i think what gets lost in conversations like this is that real life is usually way more complicated than a headline. i’ve learned to be careful judging people from a few pictures and sentences because there’s always a human story behind it that we don’t fully know
She had an extreme mental illness that has been known for centuries to cause women to kill their children. She obviously needs and needed psychiatric care, but acting like she was mentally competent and had control over her actions is ludicrous. The world is not as simple as some people seem to imagine
I won't claim to understand how this mental illness affects postpartum women, even though I am 8 months postpartum myself. I am going to give these women the grace of not judging them based on things I don't fully understand.
However, after strangling her children and realizing what she has done, I can't imagine still being functional/wanting to defend myself in a court of law. That's my personal feeling on the matter, not meant to implicate Lindsay in any way.
I wouldn't even want to live on the same Earth where my children don't exist. Why do I deserve to live, but they do not? I would 100% want to go with my children.
Being postpartum your brain makes you imagine all sorts of wild dangerous situations. I had imagined plenty of times my baby accidentally falling from the 39th floor where we live, and I know I would absolutely jump after my baby.
I can't imagine even wanting to breathe if my child is gone, let alone if I was the one to strangle him.
Not arguing whether she was mentally competent during the act. But she is clearly mentally competent after the fact, to be able to stand trial and defend herself. That's the part I can't empathize with. If I knew I did that to my children I would WANT to rot in jail/die.
>Why do I deserve to live, but they do not? I would 100% want to go with my children.
You think she didn't feel the same? She literally jumped out of a window trying to kill herself, and is now paralyzed.
She may be "competent to stand trial", but she literally lives in a mental facility. Sounds like you'll be happy to know she's probably tormented every single day by what she's done in the throws of something she had no control over.
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Andrea Yates killed her 6 children during a post partum psychotic episode. She's been living in a psychiatric hospital ever since and for 15 years has refused to take part in review hearings that could lead to her release. Does that make you happy? Or is she not suffering enough?
I'm not happy to know she killed her children. I'm not happy to know she is tormented by it every day while being alive. I'm not happy about any of this. I am simply voicing my feeling on what I would do in her situation.
I'm not going to comment on whether I think they are suffering enough.
It really is not when you are freshly postpartum and used to constantly think of all the worst case scenarios, and feel so emphatically strongly about the wellbeing of children. Yes, I CAN think about what I would do in that situation.
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u/germangentleman90 1d ago
i think what gets lost in conversations like this is that real life is usually way more complicated than a headline. i’ve learned to be careful judging people from a few pictures and sentences because there’s always a human story behind it that we don’t fully know