Cleo, I didn't suggest for one moment that other parents would act the way either the McCanns or Ms McKeown did. I merely pointed out that parents with daughters the same age as Ms McKeown's might be able to remember the tantrums and arguments so typical of children that age.
I do my best not to judge others; the McCann and McKeown situations are still horrible for those parents and children involved. Nobody seems to remember that there are 6 grieving siblings in the McKeown case, for example.
In my own experience (single parent, 4 teenagers), I have been faced with a similar situation to Ms McKeown. I gritted my teeth and kept my daughter with us for the holiday concerned. She had promised that if I did that, she'd ruin the holiday for all of us. I ignored her tantrums, so she did what she'd promised. It was the last holiday we'll ever spend together as a family and she made sure we'd remember it for all the wrong reasons. Before anybody points out the obvious, yes, I do still have my daughter alive and well, but the cost to the family is still being felt.
I would never have left my children when they were as young as Madeleine McCann. It's one of the reasons I'm now a single parent; I put my offspring before a social life. The ex chose to expand their horizons instead.
We don't know what caused Ms McKeown to act as she did. She doesn't appear to have the resources or the friends that the McCanns could call on. She and her remaining children deserve our compassion, if not our understanding. We can offer that by refusing to tolerate attempts to destroy her children's lives further.
|