The Bad News Bares All

I check the news pretty religiously. I watch the morning news while groggily downing my coffee. I listen to NPR and the local news station on the way to work (an hour and a half drive). I check CNN.com while at work. I listen to NPR again on the way home. I check CNN.com before I go to bed.

Wow. Now that I spell it out like that, I'm a sad individual, aren't I?

Anyways, you can imagine my thoughts when I saw this headline on CNN.com today-

"Police want Maddy's mom to 'confess': Relative"

Well, then.

I have somewhat followed the story since it broke, but honestly haven't paid too much attention to it. While the evidence they have recently found in this case does raise eyebrows, I am not one to jump to conclusions. The one thing that has bothered me about this story is all of the media attention and support from celebrities (J. K Rowling, the Pope) this family has gotten. Don't get me wrong-I can imagine no fate worse than losing my daughter, a concept one can only understand if they have had kids. It is the one thing that I know would drive me over the edge, into prison, or into the wilderness where I would live like John the Baptist, eating berries and twigs and acting as the local looney. So why has it bothered me? Because I have not heard anyone mention that this couple left their kids (both under 4 I believe?) alone. I can't imagine leaving Maddy alone anywhere. Not only for her own safety, but for her remarkable ability to color a whole wall in under a minute (by the way, she is forbidden to have crayons, so I don't even know where she gets them from. She probably smuggles them out of daycare). And she's only 2. Surely, a three year old would be far more destructive?

I don't get it. And I don't understand why it has gotten all of the international attention it has when children go missing every day. Even those whose parents keep them close.