Saturday 2 February 2008

Madeleine McCann disappearance putting parents off hotel childcare

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 02/02/2008

Parents are less likely to use hotel childcare services since Madeleine McCann's disappearance, reports Phil Davies.

Parents are less likely to use hotel baby childcare services following the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann while on holiday in Portugal last year.

A survey by family travel website www.takethefamily.com showed that 62 per cent of parents were now less likely to leave their children alone in their room using baby listening, or in the care of hotel or resort staff.

"The tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann has obviously had a dramatic effect on parents' attitudes," said Lucy Ace, managing director of Takethefamily.com. "Such incidents are extremely rare but it has definitely made parents re-evaluate their holiday childcare - whether it's baby listening or even qualified babysitting." However, a quarter of those polled said recent news stories had had no effect on their attitudes.
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"Holiday childcare has become increasingly sophisticated, with resorts and hotels offering supervised cinema clubs and children's activities while parents have dinner," she added. "Fully vetted babysitting and nanny services using local or British-qualified staff have also proved popular in recent years but this survey shows that the Madeleine story has made parents think again."

A total of 425 families took part in the online poll.

from: Daily Telegraph

3 comments:

The Candy Floss blog really sucks said...

In which case, people DO believe in the abduction theory!

Rosiepops said...

I am not at all surprised that there has been this reaction to holiday childcare, if there is one positive to be taken from this tragedy, it is that it will make many parent more aware of what could happen.
I feel so desperately sad for the McCann's, but hopefully they can take a tiny solace in the fact that further tragedies may be averted. My God we all make mistakes, just most of us do not pay the ultimate price for those mistakes, like Kate and Gerry did.

Rosiepops said...

Yes sassy, good point, it appears then that people must believe in the abduction after all! I expect with the latest news re Ribeiro's comments, yet more people will come to realise that the McCann's have been telling the truth all along!

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