Save the children - From their parents?

Burnt child

First in Austria, one cannot begin to imagine that Josef Fritzl probably conducted a few abortions on his daughter before he decided the products of their incestuous liaisons should come to term as children.

It is sickening that on the death of one of the children, rather than dignify the child with either a proper burial or a cremation, he dumped the child in an incinerator and that was the end of the matter.

Stabbed children

And so in Scotland we read of the discovery of two dead boys in a car near a beauty spot just north of Glasgow. It transpired that the boys aged 2 and 6 were stabbed, apparently by their father estranged from their mother and seemingly had not been successful in killing himself.

It really beggars belief that a relationship which at one time was the joy of all involved that it lead to the birth of those beautiful people could have soured so much as to damage all involved to this extent.

A lot must be to blame for this event, the father, the mother and their inability to keep the relationship going for whatever reasons and the system that accords rights of custody and visitation with scant regard for the emotional strain it can place on parties involved.

The children who were supposed to be at the centre of the matter of care and concern who supposedly would have received the best result of a separation have now become the unfortunate victims of a situation I naively cannot properly understand.

Frozen babies

Then in Germany, a teenage son goes down into the cellar to see if he can find a pizza in the freezer and ends up finding 3 bodies of babies in the freezer that could date back 20 years.

You begin to wonder if those were his brothers and why he decided a pizza would be in that freezer of all the other freezers that might have been on that house from which he might have retrieved a pizza before. The tale reveals all.

His mother seems to be the culprit, this is all looking insane.

Neglected children

Portugal must have had its share of being the place not to take your children on holiday after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann just over a year ago.

But I could not believe my ears when I read that a couple – parents with young children age 1, 2 and 6 – had drunk themselves to a holiday stupor that they collapsed with the result of their children being put into care for a night.

If we have to save the children from their parents, what safety do children have in this world? I do wonder.

Another dreadful in-flight toddler

Crying from heights

What have I, what have I, what have I done to deserve to deserve this? (Lyrics)

Second time already, I get on the plane with a well-heeled family that takes a row or two of premium priced seats only for me to suffer the squealing, bawling and crying of some distressed toddler.

On the way to Berlin a few weeks ago, I suspected the parents needed more than just a manual on child succouring and then I realised the child might have been seriously distressed because of the pressurisation of cabins when at cruising height.

Some smarter parents advised the child be given a dummy, the sucking action might then equalise the pressure in the inner ear and hence pacify the baby enough to make it quiet.

Methinks the cabin crew should have additional instructions on how to manage babies and toddlers.

Once again

I could not believe my luck again with my short trip to Manchester when the baby was strapped into a FAA-certified baby seat behind me such that I could not recline and the 15 minutes into the flight, the banshee was let loose and could not be contained.

My ears were assaulted with the cacophony much as my back bore the brunt of a restless toddler kicking out at the back of my seat.

Not having kids of my own and having paid rip-off prices for what is just a jumped up Economy Class seat masquerading as Business Class – that is what you get with AirFrance-KLM I was within my rights either to remonstrate to the parents or the air steward to sort this nonsense out.

We endured about 30 minutes of this noise till the toddler grew too tired that it could hardly whimper and it fell asleep.

Just cooler than freezing

Just as I wondered how I’m gonna get through we approached Manchester all the hills from West Yorkshire white-out with snow and frost – I could have been North of the Arctic Circle as the captain told us the good news that the temperature was no more -2 Celsius but now a higher -1 Celcius – and it is April – makes you wonder about global warming.

Next time I get on a plane, I would be as ready as a Pet Shop Boy – a muzzle to shut the runts up or better still a good horse tranquiliser to keep the whole family comatose for the whole flight.

What have I done to deserve this?