The McCanns were not the only ones in their party to leave their children alone while they all met up in the evenings for a meal. As it wasn't any of their children that were missing, they haven't had to put up with the condemnation that has been heaped upon Kate and Gerry even though they did exactly the same thing. All the children were checked on every 30 minutes or so, either by their own parents or one of the group who whilst checking their own also checked on one of the others. If I remember correctly, when one of the fathers checked the McCann' children, about 9pm, rather than look in the bedroom he just stood in the next room and listened and all was quiet so he was happy. The next to check was Gerry @ 9.30pm he thought the bedroom door was in a slightly different position and thought it must be the breeze as he came in. He looked in the bedroom, saw the twins fast asleep and pulled the door back into position and left. Imagine his guilt for not actually checking M as well as the twins. It was only when Kate did the 10pm check that the horror unfolded as she realised Madeleine was gone. So, again if I remember correctly, no-one had actually seen Madeleine after the 8.30pm check so she could have been gone for 1.5 hours before Kate discovered she was missing. All that is not exactly clearing off and leaving your children.
Kate is on record as saying if the thought had even crossed her mind that they wouldn't be safe, she wouldn't have left them. I do understand that some people find that hard to believe.