I don't mean to offend..

[Rubyrose]

I know this might sound a tad bit insensitive and don't for one minute think that I don't care.. but I really don't understand all these people saying they have been constantly crying over Maddy who has gone missing! I understand it is very sad and a terrible terrible situation and you may shed a tear but to be constantly crying about it?

Chirdren go missing every single day and never return or are found dead and it's an awful awful thing to happen but I don't get why everyone is crying! (I don't mean her family and friends.. I mean total strangers)

[Goodsoulette]

I havent been crying either, I feel very sad for her parents and it turns my stomach when I think about what if it were one of mine.

A couple of years ago, just after the Beslan hostage thing, I was sat down having a coffe before work and a woman sat opposite me was reading the front of my paper, and she asked me whats been going on. I asked her if she had been sleeping for the last few days and it turned out she had been travelling almost nonstop during the whole of the news coverage. So I told her what happened and she broke down is serious tears. So I felt bad and uncomfortable and sort of said, you can have my paper, I better go. Everyone was asking me what I did to her. I felt so bad.

[Champagne]

Media spotlight.

If Madeleine isn't found then this story will fizzle away into some obscure page in the paper before disappearing altogether. Then in a month from now a small post will appear in the News sectionf of Answerbank where somebody will ask, "Does anybody know what happened to that little girl who was abducted? Was she found?"

Then all the crying would be for nothing anyway.

[Rubyrose]

Champs.. that's so true! I hope she is found though.

[Woman]

I know that this thread ran last week and everyone has probably forgotten about it already but I chanced upon this site by accident and registered so that I could help some people understand the answer to this particular question. (I'm sorry if you feel that I am butting in).

I am one of those people who is constantly crying about Madeleine's disappearance and I'd like to tell you why. For me personally, it makes me cry because I feel sick to my stomach to think about what is either happening to her now (eg. being raped by a bunch of perverts, being frightened and in pain) or to think about her crying for her Mummy and Daddy. Every time I look at my son, who is 3, I think about the same thing happening to him and I desperately want her to be found. As for the person who said "I think it's because they have nothing important happening in their own lives so it makes them feel more of use to society if they share the burden of worry with the parents of the child... It doesn't really affect me. " I am glad it doesn't affect him, but his thinking is wrong in my case and in most people's cases I would imagine. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

[Rubyrose]

Hello Woman... thanks for that! I do understand that parents may find it slightly more difficult but what I don't understand is that 100's of children go missing everyday and nobody cries over it.. (well apart from parents of the missing children and family) but why is this case special?

[Woman]

Hi Rubyrose, thanks for replying. In answer to your question: this case is special at the moment because no-one knows what unspeakable torments are happening to Madeleine. We desperately want to think that some broken-hearted mother who has lost her own child wanted Madeleine for herself and is caring for her at the moment. The reality is that she is probably dead already or even worse suffering immensely. There are probably hundreds of children going missing every day around the world but I don't know all their stories or their names or see their photos in the paper, but I can assure you that I would cry for them and think about them too. I feel sick to my stomach whenever I hear about any murders or abductions but with children the emotion is stronger because they are so vunerable and don't understand how wicked the world can be.

[Rubyrose]

Don't get me wrong... I totally understand what you are saying and it is terrible but to cry constantly... I just don't get it! If we looked at everything like that... we'd never get out of bed for crying!

[Woman]

Hi again Rubyrose. It all depends on what you mean by "crying constantly". In your question I took it to mean crying quite often, perhaps every day. I do find myself in tears every time I see Madeleine's photo online or in the papers and I am constantly checking online for any news which again brings tears to my eyes when I think that she is not coming home again. Mind you I've been feeling sad at any bad news concerning children for quite a while. Perhaps I still have remnants of Post Natal Depression from having my son, I don't know, but there has been such a lot of terrible things happening to children lately. You could argue that they've always happened and how could you cry over all of them but I cried alot when Millie Hall was murdered by her father and even now when I visit her memorial website I cry for the suffering of her mother. I cried alot when Susan Talby murdered her two boys before hanging herself as one of her sons was a similar age to mine and I met them a few times. I do feel like crying many times in the day when I'm reminded of all these tragedies but it has also made me treasure what I have. I do get out of bed every morning and function and I manage not to cry constantly in front of my son but when I'm alone I can't help it. I'm just a cry-baby I know, but these children all deserve someone to think about them and remember them and mourn them.

[Rubyrose]

Ahhh ok... now its making sense!

I cry at things a lot... and when I read a sad story in a paper, or see something bad on the news.. or check the news websites and might read something that moves me and I shed a tear but a few people on this site had said 'I don't know what to do as I am constantly crying over this Maddie thing'.. and that's what I didn't understand... the constant crying! I understand someone crying whilst rehashing the situation and reading about it and stuff but to be crying all the time coz you can't get it out of your head when you don't even know Maddie or her family? I just find that odd.

RRx