I MADE THE SAME MISTAKE AS THE POOR MCCANNS
Quentin Letts, father of three
A CRIMINAL record for leaving a sixyear-old alone for 45 minutes? That seems ridiculously harsh, if not a downright intrusion by officialdom in matters best left to parents.
But maybe I say that because I am a man. We fathers may not be programmed biologically to fret quite so much about leaving our offspring alone — though perhaps we should be.
On a family holiday to Ibiza about 15 years ago, I persuaded my wife lois to leave our two children, Eveleen, then aged around two, and claud, three, asleep in our self- catering apartment while we had a candlelit dinner alone on the far side of the holiday complex.
From our restaurant table, we could just about see the apartment across the swimming pool. Or so I claimed.
lois agreed reluctantly but was twitchy throughout dinner.
‘Shall I just go and check on the children?’ she kept asking. ‘Do you think they’re OK?’
Happily pouring her a second glass of rioja, I told her not to worry and thought she was just being a fusspot. I wanted dinner with my beautiful wife without the interruption of screaming toddlers.
A few years later, however, the poor mccanns lost their daughter madeleine and I felt a swine for the way I had behaved.
Has my view on leaving children unattended changed since then? I suppose it has, as far as really tiny tots go. I would not now be happy leaving a three-year-old in an apartment while I sauntered off to supper.
But lois and I still have disagreements: I would leave our 11-year-old, Honor (the youngest) in the house alone for half an hour. lois hesitates at that.
Yet even after my change of mind, I would hate politicians to set a law about what age children can be left unguarded. Parents must be allowed to decide these things for themselves. I suspect that the ghastly misfortune of the mccanns (whom I do not in any way criticise) changed many people’s attitudes.
We have learned not to be so trusting of the world — and that will probably prove more effective than any law.’