Why are there so many crap parents?

[tigwig]

It was only a few weeks ago I was driving down a very busy road and to my horror there was a little boy aged about 2 stood teetering at the edge of the road without an adult in sight. I stopped the car, had to negotiate the oncoming traffic to cross to get him (those drivers obviously didn't care if the child stepped under their wheels) then looked around and had no idea where he had come from. I walked up the lane and found 2 parents shouting at each other, the mum still in her PJ's even though it was lunch time. They took him and were barely concerned. That was bad enough and today at a shopping village, a little boy runs past me near the playground crying. He was on his own too so I stopped him and he was lost bless him. I looked around and again there was noone looking for him and he couldn't see his mum. He told me his name and age so security were called after I went in the nearest shop to tell them. After 10 minutes had passed the child suddenly looked out of the window and said his mum was there! She was stood calmly with her other 2 kids and hadn't even noticed he was gone. She was totally unconcerned. If I hadn't have stopped him he could have been out of the place and god knows where. If it were me I would have been frantic. Grrrr, rant over now sorry.

[mrs_overall]

Tigs, I had a similar experience some years ago. I was driving along very slowly looking for a space to park when a tot of around 15 months old wearing just a vest lurched out from behind parked cars into the path of my car. I still thank God that I was going as slow as I was. I was baffled because there were no houses nearby - shops on one side of the road and the harbour on the other side. The tot had come from the harbour side. After much asking around in the shops, a customer recognised the boy and directed me around the back of the shops - he lived in a flat above one of the shops. I explained to the mother what had happened and she looked at me as if I had just offered to have a dump on her doorstep! She too hadn't realised he was missing and promptly walloped his bare backside.
It still upsets me to think about it. That mother (and the one you mention) are pond life who are not fit to have children.

[cazzz1975]

the estate I used to live on was like that all the time and worse, only last week I had to pop over there and there were quite a few wandering around in pyjamas at 1pm

[saxy_jag]

Some time ago our local paper ran an experiment in town. They got a ten-year-old to pose as a lost, upset child in the town centre to see what people would do (it's OK - her mum was close by with the photographer and the police had been informed). So many people just walked by, it was unbelievable, and I wondered how they would react if their own kids got lost. Clearly you've seen the other side of that and had to put yourself in a potentially difficult situation, because these are the sort of parents who will equally accuse you of trying to molest their child.

There were some interesting observations in the experiment, but what was sad was the number of passers-by who, when interviewed afterwards, said they'd been too scared to get involved, either because they thought the child would turn round and attack them or because they didn't want to be accused of anything. Such a sad indictment of our society when you have to question your own instincts.

[tigwig]

Thats awful, I could never ignore an upset child whether I thought it would get me into any trouble or not. I guess thats why I'm a childminder!

[Infomaniac]

I once saw a lady with four children in the car - none of whom were wearing a seatbelt and were jumping around all over the back seat. I followed her into a petrol station and, taking a deep breath, approached her and pointed out, as nicely as I could, how dangerous it was to allow the children to play in the back seat of a moving car without seatbelts, and that it was also against the law. She smiled sweetly and said she knew that but they didn't like being strapped in. Beggars belief doesn't it?

[Sqad]

Mrs sqad was at the airport a few weeks ago and was "accosted" by a crying child about 3 years of age. She took the child in hand and it transpired that it had lost it's mother.Eventually the mother turned up and grabbed the child saying "What are you doing with my child" grabbed away from Mrs sqad and without a thank you disappeared into the heaving beer swilling, tattooed masses of holiday makers.

I have been led to believe that the modern mother, thanks to education, is the epitome of motherhood.

[mrs_overall]

Sqad - are you STILL making Mrs Sqad go begging at the airport every day?

[sandyRoe]

But they were mucked up in their turn
By fools in old style hats and coats
Who half the time were soppy stern
And half at one another's throats.

The parents are to blame.

[redcrx]

when on holiday a few years ago in one of the well know holiday parks, we found a few children who were lost and returned them to parents or security staff. Our friends were loading their car one morning and went into the caravan, only to find on their return a little Down syndrome girl, aged about 4, sat in the driving seat. It took about 20 mins to find the parents who were still in caravan and hadnt noticed her disappearance

[Sqad]

Olive....she begs in worse places than airports.....LOL

[Eve]

I've lost track of the amount of children I've kept a very watchful eye on to make sure they are actually with someone to keeping them safe with me until their parents have been found. It makes my blood boil to think of the things that could have happened to them and the amount of people who take no notice of them whatsoever even though they are blatently not with an adult.

I was stood in a queue behind a lady with a small child not long ago. The child was chatting away but nothing bad or naughty at all, the mother was so horrible to him, culminating in her saying to him that she could understand why a local woman had ended up killing her children recently. I can't express how horrified I was.