AIBU to be horrified by this story of child abandonment?

[Bullseyebutnotthenineties]

Has anyone seen this story? Sorry, struggling to link it.
A french mother and stepfather in Portugal abandoned their/her 3 year old and 5 year old in the woods.
Apparently they blindfolded them and told them they were playing a treasure hunt game and to wait, then take the blindfold off when they’d hidden the toy/prize.
They then left them there 😢
The boys were found on the side of the road by a lovely Portuguese man, who cried during his interview when talking about the boys. They were crying for their real dad apparently
The real dad, resident in France, had informed the authorities that the boys had been kidnapped by the mother (who has custody of them) and taken out of the country. She also left her other 16 year old son at home in France.
The couple were apparently found two hours away sitting on a terrace having a coffee and pastry.
The boys had little backpacks on with a bottle of water, change of clothes, sandwich and piece of fruit in.

There are no words, those poor poor boys
What on earth could make a mother do this?

I live in Portugal. The man with ten children found them and I *Think he called his wife or sister and they took them home possibly (they own a bakery) and gave them food and kept them calm for half an hour and looked after them before calling the police half an hour later, from what I can see, he was a very good, genuine man and really affected by the children and situation.

Can you imagine seeing 2 kids and realising they’re alone

is it a remote place?

I've seen that, and judging by various news stories over the years it's probably true. Some people seem determined to talk me out of my determination to stay single until DS is grown up (including his own father, even when I told him the stats regarding child abuse, oh, that's just stereotypes according to him. 🤦🏻‍♀️) I'm not having it. I'm not having a man (or woman) in this house either.

Those poor little boys. 🥺 I'm so glad they were found by that lovely kind man. I can remember as far back as my mum being in hospital when my brother was born, and I wasn't even two yet. Of course they'll remember it, I just hope there won't be any lasting damage.

Yes, I agree

I just cannot understand it

Yes that’s probably fair and we don’t know what sort of childhood they’ve had so far.

but we can only hope that this actually turns out to be a positive turning point in their lives and they are placed somewhere loving

Jesus fucking christ. At least they were found, and by a good person.

Despicable behaviour by mother and step father. If people don’t want children why don’t they just say so, why abandon them? Fortunately, the children were found.

Maybe she didn't want the father to have the kids either. She might be trying to punish him for something that only seems reasonable in her mind.

I'd say only a minuscule number of parent (s) would approach ss themselves. It's usually by reports from elsewhere, school, neighbour, family, doctor, hospital a+e etc. This couple were in la la land. Mother in thrall to the partner and this is how partner said the end result of a child free existence would be achieved. She obviously didn't think anything was wrong with that while having her coffee and pastries on the cafe terrace. Of course she could have cooked up this reprehensible scheme herself and was egged on by the partner. Who knows? The good thing is the kids are safe now from this pair of evil selfish monsters.

I'm also curious about the birth father. Maybe it's the way France decides access arrangements, but his visitation rights were subject to supervision. I've no idea why that is.

I read somewhere that the stepdad was a conspiracy theorist. Might be bollocks though.

Yes I read this too, that he had become very invested in conspiracy theories and some odd comment about when someone asked where they were from or something, they said they belonged to the world
Its worrying that real dad only had supervised visitation rights though, the children may be better off with a whole new, loving family in Portugal
Also, what about the poor 16 year old other child she has left at home, also a horrendous situation for them

Here we go….metal health

Given they are French it would be better for them to be returned there

If the father only has visitation rights perhaps the mother has a certain type she is attracted to and made a worse mistake with this new man.

The couple were overheard saying "we need to act a bit crazy" on the way to court, so hmm. Hope the judge will see through it

In all fairness we don't know if the father being restricted has been as a result of false allegations and the step father backed them up. I know of a father who has it's happened to and that's what happened to Baby Peter's dad. Arthur Labinjo‑Hughes, father, fought to get him from his grandparents. People are shocked it's a Mother failing, but most children are removed from the residency of their Mother and sometimes it's just plain abuse or potential serious harm.

Probably to hurt the father, vicarious violence.

Quoting a Portuguese person on reddit. "Today it was reported on TV that people saw the stepfather hitting the 3-year-old child hours before they abandoned them"

Pair of scumbags

I read this and was shocked too. The utter cruelty of it. Apparently they couldn’t find the knife to cut off the blindfolds, removed them anyway and realised fhey were alone, they were found crying and bruised etc, so they knew quickly and I’m not sure how long it took them to find the road, but it won’t have been quick.

i abhor people excusing the mother and saying mental health issues, she’s evil,pure utter evil. And I hope she goes to jail for a long time.

Surely most children are removed from their mothers over fathers because more single parents tend to be women than men.

I do agree my prior comment is only speculation though, hopefully their father has the capacity to have them.

Well if the mothers partner was seen hitting the youngest it suggests the kids have a far better future ahead of them Now they are away from their mother

I’m sure the bbc website said something about the mum and step dad mentioning dropping them off to save them from the devil
or something? Sounded like nutjobs. I wonder if that’s what they said to make themselves sound crazy if that’s what’s a guard heard. Or they are into conspiracy theories or something as someone has said above. I mean they clearly aren’t normal if they thought it as ok to do any of this!

Having been witness to a child abandoned by a complete stranger, there's almost certainly a lot going on in the mother's life. MH issues, addiction, poor relationship choices.

Or she and the stepfather are just evil. Poor kids.

Oh god 😢