Man leaves two year old in car so he can play Bingo

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_27451.shtml

It happened in Dénia on Saturday afternoon

A 35 year old Chinese man has been arrested in Dénia for leaving his two year old daughter in his car for more than an hour on Saturday afternoon while he went to play bingo.

EFE news agency reports that the child was found in an apparent state of hyperventilation, and was attended to by a SAMU ambulance at the scene. She has fully recovered and it was not necessary to take her to hospital.

Police said they were trying to locate other members of the family to take care of the child.

Seems that children are being left to look after themselves more and more nowadays. Hardly surprising, seeing how little attention was paid to the circumstances in which Madeleine was said to have disappeared. I imagine many people think if doctors can leave children alone and not be called to account for it, then so can everyone else.

A man from my area was recently fined for leaving his 4-year-old daughter alone at home while he gave a friend a lift to the train station. He had arranged for another friend to come to look after his daughter but didn't bother to wait until the second friend turned up. As it happened the second friend had no key so was unable to get into the house. The father was stopped by the police at a checkpoint and they arrested him for driving while under the influence of alcohol - if it hadn't been for this they wouldn't have found out about the child being left home alone. He was convicted of both offences - driving with excess alcohol and abandonment of a child.

If the McCanns had ever wanted to contribute something to child safery, all they've ever needed to do is highlight their own stupid disregard of their children's safety and warn other people not to be as reckless as they were. But somehow I can't remember them ever doing this - on the contrary, Kate has said on several occasions that she's a responsible parent. So that's all right then, I suppose ...

If the McCanns had ever wanted to contribute something to child safery, all they've ever needed to do is highlight their own stupid disregard of their children's safety and warn other people not to be as reckless as they were. But somehow I can't remember them ever doing this - on the contrary, Kate has said on several occasions that she's a responsible parent. So that's all right then, I suppose...

A little while before Madeleie went missing, a wee boy of the same age got drowned in a garden pond. The parents had left him to play by himself in their enclosed back garden, and thought that he would be quite safe. But he drowned in quite a shallow amount of water in their fish pond.

Now the parents, in contrast with the Fragrant Duo, were all over the papers and the BBC news, saying "if you have a pond, please fill it in, or make sure there's a wire net on it, make sure the kids don't get near it, never ever leave them alone beside ponds because it is not safe." The parents were in bits and urging other people not to make the same mistake.

I have never, ever, heard the McCanns say even once, not to leave kids alone because it is not safe. That is one of the reasons that I have great difficulty believeing anything else they say or do.

I have never, ever, heard the McCanns say even once, not to leave kids alone because it is not safe. That is one of the reasons that I have great difficulty believeing anything else they say or do..

No they just bleat out the same mantra of "We made a mistake". Can you imagine the fury of them if they had hired a babysitter who had done the same thing? I hardly think they would then be saying "Oh well she made a mistake we all do it".

It really worries me that over the past few years we've had a spate of cases where parents have considered it ok to leave their children alone; we've read of them in the papers, mostly because the parent(s) have ended up in court. I have no sympathy for anyone reckless enough to leave young children on their own and they certainly deserve to be charged with child abandonment or neglect, but IMO there must surely be a possibility that, having seen doctors who left their children alone praised as good parents, some of these people think it isn't wrong or that even if it is wrong they won't get into any trouble if they're found out.

The Madeleine case has highlighted many things - unfortunately one of them is that if any harm comes to your children because you were reckless enough to leave them alone, then you don't need to worry, the media will treat you as a victim rather than your child, you will be praised and made much of, you may even attain a sort of fame (or infamy) and you can tell everyone you're a responsible parent and no one will be allowed to say you aren't.

Hi Dimsie

Really want to reply to your statement about parents leaving their children alone. Not that I am making excuse just looking at the reason they do it.

I think there is a lot of stress "out there" - stress that has not been experienced before. If we look further than your average family - there are families living quite close to the edge. Maybe job-wise, financial difficulties, emotionally-wise, relationship-wise. I honestly think there is going to be an upward movement in instances of parents being unable to cope with children while they are under this stress. Many parents have become parents in a society that on the one hand, offers cash incentives and on the other, lack of support and without the proper understand of what it brings with it. Some parents, those we hear about, have very little understanding about child care in general. Also children are the most vulnerable and often the most easy target for anger which is misdirected.

I also think the suicide rate is increasing and will continue to increase - especially parents who commit suicide - suicide pacts - and those who kill the whole family and then themselves. It's because families are under a lot of stress financially and emotionally (divorce/separation/other) and see no other way out.

Also - to some people - parenting/nurturing does not come naturally.

Angelqiue

A neighbour of mine was once telling me about having to get up at 5 to take her husband to work if she wanted to use the car. Her son was 9 months old and a great sleeper so I asked if he woke up when she put him in the car or slept through (I was curious because you only had to breathe near my son of the same age and he was wide awake)
She replied that she left him asleep in his cot as she knew he wouldn't wake up and she was only out for half an hour.
I was shocked, my son had asthma and sometimes coughed at night till he was sick. I asked her what would happen to David if he was ill and she said she knew he wouldn't be!
I told her I would report her to Social Services of she didn't stop leaving him. Not long afterwards they moved so I don't know if she carried on or not.

Hi Smudge

It's amazing isn't it - so few parents realise, I mean, really realise what danger they are leaving their children in. Maybe they didn't/don't have parents to tell them that it's not advisable to do this. Perhaps their parents behaved in the same manner - who knows - maybe parenting skills taught at school would be a good idea - especially for the teen mums which seem to be on the increase.

It's not surprising we are hearing about all these incidents - my motto is : "If it can happen - it will!"

Angelique