Why do mothers kill their children?!?

[Anonymous]

They've confirmed the remains are hers.

[Anonymous]

I read that headline too. Weird how even though you knew you she was dead, you just KNEW it.... when it's final, you still feel surprised and so sad.

I just hope they give the mother the maximum penalty, and not write her off with an insanity plea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Therapists, counselors, psychologists, and others in the field that specialize in pathology consider MOTHERS who kill their own children a special kind of pathology, it is considered as unnatural as it gets, especially if there is no major depression involved (i.e. the cases of severe PDD). Even when fathers kill their own, it is considered not AS unnatural (while equally HORRIBLE) as when a mom does it.

It is a troubled soul that kills their child. Many people study this b/cit flies in the face of reason. So sad...

What a terribly huge generalization, without any substantiation.

Ladies, I'm certainly not going to advocate or make excuses for murdering your children. But have a little compassion. I am certainly open to the possiblity that some of these women killed their children with a sane mind and a cold heart. But I think many of them had to be suffering terribly in order to do what they did. I don't know what clinical terms may be applicable, but a woman who kills her own children is not mentally well. I think Andrea Yates is an extreme example of what many mothers go through and eventually break down. A husband busy with a career, she's at home, isolated with four children. Day after day. Now most of us similarly situated don't wake up one morning and decide to drown the children in the bathtub. But I could see how it could happen. I could see how this woman may have been so exhausted, so lonely, (and possibly mentally and emotionally fragile to begin with) that it could happen. When deciding on a penalty, I just do not see how we can treat Andrea Yates the same way we treat Charles Manson. Or those snipers from a few years back.

Show of hands: has any of us never NOT ONCE felt like we might go completely nuts if her child didn't take his nap? Or if the child didn't stop crying all night? Take those feelings, and multiply them with a lot of other factors, and yes, it can and does happen. I think we're lucky it doesn't happen even more often and the fact that when it does people really stop to take note is testimony to how strong the rest of us mothers are able to be.

Did anyone read The Hours by Michael Cunningham or see the movie? The Julianna Moore character had a nice enough husband, but she didn't really love him. And she had a nice son, which she really didn't know what to do with. Now you can argue, "but she chose those things" but this was in the 50s, when social pressure to marry and procreate was simply enormous. Anyway, the Julianna Moore character doesn't want to play infant games with her son. She doesn't like making cakes, and she isn't very good at it. She wants to read Mrs. Dalloway and connect with the rest of the world. So she drops her child off with a sitter and checks into a hotel, with the intention of killing herself. While she's there, she realizes that she doesn't really want to die. She just had to get out of the situation she was in. So she leaves. Goes to Canada. Becomes a lesbian. Better than killing your child? Of course. A nice thing to do to your child? No, it's horrible and it caused her son to commit suicide later in life. But it seemed to me she had four choices: stay absolutely miserable for the rest of her life; kill herself; kill her child (and maybe the husband), or leave.

My husband said the Julianna Moore character was a complete asshole, but I had enormous empathy for her. I did not see her as evil. I didn't really see her as victim either. I just saw her as someone who was horribly unhappy and chose to save herself, even if that meant forsaking her child. Did I admire this character? Not particularly. But I felt for her.

[Anonymous]

I can't finish reading the above post, but Andrea Yates had SEVERE PPD. She was not out drinking and partying like this Anthony freak. Andrea immediatly turned herself in and did not create a pack of likes. Andrea has terrible remorse and almost accomplished killing herself in prison by not eating. Andrea is tormented and I do feel great sympathy for her. I don't think Andrea cares if she lives or dies, she is living in her own personal hell.

This Anthony chick is a heartless, selfish, piece of trash who has spun a pack of outrageous lies her entire life. Her own brother and "friends" think she is sick and twisted. I feel no sympathy and there is no excuse for Casey Anthony. There were scratch marks found in the trunk of her car that they think were her little girl trying to claw her way out alive. Maybe she just left her little girl in there alive while she sarved and suffocated to death over a course of days, trying to scratch her way out. Imagine the betrayal when your own MOTHER stuffs you in a trunk and leaves you there to die, while she parties and whores herself around town. That is just so abhorrent. I hope she is endures as much torture in prison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't finish reading the above post, but Andrea Yates had SEVERE PPD. She was not out drinking and partying like this Anthony freak. Andrea immediatly turned herself in and did not create a pack of likes. Andrea has terrible remorse and almost accomplished killing herself in prison by not eating. Andrea is tormented and I do feel great sympathy for her. I don't think Andrea cares if she lives or dies, she is living in her own personal hell.

This Anthony chick is a heartless, selfish, piece of trash who has spun a pack of outrageous lies her entire life. Her own brother and "friends" think she is sick and twisted. I feel no sympathy and there is no excuse for Casey Anthony. There were scratch marks found in the trunk of her car that they think were her little girl trying to claw her way out alive. Maybe she just left her little girl in there alive while she sarved and suffocated to death over a course of days, trying to scratch her way out. Imagine the betrayal when your own MOTHER stuffs you in a trunk and leaves you there to die, while she parties and whores herself around town. That is just so abhorrent. I hope she is endures as much torture in prison.

Yeah....maybe...imagine.... so many possibilities.