I think that this is exactly what many people are doing.
I don't think anyone has come up with any sort of wild theory about what's gone on. If they have I haven't seen it. Even out of those that have offered possible other scenarios, most have said that they don't think that's what actually happened.
I think that my parenting has been one of my life's (so far) unmitigated successes. I am in awe of what a great human being my son is turning in to. Of course I am only a small part of this but the point remains. That said I have done, and continue to do, some things that others may well think is bad parenting. Minor and disputable those these instances may be. However, if harm had befallen my son I may well have been subject to similar character assassination. The fact that what the McCann's did fell outside my slightly paranoid comfort zone shouldn't subject them to the bile that has occurred.
Congratulations on raising your son. I don't know what this has to do with anything but give yourself a big pat on the back regardless. I don't get how you can acknowledge that it's something you wouldn't do, then say "ah well it was just a mistake" when someone else did it. Their decision to leave the kids alone night after night was extremely selfish, and in all likelihood was a contributing factor in Madeleine's disappearance. There is a massive difference between letting a 13 year old get a train alone between two locations he's familiar with or letting an 8 year old ride a bike around the block, and leaving three children, aged 3 and under, alone, in an unlocked holiday apartment, night after night, for hours on end each night. Yes you'd feel shit if something happened to your son while he was out on his bike or on a train, or even walking back from school, but they are all perfectly normal and usually perfectly safe things for someone of that age to be doing. There is literally nothing that is safe about leaving a 3 year old and her two younger siblings alone in an unlocked holiday apartment. Unless you've left your 3 year old son alone, at night, in an unlocked room/apartment/house, while you went off wining and dining for hours on end, then you might be subject to the same level of criticism, but as you've said you would never do that, I imagine you wouldn't do anything remotely similar either. You seem far more concerned that people are having a go at your own parenting ability than with actually fully acknowledging that leaving three toddlers alone for 5 consecutive nights is an example of really bad parenting. I don't think there's been any bile aimed at the McCanns, just heavy and warranted criticism of a particular parenting decision they had made. No one would say it to them in person because everyone realises that they've suffered enough. That doesn't change the fact that what they did was shit parenting regardless of whether Madeleine had been taken or not.
Seriously? They didn't do it but we should persecute them anyway?
I don't think they did it, but others (very few on here I might add) might think they did. What part of 'unsolved' did you not understand? We don't know who did it, so my point about people thinking they were involved literally stands for those people. If they have reasons for thinking the McCanns were involved, and they are yet to be refuted, then surely that means their opinion will remain the same? There is also the fact that barely anyone in here genuinely believes they were involved in any way, and those that do can probably be rightfully written off as conspiracy nuts. Most of the persecution in here is aimed at their parenting, not at them as potential murderers.
A bunch of incompetents accuse you of killing your child and you stop talking to them? Go figure.
It is standard procedure in many countries, including the UK, to make the parents suspects in cases like this. They make them suspects so they can either rule them out or find out what has really gone on. Stranger abductions are extremely rare, and at the time there appeared to be some form of evidence pointing towards Madeleine being dead. Have you seen the list of questions she was asked? Most are completely innocuous or related to other matters. She wasn't sat there with question after question centering on "DID YOU KILL HER?". Regardless of Kate's conduct when interviewed by police, it was still extremely odd that not one of the McCanns or their friends helped with the physical search, it was extremely odd that Kate left the twins alone again, it was extremely odd that they decided to put the twins back into the hotel creche after the disappearance, and it was extremely odd that they were so insistent that she had been kidnapped by someone who had broken in through the window only to change their story to leaving the door unlocked.
Excuses? If they had nothing to do with the crime what excuses are needed?
I don't know how you can say that they had nothing to do with the crime when it seems highly likely that their decision to leave three very young children aged 3 and under alone on consecutive nights while they fecked off down the road and out of sight to eat tapas and drink wine was very much a contributing factor. Not only did they leave them alone, they left them alone in an unlocked apartment. I'm assuming you're being deliberately thick here because I made it clear that the excuses were being made for their parenting, something that would have been just as bad if nothing had happened to Madeleine. Saying that their parenting was bad and probably contributed to the abduction does not mean that I, or anyone else, think that the abductor is in any way resolved of complete blame for this crime. The crime is terrible, the criminal is a horrible, horrible person. This is all a given, and does not need to be discussed or tacked on to every post for people to believe this.
Like I said earlier, your defence of the parenting seems to stem from some sort of weird personal offence you've taken at people saying it was bad. No one thinks that you're a bad parent, and I've not seen one example of parenting decisions in this thread that come remotely close to what the McCanns did. There's literally no point arguing this with you anymore because you're obviously never going to grasp/continue to ignore the fact that what they did was shit parenting regardless of the outcome, people do not think that what happened is any less horrific because they think the McCanns are bad parents, and the abductor is and will always be 100% to blame for abducting Madeleine.
I made a point in my last post saying that this debate would have ended long ago if people would stop making excuses for them. You've just made excuses for them and look where we are.