Story on twins who died in toy chest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why anyone thinks the parents locked them in there, there would be obvious evidence of trauma on their little hands if they had beaten and scratched and screamed while locked in against their wills.

They crawled in and fell asleep and slowly succumbed to hypoxia while asleep so it was a peaceful death thank goodness, and they were with each other and go to the great beyond together so they won’t be scared.

As a former prosecutor I could see being tempted to charge the parents with endangering, but they won’t be charged because while an entirely foreseeable outcome and clearly negligent parenting, prosecutors often default to the position that the grief is punishment enough in cases like this. Little kids rarely get justice when their parents leave them in the position of falling victim to cedar chests or loaded handguns. I don’t like the practice but it’s widespread. Except where the parents are poor or bipoc and then charges much more often will be laid.

When I was a child I had a big toy chest, big enough for me and my cousin to hide inside when we were school age. But it had big gaps between the slats and the flat top didn’t seal, so there was always plenty of oxygen getting in. That’s how a child’s toy chest should be - a blanket chest is meant to be airtight and is potentially lethal to small kids.

Or maybe something else happened and they were hidden in there after the fact. It's not too hard to imagine other scenarios here. Use your imagination, prosecutor. Mom seems to have a very vivid imagination of what happened and what the kids said or were thinking at the time. But two kids, peacefully falling asleep in a dark, scary, hot, cramped box sounds a bit far fetched.

[Anonymous]

I find it odd that the Mom wrote about it on Facebook. The link to the FB post is in the link to the People article a pp posted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you really not know when you're running out of oxygen if you're asleep? It's not the kind of thing where your body would wake you up bc something is wrong?

This story is freaking me out on multiple levels.

Yes, people die of CO poisoning in their sleep, too.

[Anonymous]

That Facebook post is really something else. And to send the older kids away from their parents because their siblings died? This mom has a lot of issues, it seems. While the older kids might need extra support, have family come stay with them at the home, don't send them off to deal with this alone. The mom seems like she has some ideas that while well intentioned, could and will cause a lot of damage.

I do believe that the kids could get in and fall asleep, but it does seem like there's some pretty severe mental health issues in this family, and who knows what actually might have happened.

Very sad, this would be really hard to accept.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That Facebook post is really something else. And to send the older kids away from their parents because their siblings died? This mom has a lot of issues, it seems. While the older kids might need extra support, have family come stay with them at the home, don't send them off to deal with this alone. The mom seems like she has some ideas that while well intentioned, could and will cause a lot of damage.

I do believe that the kids could get in and fall asleep, but it does seem like there's some pretty severe mental health issues in this family, and who knows what actually might have happened.

Very sad, this would be really hard to accept.

I also thought her post was a little strange. But I know we aren’t supposed to judge people who are grieving.

My takeaways are -

- No heavy chests / lids a kid can’t lift
- If my child gets into a habit of waking in the middle of the night and playing (!), I need to put her back to sleep or supervise her.

I’m pretty surprised these parents KNEW their twins would get up in the middle of the night and play in their room and the parents didn’t put them back in bed / stay up with them / baby proof their room.

There was one night my DD (3 yr old) was wide awake at 2 AM, for unknown reasons. I was so tired and I needed sleep. So I let her watch Netflix in bed with me for hours while I semi-slept. I felt like a terrible parent but maybe that was a good call.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. Nothing wrong with boxes as long as they don't seal up.

I used a laundry basket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember arguing with my mom over a toy chest and we wound up not buying because she was adamant on danger. Today there was a story on two four year old twins who got up and took their stuffed animals out of toy box and got in and died after falling asleep in it and parents had no idea because it was in their room and found out next day. I thought of my mom and how I told her she was nuts that I would
have things in the chest so not a problem with safety. Please people she was right-don’t have a chest with a lid.

Come on! The very first place anyone would have looked would have been a chest! Not buying this story

[Anonymous]

It’s sad nowadays that parents are to blame for something that harms their children. Unfortunately, with all the horrible stories that causes children to die by the hands of their parents. This is a horrible accident. I have an old cedar chest. I disabled the lock on it for this exact reason when my children were little.
May the parents find peace.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this. I have a lane chest and just removed the lock. It never occurred to me kids could trap themselves in it, but duh. Feeling dumb.

[Anonymous]

Man I hate to say it but add me to the list of people waiting to see what the police have to say. Maybe it’s exactly what mom said…. Maybe it’s not.

[Anonymous]

What a nightmare. But having a huge box that CAN SEAL SHUT in a bedroom with children of any age is insane.

I hope there wasn't any foul play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you really not know when you're running out of oxygen if you're asleep? It's not the kind of thing where your body would wake you up bc something is wrong?

This story is freaking me out on multiple levels.

Of course you would wake up! But the mom claims they were trapped. How did she even know to look in there?

I’m betting dad gave them too much Benadryl or something before bed.

Their sibling found them. They searched for a while and the sibling eventually looked in the box and called mom.

[Anonymous]

"So as they slept, all snuggled up together, they slowly ran out of oxygen within a couple of hours and passed away. They never even knew it was happening. There was no sudden gasp for air, it was a very slow transition from sleep to passing on…."

This is such a weird thing for the mom to post. If people are suffocating, they will wake up and panic. They would have been kicking the chest trying to get out. I'm on team "this sounds fishy"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"So as they slept, all snuggled up together, they slowly ran out of oxygen within a couple of hours and passed away. They never even knew it was happening. There was no sudden gasp for air, it was a very slow transition from sleep to passing on…."

This is such a weird thing for the mom to post. If people are suffocating, they will wake up and panic. They would have been kicking the chest trying to get out. I'm on team "this sounds fishy"

I definitely don’t think the family is above suspicion. The possibility of foul play needs to be investigated.

But I can see why, even if completely innocent, the mom is latching on to a theory like this. It’s preferable to believe your little ones simply fell asleep and didn’t wake up rather than thinking of their final moments being filled with sheer terror, physical discomfort and the struggle to survive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This reminds me of that video that was going around a few months ago of two twins tipping over an unsecured dresser onto themselves in their room, presumably during nap time. In both cases I wonder, where the hell were the parents?!? I didn’t sleep train so I’m biased, but Jesus Christ it’s like extreme sleep training to be so disconnected from your kids when they are in their room that you don’t have a monitor, don’t check on them EVER during sleep periods, and are comfortable being so far away from them while they’re sleeping that you couldn’t even hear them screaming for their lives. It’s just totally unfathomable to me.

I mean, I don't check on my toddler during nap or use a monitor. He's asleep and I'm nearby. That said, that is why the dressers in the kids room are secured to the wall.

I don't check on my kids during naps either. 2 of my 3 kids were such light sleepers that if I peaked in on them, they'd wake up and scream/cry. A few times of waking them up and I learned my lesson. I do check on my kids right before I go to bed though.