PM: To Kate McCaan

[Churchill]

I am not completely innocent.

But I get the feeling that if Kate McCann had hired a baby-sitter, then found them sitting in a bar 100m away getting bladdered, she would have kicked the living sh!t out of them

You may just have a point.

[TykeMerc]

I am not completely innocent.

But I get the feeling that if Kate McCann had hired a baby-sitter, then found them sitting in a bar 100m away getting bladdered, she would have kicked the living sh!t out of them

Eloquently put and entirely to the point. I suspect if you substituted drinking coffee and chatting to mates it would be the same reaction.

[PerfectStorm]

In our case we would have taken the kids. They were on holiday too so got to stay up late and have dinner with us. They didn't get grumpy as they were having too much fun dancing about while we had fun watching them.

Ah, so you're that person who invites noisy kids to the adults restaurant!

[MarillionFan]

Ah, so you're that person who invites noisy kids to the adults restaurant!

Those people who let their kids run around, screaming, shouting, spoiling it for other people? They're not bad parents! Just ******* ignorant!!!!!!

[Churchill]

Those people who let their kids run around, screaming, shouting, spoiling it for other people? They're not bad parents! Just ******* ignorant!!!!!!

You'll find, if you take your head out of your arse that most restaurants on the continent are family oriented. It's only certain Brits who have hang ups about kids in restaurants. You expect your children to behave and they will do.

[TykeMerc]

You'll find, if you take your head out of your arse that most restaurants on the continent are family oriented. It's only certain Brits who have hang ups about kids in restaurants. You expect your children to behave and they will do.

True, having eaten at countless restaurants in the Med region and Portugal with my kids at various ages children are the norm at most I can think of. It's cultural, the locals expect to take their kids out to eat and they tend to pamper the visitors kids (at least in my experience), as they got older we ate later, but seeing kids at the dinner table is very much business as usual.

[EternalOptimist]

I'm in with the posh nobs here.

we never had tables in our chippy

[ZARDOZ]

I don't think what they did is so incredible. I suspect that, prior to Maddie's abduction, many reasonable, caring, rational parents would have done the same.

I think you are describing a very small minority of Parents who would do that. What they did was pretty irresponsible given the very young ages of the Children.
"You should never leave babies or young children alone in the home"-NSPCC
"leaving young children alone at night even if they are asleep is very risky"-NSPCC
Most parents would not think the above optional dependent on their social calendar.


In General some of the pro/devil's advocate arguments put forward in this thread could equally be applied to something like drink driving. Maybe 1 or 2 pints is OK, so why isn't 3 or 4, 6 or 7? We all know someone who has done it, peer pressure, it's never caused a problem a before. We all make mistakes, Who are we to judge others? Maybe there were no taxis available? How did they know someone would get run over? BS and just poor excuses for poor behaviour.

[mudskipper]

In General some of the pro/devil's advocate arguments put forward in this thread could equally be applied to something like drink driving. Maybe 1 or 2 pints is OK, so why isn't 3 or 4, 6 or 7? We all know someone who has done it, peer pressure, it's never caused a problem a before. We all make mistakes, Who are we to judge others? Maybe there were no taxis available? How did they know someone would get run over? BS and just poor excuses for poor behaviour.

Good example. There are countries where drink driving is still the norm - South Africa for example. Parts of the states too. I suspect there are rural communities in the UK where 'everyone does it'. When I started driving, many people would think nothing of driving after 4 pints. These people aren't bad people, they're not fundamentally different to you or I, they are in an environment where something 'bad' is normalised. Once it's normalised, it seems OK.

[NotAllThere]

I think you are describing a very small minority of Parents who would do that. What they did was pretty irresponsible given the very young ages of the Children.
"You should never leave babies or young children alone in the home"-NSPCC
"leaving young children alone at night even if they are asleep is very risky"-NSPCC ...

Yes, but who listens to the advice of extremists who think you shouldn't beat your kids?

The law is, IIRC, that if harm comes to a child while they've been left alone, you can be prosecuted.