Madeleine McCann

ViceVersa

Well said! Pointing out inconsistencies certainly doesn't mean anyone is spouting 'conspiracy theories'.

I see no conspiracy theories or myths either on this thread. I think once these start popping up we will be in danger of the thread being closed by GNHQ.

A little bit of an aside from the Madeleine disappearance, some on here will have watched Simon Reeves programmes on Scandinavia. In the Denmark one, he spoke to one mother who said it was not unusual to leave a baby in a pram outside, her own baby was outside in the grounds of what appeared to be a block of flats, she said something on the lines "there is a trust in Denmark" even so that cannot encompass trusting everyone imo it doesn't take into account the fact there will be a minority paedophiles in every society. Similarly in other European countries, The Netherlands and Germany I have read that it is not unusual for children aged about 5 or so to go to and from school on their own and they don't have that thing that many of us have experienced here when collecting our very young children from school (Infants) there is a teacher in the playground who will only release the child to parent/guardian/known carer, or that's how I remember it from picking up both children and grandchildren. On the contrary from what I've read, the very young child will come out of pre school, I know they start school later in mainland Europe and make their own way home. We here in Britain have been accused of helicopter parenting, guilty as charged! When mine were much younger, but I would say as in Europe there was a far more relaxed style of parenting when our generation grew up, a sort of benign neglect existed, in fact I can remember my own parents going to Midnight Mass and if they couldn't drag us out of bed, they'd leave us for an hour or so at home unattended. I don't think they thought anything of it, would that be worse than the McCann's I wonder I hate to malign them because I think they've paid a helluva price for what could be deemed as their benign neglect, but again I can remember being in hotels, particularly with my eldest child who as a baby went off like a light into a deep sleep, and then we'd put the baby monitor system that the hotel operated and go down to their dining room, maybe that's still a thing. In hindsight since Madeleine's disappearance I'm not sure I'd do it now.

My son whilst playing around a swimming pool abroad with a child he'd befriended, aged about 7 or 8 disappeared for what seemed like an eternity (a couple of hours) I remember almost reaching the stage of complete meltdown, we were just a couple of sun loungers apart from where they were playing and then whilst we must have taken our eyes off them, they were gone. I alerted hotel staff, who searched and put announcements out on the tannoy. Eventually after what seemed an incredible time lapse, someone from the hotel, it was quite large, did a door to door knock and there they were in the other child's room playing with his stash of some desirable toy or other he'd brought along. Of course after that I impressed upon my son "never go off without letting me know where you are"

I was amazed by the Danish baby left to sleep in what looked like public gardens. On a balcony, back yard/garden fine. As I left my 2 to sleep in all weathers (dry of course) outside in our back garden. But this seemed to be taking trust to a different level and not allowing for the unexpected. Even as basic as another small child out there playing on its own and tipping the pram over while having a look inside...never mind all the other risks.

Small children sleeping inside while you are sitting outside in your garden on a summer eveing no problem. Two very small children and one still young but older sleeping inside while you are out of sight, apparently, at an outdoor hotel bar/restaurant was a bad decision for which they paid a terrible price.

I agree HelterSkelter, my first child was a summer baby and my health visitor advised me to put his pram out in the garden for fresh air, which I did, even then in an enclosed back garden, I still felt it necessary to keep checking on him quite frequently.

Both my girls were February babies...as am I... and were out in cold dry weather. With a small hot water bottle in the pram in winter and a square sunshade over the pram in the summer. But always in then sight line of the kitchen window. Often heard of the probably anecdotal advice to push the pram to the bottom of the garden and let them cry. This was 48 years ago.