nyx

Just a typo folks. No reason for alarm. Homicidal not homocidal.

Nyx

rebelnerd

Since you seem to be so intuitive, you shouldn't have any trouble answering these points:

My issue is with the fact that two children died in a hot car. Leaving the kids in the car is wrong to begin with, but having said that, did this person even think to check on the kids? Did this person have somebody else check on the kids? Please tell me what this person's primary concern was then.

I this how you really feel?

Filo

Edited 'cause I forgot a bracket.

[ July 03, 2002: Message edited by: Filo Quiggens ]</p>

rebelnerd

Mainly because people keep posting to it. The majority of the posts were due to Media-1 who seemed to think that atheists could not have any morals.


Filo

Captain Pedantic

I think it's a little frightening that some people, such as the apparently absent Media-1, actually would not understand that it was wrong to take a life unless they had been given the instruction in writing from many hundreds of years ago.

I also feel the need to point out that some of the folk here may be saying that this woman is "psychotic" when what you actually mean is "psychopathic". Psychopathic tendencies are violent ones - at least, according to my dictionary.

(forgive me - too much counselling )

Katey

I don't know about that. Atheists tend to be more moral than most Christians in my humble opinion. However, I don't think you're an atheist. You see, I don't believe that the woman intended to hurt those kids. She was just stupid. Either you think she killed them on purpose or not. IF you think she did NOT kill them on purpose then my posts make sense. I'm giving reasons why she might have done it and even a solution to keep it from happening again. But you don't seem to want to hear those kinds of things. Any reply but "this woman is BAD" is unacceptable is it not? That makes you judgmental, which is a Christian trait. &lt;text removed by The Other Michael&gt;

That'll be 25 cents please.

[ July 03, 2002: Message edited by: The Other Michael ]</p>

Katey

I think the word is more like "demented". Absent-minded or logic faulted thinking. Many people under a great deal of stress have dementia attacks.

The Other Michael

Katey, while I agree with you that it is unlikely the woman deliberately set out to kill her kids, I am at a loss on your focusing on "where was the father". Is a mother supposed to be unable to leave the house with her kids unescorted by the father? Maybe he was at home doing yardwork, or at work, or down at Home Depot. The presence or absence of the father is irrelevant.

We've had several instances of this in the SF Bay area recently, and IIRC the last two involved a father and a grandfather.

Gender isn't material to these incidents - negligence cuts across gender lines with impunity.

cheers,
Michael

brighid

I don’t think any of us here can actually speak to the frame of mind she was in at the time. As a mother, I cannot fathom leaving my one child alone for that period of time, more or less in a hot car or any other place he isn’t supervised by a responsible adult. I am not sure how even a simple minded person gets through life without knowing that leaving children alone, for any extended period of time is not OK, potentially and likely dangerous.

I would classify her actions as extremely negligent and until I have heard some explanation from her I am not ready to attribute any malicious intent. Her negligence doesn’t excuse the consequences of her actions, or absolve her of the responsibility of placing her children in a situation any reasonable person would deem extremely dangerous to the lives of children. I would also say that because of what she was doing during the time her children were alone and baking in the car that vanity is a part of the equation, not because her female gender makes her vain by default but because she appears to place vanity over her responsibility as mother and protector of her three children. Her vanity superseded her maternal obligations here and therefore her vanity was contributory to her negligence resulting in the slow and painful death of her three children. I also don’t think we have enough information to categorize her actions as deliberate, but just plain brainless and horribly self-centered.

I also think we can’t make any assumptions about the father in this case. Most likely he was at work and unaware of her actions. If he was an absentee father he bares no responsibility for the actions of the mother of these children. As a woman who was a single mother for many years, who underwent a lot of stress but never neglected or abused my child even when I had to go without all the time I am completely unable to understand how anyone can deliberately, or negligently place their children in such low regard as to endanger their precious lives in preference of their own desires. I realize it happens all the time and one or both of their parents abuse those children every moment of every day, but I will never be able to fully comprehend that reality even as I suffered it as a child.

This sort of story makes me sick to my core. I am nauseated as I write this. Those poor children! I hope this parent is punished with the fullest extent of the law and nothing can excuse her behavior and the result of her inaction.

B

rebelnerd

Edited 'cause it didn't need to be here.

Filo

[ July 03, 2002: Message edited by: Filo Quiggens ]</p>

rebelnerd

brighid, that's pretty much the way I feel about it. When I saw the article in CNN I was pretty disgusted and pissed off. So I started the thread in RRP. I have an 11 year old son and I can't even fathom how this parent could not have had her children's welfare as her primary concern.

Filo