val50

http://www.france24.com/en/20080913-...ne&navi=FRANCE

just seen this report, very sad. I've had a couple of good trips on these boats up the Seine the last year or so. Hopefully nobody died.

dmu

They've just announced on the News that two people have died, including a young boy. At the time of posting this, there's yet another situation here in France similar to poor Maddy's - a boy of 6 disappeared from his home on Thursday while his mother (23) was out dining with her boyfriend. This should be in a separate thread, maybe, but why oh why do mothers leave their young children alone at home while they enjoy an evening out?

Andrea50

There was recently a case here too, where a mother went off on her honeymoon and left her (3 I think) children to cope alone. I have a feeling it is a "sign of the times", in that society has made it very expensive/difficult for mum's to get their kids looked after easily and affordably. And more and more mums have to go out to work these days. Don't get me wrong, I am not making excuses, there never are any acceptable excuses.

My ex's sister who lived in Alsace used to frequently go off to the shops leaving her three children - oldest at the time 9, alone until she got back at least an hour later. She said the neighbours kept an eye on them!! I was horrified.

This is all very well (although, in my opinion never acceptable) until something goes wrong. And I think, it is illegal in this country to leave a child under 14 alone anyway.

Does anyone know what the "legal" age limit of leaving a child alone is in France? Now my daughter is grown up I don't even think of it anymore, but I know that I never left her alone until she was gone 16 (I think I nearly drove her mad, but she was accident prone and would have found something to hurt herself within 2 minutes of being left alone even in a Padded Cell).

Is it society or are humans losing the "parental protective" urge? Maybe some people just have it, the parental thing, and some just don't. I even gave up flying lessons once I had my daughter - I didn't think I had the right to put myself at risk and potentially leave her motherless! That's taking it a bit far I know.

One thing I did notice in France was that quite a few people we knew had extended families, which meant that grandparents, sisters, brothers etc often lived in the same village or nearby and seemed to share the childcare a bit like Meerkats!

Very very sad about the boat incident as well, not just the loss of life but that a wonderful experience now for future folk may be tainted with that memory.