Crimewatch - Madeleine McCann

[Old Greg]

The notion anyone is odd for locking the door when they, and their children, are in their house, is in itself odd.

It's not odd, it's ensuring they don't come to harm, possibly a central tenet to being a parent. It's obvious why some on hear do not understand that, but for a parent to question it?

Funnily enough, it took me ages to persuade Mrs OG that locking the back door was a good thing, because she was worried about the fire risk.

[mudskipper]

I always left the key near the door in case we had a fire in the night.
Then we got burgled with no sign of forced entry and the door left unlocked, so now I don't keep the key near the door.

So given the choice of burgled or roasted, which do you go for?

[MyUserName]

Funnily enough, it took me ages to persuade Mrs OG that locking the back door was a good thing, because she was worried about the fire risk.

Yeah, we leave the key in the front and back doors at night in case of fire.

[Old Greg]

I always left the key near the door in case we had a fire in the night.
Then we got burgled with no sign of forced entry and the door left unlocked, so now I don't keep the key near the door.

So given the choice of burgled or roasted, which do you go for?

Read that as 'buggered or spit-roasted'. Too much time spent on CUK methinks.

[DodgyAgent]

If I had an electric fire and switched it on before leaving the house for the evening and whilst I was out my unattended electrical fire caused a fire which burnt down my house and my neighbours - would I be responsible?

It is a very good analogy that you use and yes you would be responsible, but I would not judge you for doing it because I have done this myself (before you ring social services - by accident) in fact we have probably all done it and we have got away with it, but it would not be worthy of the judgements that are being heaped onto the Mcann family if your family had been burnt alive as a result. What happens if you switched it off and did not unplug it and an electrical surge caused a fire?

We all take risks and the Mcanns took a risk that many of us take day in day out to a greater or a lesser degree. to judge them for the abduction of their child is cruel unfair and serves no purpose and for those of you who insist on doing it can only have one reason for doing so which is to cover up your own anxieties and inadequacies as a parent and make you think "you are not so bad after all"

[Hairy]

Neither, for my wife and I, and the eldest, knows where the keys are kept, for front and back. All window keys are in the kids drawer

[Old Greg]

Yeah, we leave the key in the front and back doors at night in case of fire.

That is the agreed procedure here. Do you double lock the front door?

[cailin maith]

It is a very good analogy that you use and yes you would be responsible, but I would not judge you for doing it because I have done this myself (before you ring social services - by accident) in fact we have probably all done it and we have got away with it, but it would not be worthy of the judgements that are being heaped onto the Mcann family if your family had been burnt alive as a result. What happens if you switched it off and did not unplug it and an electrical surge caused a fire?

We all take risks and the Mcanns took a risk that many of us take day in day out to a greater or a lesser degree. to judge them for the abduction of their child is cruel unfair and serves no purpose and for those of you who insist on doing it can only have one reason for doing so which is to cover up your own anxieties and inadequacies as a parent and make you think "you are not so bad after all"

That is bollocks.

They didn't hand their child over to the abductor (assuming there was one) but they did make it easier for her to be abducted.

Not one person on here is saying they need to shoulder some blame simply to "cover up your own anxieties and inadequacies as a parent and make you think "you are not so bad after all""

No one here thinks they deserve what happened but people can make informed comments about what they did as I'd say most of us have been in a situation where we have had to make a choice and for the most part people choose the childs safety over their own needs.

[TykeMerc]

Dodgy is putting up ludicrous situations and arguments to troll, not to make a valid point, all of his posts in this thread have been made to upset and not debate.

I assume he has some rabid objection to the McCanns bearing any responsibility for the child going missing. While they appear to be victims in the disappearance the real victim is the child and for all we know the parents may not be victims at all, we simply don't know. The fact that in the opinion of most of the parents posting on here leaving your kids unattended is at best utterly foolish and could be called negligence seems to deeply irritate him.

As a parent taking reasonable care of the kids you produced and are responsible for isn't wrapping them in cotton wool or any other perjorative (sp?) phrase, it's basic common sense.

[MyUserName]

It is a very good analogy that you use and yes you would be responsible, but I would not judge you for doing it because I have done this myself (before you ring social services - by accident) in fact we have probably all done it and we have got away with it, but it would not be worthy of the judgements that are being heaped onto the Mcann family if your family had been burnt alive as a result. What happens if you switched it off and did not unplug it and an electrical surge caused a fire?

Agreed that we all take risks, it is a sliding scale which varies a lot.

However, in the above analogy I would consider you to have been extremely careless to leave the fire on whilst you were away for hours. A few minutes to put the bins out would be fine, if you fell and banged your head and were unconscious then that would be fine(!). But choosing to leave it unattended for hours is negligent imho.

Obviously you would have my full sympathy for the damage caused and I would truly wish it had not happened and at no point would I ever think that you deserved it in any way.