New search for little Maddie

So anyone who criticises what the McCanns did - not just once - and says they have never left their children is ‘sanctimonious’? They did not make a mistake. We have all made mistakes and know the difference between making a mistake and putting your own enjoyment above your children’s well being. There is no nasty speculation or malicious gossip here - just a rehearsal of the facts and various poster’s’ recollections of what they have, or have not, done in the past.

There are some very sanctimonious people on here passing judgement on people they don’t know who have suffered unimaginable pain and loss. They made a mistake, I’ve made many mistakes over the years and sometimes I’ve paid the price and other times I’ve been lucky. I hope they find what they are looking for and the story can be put to rest ending all this nasty speculation and malicious gossip. This is not an example of Gransnet at its best.

Indeed.

Just to add, I find it distasteful, to say the least, to accuse anyone of being 'smug' over the disappearance and likely death of a three-year-old child.

And as Jennifer says, not just the one time. A predator watching the apartment would have known their movements.

Fleurpepper

Blondiescot

If the 'poor parents' hadn't left her and her siblings alone in the first place while they were out enjoying themselves, it would never have happened in the first place. Sorry, but it infuriates me that millions have been spent on the 'campaign' to find Maddie, while there are hundreds of children who go missing every year. Who is fighting to bring peace to their families?

what a horrible, nasty post.

You must feel so smug, as the only perfect parent around who has never made a mistake. Well done!

I've never claimed to be a perfect parent - far from it, but at least I can say with a clear conscience that I never left three very young children alone either here in the UK or in a foreign country while I was out eating and drinking with friends. A 'mistake' is forgetting to pack your child's school lunch - leaving your child alone like that is neglect, to say the least.

This has been a very strange case all along with so many different theories about what happened to Madeleine.
I remember reading at the time how initially the media here were planning to tear the parents to shreds, assuming it was a certain type of couple from some rough council estate who had left their small children alone in the flat while they went to a restaurant. Then once it was clear that it was a couple of doctors, a more sympathetic tone of reporting was used.

Then the Portuguese police were convinced the parents were involved in the little girl’s disappearance, and we all wondered if it was possible.

Yes of course they should never have left those small children alone like that, not once but every night, even ( as Kate astonishingly admitted in her book) after Madeleine asked her parents one morning where they were the previous night as one of the twin’s had woken and Madeleine called out for her mummy.

Nevertheless I can completely understand why they would never give up hope of her being found alive somewhere. All the time there is no body found there is always hope, slim though that hope might be.

They are being punished for their mistake for the rest of their lives.

It’s not a ‘mistake’ fp. It’s dereliction of duty. I doubt Blondiescot feels smug. Neither do I.

I said parents, not all parents.

Blondiescot

If the 'poor parents' hadn't left her and her siblings alone in the first place while they were out enjoying themselves, it would never have happened in the first place. Sorry, but it infuriates me that millions have been spent on the 'campaign' to find Maddie, while there are hundreds of children who go missing every year. Who is fighting to bring peace to their families?

what a horrible, nasty post.

You must feel so smug, as the only perfect parent around who has never made a mistake. Well done!

Anniebach

Parents always left children in their holiday camp chalets whilst they went dancing ,

Today 12:07 Boz

Yes. We have all done this; especially on holiday.

Not this parent.

I’m sure they have regretted the decision and they find some sort of closure.

I think the twins were about 17 months and Maddie was only around 3 years old.Anything could have happened to them left alone, not only abduction.
Those who talk of children playing outside in the street, well you don’t allow toddlers or 3 year olds to do that.

We never left our son on holiday unless he had a babysitter or he was at the children’s club.
I think the McCanns were careless at best. Left alone in a hotel room anything could have happened to a small child.

Yes, sadly they paid dear for their actions and I hope the little mite will be found and laid to rest properly.What she must have gone through doesn’t bear thinking about.

Boz

Yes. We have all done this; especially on holiday.
A mistake was made, I feel, in not locking the door of the apartment. There is a theory that Maddy woke up and trotted off to get her parents and was picked up by a car driven by a cruising abductor.
Nasty to blame parents.

Speak for yourself Boz !
I would never have dreamed of leaving my small children either in my own home, a hotel or a holiday apartment while we went out for a meal somewhere.
If they hadn’t been doctors, say had been a cleaner and a shop worker they’d have been torn to shreds by the media.
What Blondiescot says is quite true.

Hopefully it will have given many people pause for thought when on holiday with small children, at a terrible price.

I think that the McCanns have well and truly paid for any mistakes they made. I have nothing but sympathy for the family. There's obviously a reason for the German authorities to want this area searched and if there's anything to be found I hope they are successful.

Personally I agree with Blondiescot; furthermore, we do not actually know that Madeleine was abducted - she could have woken in the night and, finding the door unlocked, gone to look for her parents and had an accident. Whatever, the 'best case' scenario is that she could have had a nightmare and woken up distressed and crying, and no-one would have been there to comfort her.

My parents would never have left us unattended while going out to dinner, and neither would I, like many posters. Please lets stop with the 'everyone' or 'most people' descriptions for this essentially neglect. It is not comparable with letting children play out in the daytime.

God rest her poor little soul if the Police do find her .
And give some relief to her parents , who must have suffered so much through the years .

Mollygo

Blondiescot

It would be interesting to know what they think about everything they could read online about their sister, that's for sure.

Really? Who would want to be tactless or unkind enough to ask them and then make it public for everyone to pick over?

I'm not suggesting it should be made public knowledge. But I do wonder if they've searched online for information about their sister, or if friends have asked them about what they've perhaps read online. Imagine being in their parents' shoes if/when they ask about what happened.

Terribull excellent post.

Germanshepherdsmum

Blondiescot

If the 'poor parents' hadn't left her and her siblings alone in the first place while they were out enjoying themselves, it would never have happened in the first place. Sorry, but it infuriates me that millions have been spent on the 'campaign' to find Maddie, while there are hundreds of children who go missing every year. Who is fighting to bring peace to their families?

I agree. I have never left my child, on holiday or otherwise. So no, Boz, we have not all done this.

I have never left mine either even if just a few yards away.
When young I was left by my parents after they were persuaded by my uncle to go to a dance on a Butlins holiday camp. We, children, were put in the same chalet. Of course, we started to fight and it was announced in the dance hall and our parents had to come back.
My uncle really told us off for fighting my father told him perhaps it was the adults' fault for leaving us. It has always stuck in my mind.
However painful and ongoing it is for them they left her a three-year-old with two younger siblings.

Blondiescot

It would be interesting to know what they think about everything they could read online about their sister, that's for sure.

Really? Who would want to be tactless or unkind enough to ask them and then make it public for everyone to pick over?

I agree with many of the comments that have been made by Blondiescot.

It is a fact that Madeleine and her siblings were left unattended, it does not matter how near the dining area was to the apartment the children were unattended.

Blondiescot is right about the fact the two parents are doctors if it had been parents from a council estate and out enjoying themselves they would have been crucified.
One thing for sure if they had been ordinary young couple
and social services even had a sniff that the children were left unattended they would have removed the siblings from the parents and took them to court for negligence, possibly getting a court order and putting them into foster care.

I do feel empathy for the McCanns they have had to pay the ultimate price for their actions, I am of the belief that Madeleine sadly is no longer alive, may she long rest in peace
every time I see the original picture of her with those big beautiful eyes she had I feel tearful. She was a beautiful child lost/or taken who knows but gone from this life far too soon.

It would be interesting to know what they think about everything they could read online about their sister, that's for sure.