I mean, I would never leave my baby unattended in a strange city while I went and had a long leisurely dinner. But I honestly am not sure why some people say, “I would never leave a child unattended for even a moment.”
Well, for one, it’s illegal in the U.S. In my opinion, leaving a kid strapped in a car for 45 seconds while you run in an grab something is no big deal (if there isn’t any chance of the kid overheating). I don’t personally do it because I’m worried about busybodies.
The thing is, that’s not what happened in this case. Free range kids alone in a hotel room could get up to all sorts of trouble apart from abduction. Falling off the bed, putting stuff in outlets, drowning in the toilet, toppling the tv onto them, etc. Just wandering away on their own could happen. My kids are 3.5 and 14 months and they spend all day trying to kill themselves and I’m RIGHT THERE!
I don’t think anyone in this thread is coming down on people who would leave their child for 30 seconds, but several hours in a strange city with three toddlers in a hotel room is negligent. Unless they’ve been tied up and handcuffed to their cribs. Then, maybe.
(By the way, just a couple weeks ago in my city, a woman left her 3 year old in the car while she paid for gas. The car was stolen. They found it four hours later, after an Amber Alert, sitting in a McDonald’s parking lot on the other side of the city.)
I am reminded of something that happened about 7.5 years ago. A single mom awoke to find her child missing. In her panic she frantically typed out one of those missing kids e-mails, which as far as I know is still making its way around the 'Net. Oddly, the woman did not own a computer. Several hours later, it occurred to her to call the police. Never once did it occur to her to look next door, at the home of her daughter’s best friend. She was there the whole time.
There was far more weirdness to the story, and to this day the facts just don’t add up.
I probably got some facts wrong on this, but the snopes story is not coming up on a search.
Yes, the fact that this was a resort area is was is what makes me so shocked. You know how they tell you in travel books not to leave valuables such as jewelry in your hotel room? There’s a reason for that. And they don’t say, “be careful if you’re in some crappy hostel, but at a nice place don’t worry”, better hotels are included in this warning as well, and thats why they have safes at the office. Nice resorts attract attention and have lots of people passing thru, its not quite like your backyard.