To think that if you can't remember to take your 8 year old home from the pub then you can't be trusted to run the country?

[PrettyPrinceofParties]

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/11/david-cameron-daughter-behind-pub?newsfeed=true

diddl- 3 families plus security - i would think that's a large group?

My friends who have 4 dcs, two grandparents and assorted hangers on to transport to and from church have left their youngest dd at Church at least once. They use two cars, leave at different times and make assumptions. They are excellent, loving parents.

YABU. The blame is with security services there I think.

The most interesting thing to me is that it happened a couple of months ago and the story is released today.

What else is happening today and it would just be better if parents would look the other way?

I better check the news very carefully again...

It is an easy mistake! I've never voted Tory, but I don't see why it makes him not to be trusted to run the country.

My parents both had very full on jobs (dad was a consultant surgeon and mum was a consultant physician) and I was regularly lost on family outings, sometimes for hours. Nobody got hysterical, nobody called the police and I was soon found.

Admittedly, I was not such a high kidnap risk though....

mmm pagwatch, they would have that amd do have that already, believe me, in this house they are pretty much free range organic kids

just not in public loos by themselves...yet...but not your concern, thankfully, just mine

Maybe the security protection were workfare?

Maybe they did it on purpose...

PM taking Omnishambles Government to a new level.

Wish I could arrange for my children to leave me in a pub.

''Maybe the security protection were workfare?''

Well I´m odd then because if travelling separately to my husband, I/he would always say "I´ve got X, have you got Y?"

belleflowers What?! What is this shocking news? Madman don't identify themselves by wearing trench coats and low slung hats???

on a completely unrelated note, when i was 17 and drinking with my friend in The Queens Head pub in Brighton, i refused to go to the loos at all because they were unisex.

my friend told me i was being bloody silly. he was right....

on another note - is anyone going to claim SAM Cam isn't fit to do whatever businessy thing she does as a consequence of this? I Hope Not.

This happened to me (sort of) last year - me and my DSis were at a theme park with our children. We were sat having lunch and DS1 (who was nearly 5 at the time) decided he needed to show me where the toilet was so I went to the loo and told him to go back to the table. Of course, I thought he was with my sister and she thought he was with me - but instead he had wandered outside to go and queue for a ride that was just outside the cafe.

My god, I panicked when we didn't know where he was, and yes, it was the longest 5 minutes of my life until we spotted him

"Hmmm, social services would be coming down like a ton of bricks on a 'normal' family that did this..."

What hysterical nonsense! SS wouldn't care about this at all!

As a young teenager, I was out with one of my friends' family. As we left the venue, her dad counted that he had five children and thought he was fine to leave. He'd just forgotten that I wasn't actually his and there was someone else left inside!

Easily done, I imagine. If and when I do it, I imagine I'll feel very guilty but I won't be losing any sleep over SS coming for me.

thanks Cockwomble

maybe it is to detract from this,

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ios-exclusive-problem-families-told--stop-blaming-others-7834235.html?origin=internalSearch

'But at a time of austerity and a bleak jobs market, and with the Tories vulnerable to the charge of being out of touch, any attempt to target the poorest people risks looking insensitive'

It was astonishingly crap of them, to be fair, taking into account that the Camerons are not a normal family (no matter what Call me Dave would have us believe).

I don't see any benefit in them (whoever it was who gave the OK to publish this) in burying the news until today, though. There's bad news every day, tbh - nothing particulalry dreadful today in comparison to any other day under this administration tbh.

Excellent again.
I totally agree. How and when we teach our children independence within the framework of a loving family is broadly no one elses business.

So not being judgy and sanctimonious about how others do it would be great wouldn't it?

too many "tbhs" there, sorry

It must have been pretty hideous for them. I'd panic (as I did on the two occasions ds and I got separated in town), but neither ds nor I are at any greater risk than anyone else and I was able to surpress the worst case scenario relatively easily. I imagine if you live daily with the threat of dreadful things happening (whether that's because you have an evil-ex or are Prime Minister)that it must be a hundred times worse.

Then again, I'd also imagine that you'd be less likely to allow that situation to happen

judgy and sanctimonious being your criticism towards posters who choose to disagree with leaving DD in a pub? confused.

Well i may be 'judgey' but i dont see how leaving a child alone by mistake is good parenting, especially when you are a pm of britain and your dc could be potentially kidnaped!!

All those who say its easily done, have you done it?

pumpkinsweetie

can't speak for others, but I would never have done this during my term as PM.

havent read the whole thread. but what if she had wandered off down the road? come out of the loo and gone outside and tried to follow the cars?

they were all EXTREMELY, extremely lucky there was a good outcome and she was safe.

yes i've been separated from my 8yo in a crowd but that was a bit different.

parenting IS tough and we all make mistakes - but it is our duty to look after those less able to look after themselves, something dave should be comfortable with...!

The PM is setting an example:

Leave your kids in the pub and get to work!

And a fine Tory example it is too.

Belleflowers "why so many people supporting Camerons here, making it out to be an easy mistake to make? bizarre."

Don't think I have ever done it myself, but then I only have one DC so it is easier to keep count, perhaps.

However, when they read this story on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning they asked people to email them if they had ever done anything similar. Within minutes they said they were flooded with emails from people wha had had a similar experience.

Don't know if that indiactes it is an "easy" mistake but it looks like it is a common one

'is anyone going to claim SAM Cam isn't fit to do whatever businessy thing she does as a consequence of this? I Hope Not'

Doesnt she design handbags or notepaper or something earthshatteringly vital? A guinea-pig could do that.