bbc Two young children were found neck deep in an incoming tide on a Wirral beach when their mother left them to go shopping, lifeguards have said.

The boys, aged four and five, were found on a sandbank at an islet off Hilbre island, near West Kirby, as temperatures soared on Saturday. click above link for details

she dont deserve kids, how stupid.

As the lifeguard said "A word of caution is that if you are bringing youngsters down to the beach - stay with them. Don't take your eyes off them."

Children aged four and five left unattended on the beach is a disgrace for the want of a better word

Lucky the kids headed for little eye, if they had headed straight for Hilbre the outcome could have been drastically different!

How can anyone just leave their kids stranded on Hilbre Island! This women needs Parenting lessons or not have kids at all!

It must be the fault of the life guards that this happened. Surely we can't expect a parent to accept full responsibility for their children.

She's got gas chamber written all over her! Better still send her to live in North Korea!!

Was she off to buy booze for baby?

Softy, I think we can probably look higher up the "food chain" for fault - surely Mother Nature and Gravity is to blame, after all, if it wasn't for them, there would be no tides for her little ones to end up up to their necks in!!

When you give birth (or become a father) you are giving birth to a responsibility. I can understand if that is diminished (e.g. mental health etc) that others should be considered responsible for you.

I wonder if this 'mother' was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, as no parent in their 'right mind' would leave children of that age on a sandbank. And on a scorching hot day as well?

This is a very sad sign of the times.

This country needs a very big enema of morality and responsibility.

The flip side to that would be that if you have such issues that would give rise to "diminished responsibility", you should not be in a position to breed in the first place. Too many children are born these days, only to suffer at the hands of those to whom they look to for their care.

There's a woman of 24 at the moment who is taking her case to the ECHR because the Social Services are having her child adopted because she has an IQ of 71, and they deem her too "stupid" to look after her child. It appears, on face value, that all she wants to do is look after her child yet they won't allow her to.

Then you get the likes of the girl I saw on the bus on Saturday who had 3 children, one probably about 5 - 7, one around 3 - 4 and the other a baby. She screamed at the middle one to shut up - the poor little mite only wanted her drink which she couldn't reach!!! It was baking hot, no hat on, no sunblock, no form of shade whatsoever!! She then stormed off the bus effing and blinding at the eldest that she was going to "fookin kill him, I'll fookin batter him" because he wouldn't sit still!! THESE are the types of "people" (human detritus) that should NOT be allowed to breed!!!!!

I fear for those 3 children, I really do. It breaks my heart that things like this are going on every day in this country and we are powerless to do anything about it!! There are lots of women and couples (myself included) that cannot have children of their own for one reason or another, that would GLADLY give them a loving, stable home that will allow them to flourish and grow in saftey, instead of being scared to move in case they get a hiding!!

The "mother" that left these 2 small children should be put on the Social Services watch list!! Personally, I'd have her done for neglect!

Sorry - rant over.

Well said Wench. It is frightening the amount of times I see this behaviour towards children (as you wrote above)and I can only see things getting worse. Sometimes I just wish you could phone someone there and then to come out and take the children away to safety.

It makes you wonder what's happened that we have returned to what can only be described as a Dickensian era. Some blame the current government for the erosion of family, but I think it began far earlier than that.

I am hoping and praying that we are on the brink of a return to clearer values. But this can only happen if everyone wants them and is prepared to stand up for them. If you want respect you have to show respect.

I think what I just said is possibly a bit simple. Its a hope nevertheless.

TOTP - I so wanted to pick those children up and take them home with me! Those that know me will tell you I'm probably the least "maternal" person they know, but I just wanted to do SOMETHING!! Not one other person on that bus batted an eyelid - and that speaks volumes to me. It is as if it has become "acceptable bahaviour", and that makes my heart heavy.

MissG - I'm with you on that!! I hate to say it, but it seems to have started with my "generation". A lot of the girls I went to school with ended up having children very young (and that was a Grammar School) and so the cycle began. One girl had 6 children by the time she was 21. I saw her a few years ago and she had 3 grandchildren - she would have been about 35, 36 then. Going on that kind of history, she'll have great grandchildren by the time she is 50!!!

The respect is something that is sadly missing in society at the moment. Our "teens" seem to know better than anyone - prime example is the 2 girls of 14 and 16 that were rescued on Friday by me (as in location, not by me personally) because they got into difficulty on the sandbanks. They were warned by the lifeguard NOT to go there as the tide was on its way in and they would get stuck but they knew best!! They should be charged a fee for their rescue just because of their stupidity!! They wasted the RNLI time and fuel, put the lifeguards' life at risk and put an ambulance crew out of service temporarily because of a lack of respect and brains!!

And this is the future of our once great country!!

I think we may not have the full story here
It says members of the family were searching for the children Grqandmother maybe a family day out

It may be someone else in the family grandparents? were looking after them while the mother went for ice creams lemonade etc from the nearby supermarket

A word of caution is that if you are bringing youngsters down to the beach - stay with them. Don't take your eyes off them.

"We have had literally hundreds of lost children since this period of good weather started."


potentionally any one of these lost kids could have got into difficulties

It is reported that which begs the question, how long does it take children of 4 and 5 to walk half a mile!?!



If you are keeping an eye on your children, then they technically should not be able to get that far, let alone out of your sight!! If it was anything like New Brighton over the weekend, some of the adults were far too busy having bbq's and drinking beer to be worried about the children. Heaven forbid that they took their rubbish home with them either!!

Gods I'm in a foul mood today

I know someone is at fault for not looking after them properly when all is said and done but I can,t see Two young children aged four and five were found neck deep in an incoming tide
they would have been swept away and drowned
I think the story has been exaggerated slightly to make it more newsworthy
Where were the lifeguards before it got to that stage
Don't they keep an eye on the stretch between beach and Hilbre Islands

They weren't on that stretch though, they were on the little Islet round the back apparently so no lifeguard would have been there and certainly would not have been able to see them anyway. It's not their responsibility to keep an eye on the children anyway - they are lifeguards, not childminders.

As to whether or not they were indeed "neck deep" - depending where exactly they were, they may have been stuck in the quicksand out there. There is no mention of the lifeguards being alerted to their disappearance beforehand to enable them to prevent it getting to that stage.

Either way, the blame lies solely at the feet of the "parent/guardian" IMO.

Since when were lifeguards a form of childcare????

I might try that this summer - forget paying for playschemes - I'll send the kids to a sandbank in New Brighton and expect the lifeguards to keep an eye on them!!!!!!

Give me strength!

which begs the question, how long does it take children of 4 and 5 to walk half a mile!?!

how long does it take a lifeguard to see that stretch going out to Hilbre especially as the tide was coming

Not arguing with the fact someone in the family was not looking after them properly

how were they spotted in the first place

I'm surprised no one didn't pass them before they got so far. Wouldn't you find it strange if you passed 2 kids that age without an adult around?
I don't know if its just me but if I see kids away from parents I always try to figure out who the parents might be - you can usually work it out.

Thats the way I read it. Id didnt read it as the mother had left them and gone shopping, more that she had left the kids with other relatives and the kids had wandered off whilst they hadnt been looking...

What you have to remember nowadays you cant even hold their hand and lead them to safety, i used to work in a store and if i found a child alone, even tho on camera, i couldnt go near them, its ridiculus the things i hear, your not allowed to go near lost children as you could be done for child snatching or worse, one very expensive private nursery called the father in work to come and change his childs clothes and wash the child after they soiled them self due to illness and made them sit in it till the father could get there as they wouldnt risk being reported for touching the childs privates, its stupid

sorry if this has gone off topic

It's the Nanny state and age of political correction which will eventually lead to those in power having more and more control over what we can say and do
I can eventually see us all with ID cards with tracers either attached to them or on our bodies for our own protection(which I am led to believe the Royal family have) Its starting now with those wrongdoers who have tags attached to them

Criminals have been tagged for years Derek, and we all have forms of ID card anyway - driving licence, passport, bank card, library card, loyalty points cards etc. What's the big deal about one more?