Why are people more sympathetic to Lindsay Clancy than Andrea Yates? (Child death mentioned)

[Anonymous]

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/as-community-mourns-duxbury-children-killed-questions-circle-about-maternal-mental-health/2956568/

Earlier this week, a 32 year old Massachusetts mother of three killed two of her children and severely injured her infant. I used to live in the town (Duxbury) and still have friends in the area, so I've been reading a lot about it. For the most part, the comments I've seen (Facebook/Reddit comments) seem very sympathetic and compassionate towards Lindsay Clancy. I can't help but compare them to the comments I saw 20 years ago about Andrea Yates. Are we (society) just more educated about Post Partum Psychosis? Is Clancy just a more appealing/sympathetic woman vs. Yates?

[Anonymous]

Were people not sympathetic to Andrea Yates? I remember people being (deservedly) hard on her husband, but not on her.

[Anonymous]

No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

[Anonymous]

Yes, society is much more aware of and sympathetic to mental illness in general.
If I remember correctly, people were initially horrified by the Yates case because there were so many children and her act seemed so calm and deliberate. Once the true circumstances were revealed, there was a lot more sympathy for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, society is much more aware of and sympathetic to mental illness in general.
If I remember correctly, people were initially horrified by the Yates case because there were so many children and her act seemed so calm and deliberate. Once the true circumstances were revealed, there was a lot more sympathy for her.

I think it’s more horror and pity than sympathy. Try as they might, no one actually can understand this sort of thing. People just choose their words more carefully now.

[Anonymous]

People understand quite a bit more now about PPD nowadays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

I have no idea who this Clancy person is, but Andrea Yates gets a lot of sympathy. Tons.

[Anonymous]

I feel sympathy for both.

[Anonymous]

Clancy has my sympathy. She is a Labor & Delivery RN now midwife in 5 days a week outpatient treatment for postpartum depression—she was trying mightily to help herself as was her husband. Sounds like crossover to postpartum psychosis—she will be heartbroken at what she did under SEVERE mental illness. My sympathies to her children deceased, her infant, her husband and yes to her. A nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

I have no idea who this Clancy person is, but Andrea Yates gets a lot of sympathy. Tons.

Really? I don't remember that being the case. I remember hearing that she was told not to not have more kids due to previous post partum depression. yet she still chose to have another child and it out her over the edge. I think she was judge pretty harshly for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

I have no idea who this Clancy person is, but Andrea Yates gets a lot of sympathy. Tons.

It's literally stated in the first sentence of the OP, plus a link to an article telling exactly who Clancy is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

I have no idea who this Clancy person is, but Andrea Yates gets a lot of sympathy. Tons.

Really? I don't remember that being the case. I remember hearing that she was told not to not have more kids due to previous post partum depression. yet she still chose to have another child and it out her over the edge. I think she was judge pretty harshly for this.

Yates and her husband were not in the kind of relationship in which the wife gets to have any choices IIRC.

I haven’t heard anout this new case at all until this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is sympathetic to either of them. Maybe they are paying lip service to sound enlightening, but only a monster can murder their own child.

I have no idea who this Clancy person is, but Andrea Yates gets a lot of sympathy. Tons.

Really? I don't remember that being the case. I remember hearing that she was told not to not have more kids due to previous post partum depression. yet she still chose to have another child and it out her over the edge. I think she was judge pretty harshly for this.

Yates and her husband were not in the kind of relationship in which the wife gets to have any choices IIRC.

I haven’t heard anout this new case at all until this thread.

This.

[Anonymous]

Rusty Yates is a pathetic human being. I had and still have great sympathy for Andrea.

[Anonymous]

When I experienced PPD, Andrea Yates was a spectre that haunted me. My psychiatrist told me many women feel that way. I remember mixed reactions, horror and anger but also sorrow and yes, even sympathy. Also there were so many children and that she just kept going, one after another.... the details were chilling. And at least one child I recall fought for his life. Similar to one of the Watt's girls, that is a horrifying image.