is there a generation gap with mcann supporters?

[Mr Gray]

Getting back on topic I don't see any generation gap as many of the posters on both sides are of a similar age

[Eleanor]

Getting back on topic I don't see any generation gap as many of the posters on both sides are of a similar age

Probably you are right, but ten or fifteen years can make a difference in attitude.  And I suspect that I go back a bit longer than most.

[Alice Purjorick]

in most forums the   real  no changing their mind    mcann  supporters  seem to be   in their  60s or 70s  the world  was a diffrent place when they were growing up/being a parent   then now it makes me wonder   my  generation ( 30s)   are alot more protective of their  children   and would never dream of leaving their children alone to  go out to dinner   yet it seems    older  generations      did  do    it and     compare that time  to   nowdays

I am one of the older bunch and do not accept that kids were left on their own as a matter of routine in the 50s onward to the 80s, as some might like to suggest. Leaving kids on their own is a risky thing to do at anytime and the guideline as I recall even back in the 50s was 12 and younger should have adult attendance in the home. The risk of abduction or indecent assault has not increased but the perception has increased due to media exposure. Back in my younger day we were all too well aware of who had a "funny uncle" and had the golden rules of "never turn your back on a cubmaster/choirmaster/ football coach/watch out for games mistresses at girls schools and girl guide leaders" [delete as appropriate].
What has changed is the degree of "interference" by the state and the attitude toward basic standards.
"I behaved like a prat and someone suffered but I didn't break the law so it's OK"; "OK so the kid wound up dead but my department always achieved its targets so up yours" and so on ad nauseam.
Put your own interpretation on it.

[faithlilly]

I did leave them unattended for brief periods when they were babies, asleep in bed.
And then I went to Singapore where my four year old son often bogged off down to the Kampong alone.  But the Chinese would never have allowed any harm to come to any child.  And I had zilch control over him anyway.  Brave little horror story he was.

Back in UK they were just used to going off on their own.

Happy memories for some of us, it seems.  I once fell off a rope swing over The River Brent, and not an adult in sight.  And I pulled my baby brother out of The Feeder before he drowned.  It was life as we knew it.
Sadly, it isn't like that now.  The disappearance of Madeleine changed all that.

Tell me Eleanor was it as much a surprise to you as it is to me that your children actually survived to adulthood ?

[Brietta]

How can you say that?
No one forced them to act as they did and it was obviously a deliberate act to leave them alone, particularly in light of the crying incident on an earlier night.

I'll accept that the outcome was not intended.

On the face of it, the title of the thread gave the opportunity for a little 'out of the box' thinking and discussion ... but that was perhaps expecting the impossible ... it is obviously just another opportunity to slag off Madeline's parents for some.

[jassi]

Why should one pass up an  opportunity to state the obvious ?   

[Eleanor]

I am one of the older bunch and do not accept that kids were left on their own as a matter of routine in the 50s onward to the 80s, as some might like to suggest. Leaving kids on their own is a risky thing to do at anytime and the guideline as I recall even back in the 50s was 12 and younger should have adult attendance in the home. The risk of abduction or indecent assault has not increased but the perception has increased due to media exposure. Back in my younger day we were all too well aware of who had a "funny uncle" and had the golden rules of "never turn your back on a cubmaster/choirmaster/ football coach/watch out for games mistresses at girls schools and girl guide leaders" [delete as appropriate].
What has changed is the degree of "interference" by the state and the attitude toward basic standards.
"I behaved like a prat and someone suffered but I didn't break the law so it's OK"; "OK so the kid wound up dead but my department always achieved its targets so up yours" and so on ad nauseam.
Put your own interpretation on it.

Good heavens.  I was a Cub Mistress, and nothing funny went on in my pack.  Except my mother thought The Cub Master was after me.  He wasn't, but that's how racy it got.  Poor man.  He was just doing his bit.
Not me, I hasten to add.

Jeezuz.  You don't half have to be careful about what you say.

[jassi]

Good heavens.  I was a Cub Mistress, and nothing funny went on in my pack.  Except my mother thought The Cub Master was after me.  He wasn't, but that's how racy it got.  Poor man.  He was just doing his bit.
Not me, I hasten to add.

Jeezuz.  You don't half have to be careful about what you say.

No doubt he just wanted you to admire his woggle.

[Eleanor]

Tell me Eleanor was it as much a surprise to you as it is to me that your children actually survived to adulthood ?

Oh, absolutely.  I would go so far as to say it was a miracle.  But tough little toads they all were.  Like their mother.

[Alfred R Jones]

Presumably they would be a bit older than pre-school, though.

I remember when I was about 8, I would regularly take a penny bus ride ( about 4 mile) over to Walney Island with a few friends and swim in the Irish Sea, not an adult in sight, let alone attendance. Mind you, this was back in the 50's.
Don't think it would happen these days.

Blimey you're. quite old.  I honestly imagined from you're previous posts that you were in your early 20s. 

Did your freedom as a child adversely affect you do you think?  Would you call for the parents of children allowed this sort of freedom today to be prosecuted? 

[Eleanor]

No doubt he just wanted you to admire his woggle.

I had my own woggle.  Thank you very much.  Dib dib dib.  But watch out for the dob.

[Mr Gray]

Are you one of them dave ?


and tell me how many doctors leave their children unattended ?

Did you ?

I've said on many occasions ......in the past I have...but wouldn't do it now...too many strange people about

[jassi]

Blimey you're. quite old.  I honestly imagined from you're previous posts that you were in your early 20s. 

Did your freedom as a child adversely affect you do you think?  Would you call for the parents of children allowed this sort of freedom today to be prosecuted?

I'm positively ancient 
In those days one took such freedom for granted, so we didn't think of it as anything special. I suppose it made me a fairly resiliant person.
I think that once children get to  school age they deserve  more freedom than they probably receive, but there is a world of difference between, say, a ten year old and one under five.
Perhaps leaving children under ten alone at home should be against the law.

[Alfred R Jones]

I wonder what effect on the death or serious injury rate for under 10s there would be if such a law was implemented.  Before such laws are implemented there really should be a study done on just how big a problem this is.  Judging from the huge antipathy voiced on the net regarding the McCanns decision to leave their kids alone one would assume that it was pretty much only them and their friends who thought it was OK to do it...

[jassi]

I don't suppose there are that many, but there aren't many child murders or child abductions either, but people get very worked up about it.
Whenever you enact any law, there are arbitrary cut off points, perhaps it should be lower than ten, but certainly not higher, IMO.