I must admit I think you're wrong not to have a word or two for the parents. This happens too often, the parents of lost children treated as victims when they in fact carry a large portion of the responsibility for the loss. At the very least they should face charges of neglect and action should be taken to protect any other kids they have.
It is one thing to feel deep sympathy for the parents of children killed in an unforeseeable accident or disaster. On 21st October 1966 the parents of 116 children sent them off to school in Aberfan with the perfectly valid assumption that they would be safe there. There was no way they could have known about what was to happen that day. Those people are victims.
On the other hand, on the evening of 3rd May 2007, Kate and Gerry McCann left their children in an unlocked holiday flat to go out on the piss with their mates. Three-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing that night and has not been seen or heard of since. But in the unending saga since, her parents have been treated with grave sympathy and have never once been called out or punished for their neglectful behaviour.
Loss of a child 'punishment enough'? No, because if such people had cared that much about their kids, they'd have been with them, or at least in earshot and sight of them, and the loss would not have happened. It goes against the grain to agree with a Tory, but former PM John Major once commented that as a society, we sometimes need to "condemn a little more and understand a little less". Certain types of behaviour are neither understandable nor excusable, and the failure to take proper care of your children is one of them. Note 'failure', not 'inability'. Those unable, for valid reasons, to look after their kids need support. Those able, but unwilling or too careless, should be subjected to Draconian measures, regardless of any supposed suffering, as an example to other slipshod parents to get their act together.
Harsh? Yes, I'm a harsh person. I'm also a father and grandfather, hearing about the unnecessary and tragic deaths of three children, and I'm sad and angry about it!
