A 3-year-old English girl, Madeleine McCann, was kidnapped from a resort in Portugal last week. The story has become an international one, with wealthy businessmen offering million-dollar rewards and soccer megastar David Beckham producing a television commercial to assist in the search.
There has been much criticism about this case, but not in the way you might think.
The British media is inflamed about the perceived lackadaisical search effort being conducted by the Portuguese authorities. To an extent, some of their criticism is valid, as illustrated by video footage of police sitting in their cars at a roadblock. They were waving cars through because it was raining, and apparently they felt it was more important to stay dry than to do their job. Hey -it's only a little girl's life at stake, not to mention a potentially horrendous PR blow to the travel industry in Portugal, something the former "poor man of Europe" certainly doesn't need.
The anger is so palpable that a London newspaper ran the headline "Clueless" regarding the investigation.
Right headline, wrong story.
Callous as it may seem at this time, the vast majority of criticism should be directed at Mr. and Mrs. McCann, because they are solely to blame for this tragedy. Blaming the police is not focusing on the problem at hand, in much the same way that New Jersey thinks it can prevent another "Fort Dix Six" situation by banning the type of guns the terrorists were using.
Fix The Problem!
This wasn't a situation where Madeleine was snatched at gunpoint out of their unsuspecting hands, or that they were carjacked. No, it's much simpler. The McCann's decided to go to dinner and leave their little girl back in the hotel room. But at least she wasn't alone - she had the company of her twin siblings.
They are 2 years old.
Perhaps the McCann's could be forgiven though because, after all, Madeleine turned a whopping four this week. Isn't that old enough to be a responsible caretaker?
What are these people thinking?
Their defense of such behavior is that they checked on the children every 30 minutes, a claim that is disputed by some of the resort staff. Even if true, does that make it OK to leave your children unattended, especially in a foreign country?
Beyond the threat of abduction, there are a million other reasons why parents should never leave their children alone. Since I vacationed with my young child in the same Algarve region as the McCanns, and most resorts are laid out in typical European fashion, let me give several examples.
First, floors are not carpeted. They are marble or tile. Since many children of that age are still adjusting to sleeping in a bed, there exists the distinct possibility of falling out of bed. A 3-foot drop to a stone floor is not a good feeling, and could be potentially life threatening to a child if not addressed immediately. Thirty minutes is a long time to wait if a child is writhing in pain, or worse, knocked unconscious.
Most resorts have rooms with a balcony, the doors of which are not exactly childproof. Since there are chairs and tables on the balcony, and children have a natural tendency to climb on things ... you get the picture.
The Algarve is an extremely popular destination, so many rooms have bunk beds, some ladders of which are not removable. If a 3-foot fall is bad, imagine the result if the height is doubled.
I wonder if it dawned on the parents that, since they were outside the room, the chain and bolt locks could not be engaged, leaving the regular door lock as the only form of protection between the children and the outside world. Newsflash: the "outside world" includes about ... oh, I don't know ... the entire resort staff, most with master keys that can enter the room at will.
If you want to go on vacation and enjoy a romantic dinner sans children, fine. Bring a baby sitter with you. (And for the record, I don't trust baby-sitting services in this or any country. Leaving your children with a total stranger is not only traumatic for the children and selfish on the part of the parents, it's an invitation to disaster.)
I don't care if such a custom is commonplace in Europe. I don't care if 99.9 percent of the time, everything works out fine. It's stupid, careless and criminal, and I hope after Madeleine is found, the parents are brought up on charges. They must be made an example of what happens when parents abdicate the responsibility of actually parenting. The McCann's are singlehandedly responsible for this situation, and they should not be let off the hook under the rationale that "they have already suffered enough."
Tell Madeleine about the odds. Tell her about "suffering".
Hope the paella was worth it, Mr. and Mrs. McCann.
