Tuesday, May 8, 2007

A Definite Change

I'll start off by saying that some of you may be offended by what I have to say here and I apologize.

The news is filled with stories of a 3 year old little girl that went missing while on holiday with her family in Portugal. It's quite sad and tragic and I feel for the family. Unfortunately what I cannot comprehend is the fact that her parents were out to dinner when she disappeared. They had left her alone along with their 2 year old twins while they went to a Tapas restaurant. According to news reports the parents were checking on the children regularly- every 30 minutes.

What I can't comprehend is the fact that nobody seems to be shocked or addressing the fact that 3 young children were left alone to sleep while their parents dined at a local restaurant. Instead reports are focusing on the security at the place the family was staying, the fact that other incidents were reported in recent weeks, etc. How can this behaviour be viewed as acceptable? I haven't yet had the courage to ask any co-workers if this is considered normal and acceptable.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I clearly agree with you. It is endangering the welfare of children. Children at this age have no common sense they trust their parent to have it for them and to watch them constantly so that they are safe.

Anonymous said...

We have had the same non-caring attitude about kids and pools. Several years a kid drowned in a pool and the adults in the family blames the police and emergency people for not getting to help them fast enough. Now there is a state law to have pool alarms in all new pools. Another level of insecurity for non-interested adults. It is a shame that such tragedies occur and that adults quickly point their fingers at others for not being more careful.


Dad

Amy said...

Did they find the little girl? That's awful for the family. My thought regarding the news coverage is that they are simply being objective and non judgmental in their reporting as opposed to assigning blame. That's supposed to be what we want from news coverage, right?

Melissa said...

Now, what parent in their right mind would leave a three year old and her siblings alone. I get freaked out, well, not that bad, when My is sleeping inside while I am outside in the garden. I would never dream of leaving her home alone, even though I have a good security system, aka the dogs. Ok not funny to joke about this at all.