OK, so the very sad news about April Jones is dominating social media at the moment, and it appears she was not being watched by any adults when she was taken. In amongst the tweets there are people, like me, who feel that willfully bad parenting needs to be addressed. More facts about this particular case need to come out, but you have to say, it doesn't look great.
When young children go missing, the most often heard scenarios are where family members or close friends do something unspeakable. Where children are snatched, however, parents may even witness it, or it is risky for the perpetrator (you know, the "lost sight for one second while shopping" situation). But the other kind - the kind that sends me into a rage - is where a child is taken when they have been left in a dangerous situation. I honestly want more than anything for the children to be found safe, but people often mistake my anger at the parent/s for a lack of caring towards the child involved. This, quite frankly, is a disgusting suggestion. Can't I be both?
The best known example is probably the Madeline McCann story. Parents willfully putting children in danger to have some fun. When you have children everything else comes second to them. Everything. I can't even stomach the thought of going out for a meal and leaving my boy without anyone here, and to do that in a foreign country? For the April Jones case you have to question the thought process in allowing a five year old girl out to play with no adult supervision in the dark. When the police say that the witness reports were all from children and that the van description could be taken many ways because of the age of the witnesses and that it was with street lighting, it suggests a problem.
What annoys me is that we never address the bad parenting. With the focus naturally on the child, people seem to back away from the negligence that put them in danger. Let's grasp the opportunity to educate people and help prevent this from happening again. That's what people always say when the police, social services or local government mess up, so why not parents?
Let's hope April gets found safe and well. In Madeline's case, she will probably never be found and there is a very dark side of me that says her parents deserve every ounce of pain they go through and probably deserve to suffer even more than they are because, and lets not forget this, Madeline could be dead or suffering beyond all imagination. Cruel? Most probably. But I have a son, and if I ever do that, can someone please shoot me?
Robert
If you have any information that could help police trace missing 5yr old, April Jones, please phone the dedicated hotline on 0300 2000 333.
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I would agree with what you've said, except that I do not think that Madeline's parents deserve to suffer. I think that what they did was careless, but they never intended for any harm to come to her. I feel very very sorry for them.
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