Parents beware of their maid

Find this taxi story a little bit hard to believe. Is this in the news? One person absent mindedly leaving a baby in the back of a taxi is one thing but two people? And if they managed to carry one toddler out - surely that's enough reminder that there's another little one somewhere? And that the taxi driver didn't notice a baby in the back until he had actually driven away - enough time for the helpers to disappear into the building? Bit unlikely too.

Unfortunately it smells of another sensationalist story about wicked or useless, untrustworthy DHs in Hong Kong.
 
Apparently we trust the word of taxi drivers over that of Domestic Helpers.

If this had happened, it would have ended up in the press. I don;t believe it for a minute.

As for Maddy - no parent is perfect. They made what sounds like a considered opinion, (even if it's not something you would do, yourself). The person at fault is the person who took the child.

God bless Maddy - wherever she is.
 
I had a question about that post HappyV - just out of interest, not a judgemental one.

If you left your 3 year old and two (even younger) twins in the care of your DH for the evening and you found out she went to a Tapas bar nearby with friends instead of staying with them, what would your view be? What if, like Madeline's parents, she couldn't even see the apartment building where your children were now totally alone -would you mind?

Would it have made a difference if the DH said she went back to check on them every 45 minutes (even though the waiters at the Tapas bar denied this)?

We know how highly you rate your DH (and almost everyone else's DH it would seem). Would you find that OK and merely say that the DH made "a considered judgement"? Is that what you'd tell the police when they (rightly) came to investigate this helper leaving your very young family totally alone so she could enjoy tapas?

Would you be shocked that anyone took the view of the tapas waiters who saw your DH over the view of the DH? Or is it just taxi drivers who are more likely to make up a story than DH's?

Am just very curious...
 
My heart breaks for the parents of poor Maddie and I hope they find her alive and well.

That being said, in the US if you left your child alone like this you'd probably be in jail for child endangerment and who knows what else if the child was harmed. I would never ever leave my child completely unattended in a hotel room or anywhere for that matter. It's completely blows my mind that people think it's ok to do this.
 
Lantau35 - first of all - check your facts. Maddy's parents could clearly see the entrance to their villa from where they were sitting. Whoever took the child went in through the back/window. In this, what the parents did is no different from a parent sitting out in their backyard, and someone climbs in a window.

I would never go to a Tapas Bar and leave my kids, and I would not expect my DH to do so, either. But in terms of your questin, it would be more a question of whether, in your scenario, if I had given the DH permission to do what you describe. If I hadn't then she would be at fault. If I had, then the fault lies with me - although in either case, and certainly in the case of Maddy, the fault really lies with the bastard who took her.

You can be as cynical as you like about my feelings about my DH. She's been with us for two years, and in that time I have not faulted her care or judgment. My kid loves her, and I know that I am so lucky to have her. The other side of the coin is that she knows she is lucky to be with us - in an environment where she is valued, and treated as such.
 
Ahhh - if only we could all finder a DH like yours....what a wonderful life it would be. I would literally bound out of bed each morning grinning from ear to ear...

I disgree with your view that the parents in the Madeline case were clearly being able to see the apartment - but that's OK. On the more serious and important issue of it being the person who took her that's really responsible, I would agree of course. And on the most important issue - everyone wants to see Madeline (and the many other missing children sometimes forgotten in the media scrum over this particular case) brought home where they belong. I hope there is some good news in this case before long.
 
Lantau25 - again with the cynicism? you obviously don;t believe my comments about my helper - but it's so much easier to believe the bad than the good, isn't it? Perhaps you could ask yourself why that is?

The parents were 'less than 100 yards away' (bbc). If you were living in the USA, UK. Canada etc, you could be down the end of yoru backyard and be further away from a kid.

If a child get snatched from a supermarket wen the parent is around the corner of the aisle, does that make it their fault? Or if they're snatched from 1 meter outside a school gate? WHere do you draw the line between parental/school/crgiver responsibility, and the obvious blame that goes to the kidnapper?
 
"On the more serious and important issue of it being the person who took her that's really responsible, I would agree of course. And on the most important issue - everyone wants to see Madeline (and the many other missing children sometimes forgotten in the media scrum over this particular case) brought home where they belong. I hope there is some good news in this case before long."

As I said above, in my last post - I think this is the really important thing, don't you?

Anyway - I seem to have taken both of us rather off-message and away from the original thread (Parents - Beware of Your Helpers). I apologise for that - my fault I think.
 

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