I am disgusted at the Madeleine McCann/Shrek debate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bigmamie]

I have joined this site solely to remind all you thoughtless, forgetful, selfish ba#@ards that Madeleine McCann is missing!!!!!!!! I cannot understand how anyone can sit with their arms around their own children, in the comfort of a cinema whilst feeding their children popcorn and Coke that there are lots of mothers in this world who cannot do this. Their children have been taken from them and I wonder if any of you had the money or the resources available to them, I wonder if you would have campaigned this long or this hard for their daughters return. I wish the McCanns every success and only wish I could physically find their daughter for them. I am taking my 6 kids to see Shrek tomorrow and I hope my cinema is still showing the Madeleine film. I hope the publicity generated stays in your faces for a long time to come. Tell me, if she passed in front of you down at the shops or at the park could any of you be bothered to actually tell someone. Or are you all just to happy in the knowledge that its not one of your children. There but for the grace of God............

Well, mine is 2 so wouldn't understand anyway, doesn't affect me personally right now.

But hypothetically, if he was older... I would have told him that the little girl was missing and her parents were very sad and lots of people were looking for her. I might have used it as a learning opportunity to remind him about staying close to Mummy and Daddy. He'd have had to be quite a lot older (at the point where I judged that he was developmentally able to distinguish effectively between a rare event taking place a long way away and something that was likely to happen to him here) before I introduced the idea that a stranger can come into a child's room in the night and snatch them -- and I don't think that particular element of the story, spelled out in as many words the major topic of conversation or that he'd be particularly likely to pick up on it on his own.

LadyVictory
I have to agree with you. I mean what was the purpose of telling you that information and who did help. She most certainly didn't need to tell you in such graphic terms. You probably would have heard about the bombing anyway. At ten kids are usually pretty smart and tune into this stuff but it would have been better to hear a pg version from your parents.

My dd is like an elephant, she doesn't forget anything. She squirrels it away and uses it against me mths later when I think she's forgotten it.
Every time we walk past the surgery and she sees the ribbons she says "Are they for the little girl who got lost and her mummy was crying??"

i knew of the bombings. i dont live too far from london.

but she didnt have the right to tell any of us those details.

the odeon dont have the right to tell my daughters, that a child was snatched from her bed.

I agree with your post of 09:55:21, Leati, but of course this opinion is in the minority.

I don't think objecting to it makes one selfish or thoughtless at all. But a bit hyped up, tbh.

Wheen i was 12 or 12, a teacher told us exactly where we had to cut (remember her pointing to the side of her neck and explaining the jugular (sp) vein) if we wanted to commit suicide!)

Still can't get over how odd and daft that was.

I will compromise with you guys on this, if this ad was to be played before a childrens movie they should have at least edited to be less frightening.

If they had simply said she was missing and to call such and such number if you had information about her abduction would that have been acceptable?

OK, so at what age do you start explaining to you kids that Bad Shit happens?

I mean, if not the McCann thing, then how about Glasgow and London airports and the big Al-Queda cell that's all over the news just now?

See, in some cultures, it's just there so much, and so much a part of life, this is done quite young.

And the children are quite happy folks who grow into happy folks.

Some sort of warning would have done I would imagine.

Personally, yes -- wouldn't have any issue with that. I still think it would be a huge waste of money and resources doing it in the UK, but it's not my money.

Oh Gawd she's a paediatrician

Run, before she accuses us all of MSbP

expatinscotland...(i probably messed that up) That is a good question? What age is appropriate? At what age do you try to explain these kinds of things to your children?

ye leati, if they had just a picture shown with number to call etc, then fine. but not to state in dolbey surround sound or whatever they use at the flicks these days that a 'she was snatched from her bed'

FWIW i was planning on taking my dd's to see shrek this weekend, when i heard of the ad i wasnt going to take them. i havent told them as they are dealing with their own persoanl nightmare situation, and cinema trips are a little bit of releif from their nightmare lives. i dont want them scared anymore. they have too many bad dreams as it is.

It's a dumb movie, anyway, LadyVic .

Angeliz
Your teacher was demented. Why would a teacher explain how to commit suicide to a child? If my childs teacher did that I would have raised ....well you know what of I would have raised.

they are shrek fans expat.

and the mids showws at the cinema they have seen too many times.

do you know who i am btw? lol.

My dd1 (6) knows that there are some bad people in the owrld, never walk off or leave a group. Never go out of sight of Mammy and should she ever get lost, go to a shop (preferably a busy one) and tell the person on the till.

What i object to is the media taking it upon themselves that our children should know but more than that, this is quite a unique case. A little girl being snatched from her bed. If my 6 year old knew she was snatched from her bed, i don't beleive that it would register that this is very very very rare, it would just scrae her taht a man might snatch her from her own bed.

Who is you, LadyVic?

You're making me peckish with the word 'cake' in your title.

Laeti, it's okay to swear on this site.

Seriously, I took my kids to see Shrek III a few weeks ago and was seriously disappointed. But that is besides point, I think we reached a compromise on what would be appropriate. Tone down the wording to be unfrightening or maybe even use print.

She was totally dememnted!! (Total bitch too from what i recall!)

We had psychos like that for teachers, too, Angeliz.

expat, i am an expert on heart transplants.

At the age that seems appropriate to your particular child. Some are worriers, very sensitive, get fretful over even small things. Others are more resilient and wouldn't be phased. I suspect DS will be one of the latter type, but I'll be guided by how he reacts when we start to introduce this kind of topic rather than a timetable that says "Ah, DS, you are 4 years and five months old today, so we shall discuss radical Islamic terrorism. Next month, the Ebola virus." (and I know, I'm reducing that to an absurd level for vaguely comic effect. But still, I don't think there's a one-size-fits all.

I got to go to sleep. Tomorrow is a holiday here. And it is either really late or really early LOL.

Aaargh! Fazed, not phased. Ooops.