Small children of Madeleine's age were being discussed. I don't suppose parents allow them to wander about on their own, although I'm beginning to wonder.
I had the impression that parents today were more protective of their children than people like me who had children in the 1960's, but it seems it's not so simple as that.
I had a basic level of care that I applied at all times, wherever the family happened to be. I seem to be being told that modern parents take less care on holiday than they do at home.
Tough call.
We have a back garden that makes the Tapas zone look pocket handkerchief size.
I think of it as ultra-safe. The worst intruder I have seen is the neighbours' cat, though I am told there has been a wild boar.
However, much of our boundary is a ditch. Normally dry, but a ditch all the same.
I have 2 young grandchildren, one aged 7+. One aged a little over two.
I was digging our vegetable patch recently when the two kids came past me in a little electric car. This was perhaps 100m from the house. And not a parent in sight.
I carried on digging. The kids went maybe another 50m into the garden.
Then the 7-year-old came back, playing with a tree cutting he had picked up.
I stopped digging and went into alert mode. I could not see or hear the two year old or the toy car. All I did was ask the 7-year-old where his brother was, on the basis he had been with him.
It turned out there was no reason to worry. The child and car were safe in a part of the garden I couldn't see.