raveydavey
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UnbelievableThis morning I treated mrs ravey to breakfast in the BHS Cafe at the White Rose.
We'd been sat down for about 2 minutes when a middle-aged mum and her clearly pregnant daughter (mid 20's?) came in with 3 kids - a boy and girl, both pre-school and a baby in a pushchair.
The adults sat them down at a table right by the open plan exit into the Food Court and then after telling them to "stay there" went off to order food. This cafe is quite big and I'd bet it will seat over a hundred people.
The 3 little kids were left at one end, which opens out into the rest of the shopping centre and the adults walked off to the counter at the very other end of the cafe which faces away from where they'd just left the kids. The counter in there is only marginally closer than the exits to the car park from the food court.
It was fairly busy so the adults were gone for approaching 10 minutes - during this time the kids played quite happily, with me and mrs ravey, and a woman at a nearby table watching the situation in disbelief. Eventually the little lad wandered off to find his mum, who then brought him back to the table and told him to stay there as his aunty would be joining them soon. She then went off back to the counter. Now she may well have been keeping an eye on the kids from a distance, but she was so far away that if the kids had need immediate help, she would have been useless.
After a few more minutes passed three more women came in and sat with the kids briefly - one was greeted as "Aunty" so that seemed OK.
Two of the adults then also went off, while the third sat down with the kids - at last a responsible adult!
It simply staggers me that in this day and age parents can be so lax with their kids - the White Rose is actually on Dewsbury Road, which leads just a few miles to where Shannon Matthews has gone missing. The ultimate irony (if you can have one in this situation) is that there was actually a missing poster for Shannon just along the wall from where the kids had been left.
It's unbelievable it really is.
The sad part is that although we saw what was going on, we didn't feel able to say anything to the adults for fear of what might happen then.
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Gopher
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You would have got abuse mate, responsible parents do that when you point it out to them that they need to look after their children rather than waltz off shopping or having a fag. 
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raveydavey
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| Gopher wrote: | | You would have got abuse mate, responsible parents do that when you point it out to them that they need to look after their children rather than waltz off shopping or having a fag. |
That is exactly what I mean mate - damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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Gopher
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Just ring childline next time, tell them that the kids have been abandoned.
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