Would you have left your kids alone?

[Styles]

Have to say im bored with this all none news story. Will be interested again when there is news though.

[BigMouth]

I didn't take me long as a bairn, I would say about 2 minutes is long enough for devestation to ensue. I was sure that sticking the car keys in the little holes in the wall would make my imaginary car start up. And I hadn't even been left alone! Mum was about ten feet away on the other side of a door. The bang, the screaming and the power going off, did make her wonder what I was up to though...

 

I did the same with two hair grips that I found in an old 5A socket with round holes. No safety covers in those days or ELCBs. My mum was at home that time but often she went out. To entertain myself I used to do things like squash a milk bottle top over the heads of 3 matches and hold them over the gas ring. The effect of this is that the heads would light and the intense heat boiled the cream residue in the which exploded out onto my fingers. Another favourite was using a hair lacquer bottle (no aerosols then) as a flame thrower. I drank weed killer, but it tasted disgusting. I mixed anything I could find under the kitchen sink to see if I could make a smelly potion. When I was older I screwed a nut partially onto a bolt, filled it full of match heads and then screwed another bolt into it. When throwing it against the ground didn't make the thing go bang I took a big hammer to it. The bang was so loud I was deaf for hours and I only ever found one of the bolts. I lit a firework, a banger that had gone out, it exploded and felt like it had torn my thumb off. I could go on, but I wont.

 

My survival proves that you can neglect your kids and get away with it, but not in every case.

 

The worst thing about this is that so many people are jumping on the bandwagon to promote what good people they are. As I have said before, from my time in the newspaper industry, the advertising staff were always rubbing their hands in glee at times of well published disasters due to the increase in ad revenues that they knew that they would get on the back of it.

[BigMouth]

It's a sad indictment of society when people think that offering a reward might bring forward evidence, which the lack of an offer of a reward would not.

[JustMe]

Noticed today that there are still mothers leaving children in prams outside of shops on the Street. Perhaps less than usual. And while the risk here is certainly less than in bigger places there is still some risk.

[BigMouth]

I was in Somerfield recently and a young mum was there doing a mega-shop with one of those trolleys with a baby seat. The young baby was laying back in it without a care in the world, probably just a few weeks old.

 

There was not enough room on the belt for all of her shopping so I offered to pile it onto the belt as she packed it at the other end. As I grabbed the stuff from the trolley I noticed the Mum had left her handbag in the trolley, horrified, I asked if I should pass it to her as I was concerned for its safety. She just smiled and asked if I should not be more concerned about her losing her baby (still in the trolley seat) than her handbag!

 

I felt such a fool but then I thought about it and given the choice I would have taken the handbag, as lovely as the sprog may have been

[Pleepsie]

Sorry not to have participated on this thread especialy as I started it! but I've been away for 9 days and there were only half a dozen replies when I left, so I was a bit taken aback to find 4 pages on my return. I wont have time tonight to read it and reply properly, but will do so tomorrow.

[spoot_ebb]

Noticed today that there are still mothers leaving children in prams outside of shops on the Street. Perhaps less than usual. And while the risk here is certainly less than in bigger places there is still some risk.

 

I have never left my bairns outside a shop in a pram but I'm lucky I have family that can look after them while I do my shopping. But I do feel for anybody that doesn't have that luxury. Shopping on the street is a nightmare if you have a pram. Most of the shops are far too peerie to accommodate a pram and thats only in the shops that you don't need to go upstairs!!

 

They complain that folk don't shop at the street any more. Why would they when it's far simpler to order off the internet.

[ArabiaTerra]

My mother went shopping along commercial st once with me in the pram. She parked the pram outside JR Whites and went inside to get whatever then exited the shop and carried on shopping. It was only when she reached the other end of the street that she realised "Where's the baby?". Luckily I was still outside JR Whites, still asleep, non the worse for wear.

 

Different times.

[tlady]

Mam left me outside Smith & Harper when I was in the pram [when God was a boy]

 

Then someone came into the shop saying there was a bairn in a pram outside eating raw saucermeat!

 

Mam laughed....

 

Until she minded she'd just been to the butchers..

[Pleepsie]

Wonder what people would say if it turned out the parents had done away with her.

 

There seems to be a lot of unanswered questions regarding the parents, but the British media is not asking them!

 

It now seems that the parents lied about the french doors being locked - they weren't.

 

The mother goes back at 10pm to 'Check' (how late were they planning on being out?) and upon finding her daughter missing goes back to the restaurant (LEAVING the 2 babies alone in the apartment!!!) and says "they have taken her"

 

Why not phone her husband on his mobile and then instantly call the police instead of waiting 2 hours.

 

The twins are put into the creche twice a day - why not have their grandmother or the nanny they employ in the uk out there to look after them?

 

The father came back to the uk to get photos, why were they not scanned and emailed days ago? and there is very little 'personal business' that cant be done by phone or email these days.

 

I also note that the family have set up a business for the funds that are pouring in what was wrong with setting it up as a charity? perhaps because a charity would have full and transparent accounting which would not allow for the money to be used to fund the large group of people that the McCannes are surrounding themselves with.

 

I think its about time the press stopped pussy footing around and got on with the business of asking questions.

[Wifey]

In reply to Pleepsie, I just want to add this link:

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1814156.ece

 

Scoot down to the bottom: "...the fund will not benefit from gift aid, a form of tax relief that allows charities to claim from the government an additional 28p for every £1 they receive in donations. And tax will have to be paid on all interest accrued by the fund...Madeleine's parents had hoped for charity status for the fund but were turned down by the Charity Commission because the money raised is not for the "wider public good"."

[Pleepsie]

it also says "Instead, the fund has been registered as a company, which means it is liable to pay Vat at 17.5% on advertising costs and goods designed to raise funds, such as stickers. Charities are eligible for “zero rate†tax relief on such expenses"

 

As a ltd. company it can register for VAT and claim back any VAT incurred. They will also be able to offsett all wages and expenses against profits. It would seem that family members are now on the payroll!

[BigMouth]

As a ltd. company it can register for VAT and claim back any VAT incurred. They will also be able to offsett all wages and expenses against profits. It would seem that family members are now on the payroll!

 

The best tragedies are the profitable ones

[Fjool]

Why all this talk of money? Surely, the police are funded already. What else is required?

[Pleepsie]

Well said!