My heart breaks this morning as I learned the 2nd child shot by his mother has died. His older sister, also shot by mom, passed away on Wednesday at the same hospital. The mother shot her two children and turned the gun on herself.
Apparently this mother was struggling, had no food, lived in a run down trailer, and was trying to get help. Denied several times for food stamps, she decided to go to the local welfare office and went about a seven-hour standoff with police. Her 12 year old daughter was updating Facebook while this was going on with comments like ‘may die 2day’.
Just last week I was questioning what prompts parents to kill? Then, it happened again. A mother who was either so upset about not being able to care for her children and getting denied for welfare or a mother who has severe mental illness, did the unthinkable.
According to the new release the father tried several times to get the children taken away from the mother with no luck. I can’t help but wonder, if they father was helping the woman care for the children.
Was this woman mentally incapable of caring for her children or did she feel like what she did would be best as opposed to letting her kids starve? I don’t know the answer but my heart aches for the children! Those poor kids knew the mother had went off the deep end and sat waiting for what was to come next.
I can’t imagine being in that situation! No mother wants to feel like she can’t care for her children. While, I would never resort to such drastic measures, I do know that people who feel helpless do often commit suicide. With the tough economic situation many resources are not available to offer assistance, due to the number of people requesting help.
People are in the same situation all over the US right now and resources are limited. What are people supposed to do when they are turned down and have exhausted all options? Starve?
Rest in peace little ones!
What do you think? Did she feel so desperate she’d rather the kids be dead than starving or was she suffering a mental illness?
About Tara V
I have to grab on to the thought that she had a debilitating mental illness. Did our system fail her? Absolutely! The “gray area” is huge and it’s a big failure! We are constantly on the edge of the gray area. My husband is considering whether or not to accept a raise because it will mean we lose health insurance and the very little food benefits we get. If I wasn’t a couponer, we simply wouldn’t have enough money to feed our family. No doubt she felt trapped, but I think I would have resorted to stealing, as many jobs as I can, temporarily giving my children to a family member or what ever terrible choices there were. Taking the life of my children or myself is NEVER an option. Never. I ache for these children as I do believe they knew their fate that day. Though I believe she was terribly in the wrong and failed them as a mother, I have to believe she snapped and suffered a mental break to go that far.
I think the sudden increase in the number of these incidents is an indicator of just exactly how messed up this country is. Never mind the fact that the American Dream is no longer attainable, how about the fact that the average working family can’t make ends meet?
I second what Cheryl said. We ourselves (at my house) can barely pay rent ’cause NJ charges so fucking much for retarded things like rent, heat, electricity, food… but I would never kill my son because of it. Maybe it’s time the government take a look at what it’s doing to us. Not just sit up on their high horse and go “oh unfortunate…I’M PLAYING GOLF TODAY!!”
Apparently, she was denied multiple times because she wouldn’t supply the correct information, so it sounds more like a case of mental illness. Still, it’s heartbreaking.