I could have imagined it

I haven't said anything about the poor girl who went missing in Portugal. I paid a lot of attention when the story first broke, but as time has passed I've been less attentive to the McCanns and their plight. I guess that's only to be expected.

One reason that I didn't write anything about this story before now is that I had this nagging uneasiness with what the McCanns did, but I couldn't figure out how to say it without sounding like I was condemning them. Thanks to yesterday's Sunday Tribune I have it.

The Tribune quoted Mrs. McCann.

"I think we were naive; we are very responsible parents, we love our children very much. I don't think any parent could imagine or consider anything like this happening."

Regardless of the rights or wrongs of leaving the children unsupervised, parents everywhere will empathise with Kate McCann's belief . . . nobody could ever have imagined this could or would happen.

Well, you know what? My wife and I have imagined "this" many, many times. And, from the reactions I've heard from others, we're not alone. We've been in similar situations frequently since our oldest daughter was born and we've always suffered bad meals - take out dinners eaten in the hotel room - or the inconvenience of eating with small children rather than leave them alone.

What I find hard to understand is why the McCanns couldn't imagine "this".