Why is a bigger issue made when a mother kills her kids than a father? *Warning*

[JudyJudyJudy]

Anytime I've ever known of a woman killing her kids, it has made headlines everywhere and has been talked about on message boards. However, when the father is the one doing it, it seems to only make the local news. Why is that? Is it because the mother is seen as the one who should nurture?

This story that I originally read on MiMi's link about the daycare provider was what made me think about this. It happened a year ago, yet I don't think I ever even heard about it. ABSOLUTE WARNING!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-mug-kaushik-patel,0,4633747.photo

[MiMi_of_4]

OMG...I don't remember seeing or hearing anything about that. *For those of you who've not read the article, don't scroll down.

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I have some extra gasoline in my garage and a lighter he's welcome to. As a matter of fact, I'll be glad to lend him a hand to ensure his demise. Fucker!

[Bohemian]

I don't remember that. I think it's horrendous when the mother or the father kills their children. A few years back this made the news in St Louis but I'm not sure if it was national. Mimi I'm sure remembers it.


Fucker drove his car into the mud and river and then took his 2 year old and 9 month old babies and put them in the mud to drown and suffocate.

I can't find the original articles but this mentions it:
http://blog.t1production.com/father-guilty-in-deaths-of-2-kids-killed-in-mississippi-river-mud

[JudyJudyJudy]

Boho, that's absolutely awful. I never heard about that one, either. If a mother had done that, do you think it would have been bigger news?

[Bohemian]

I bet it would have. We all remember Susan Smith that drove her car into the lake with her babies strapped in to drown. This guy was even worse as he physically took his babies out of the car and pushed their faces into the mud. Yet it didn't make more than local news.

I just googled his name to see if it even made any online major newspapers and nada.

[NewMum]

Anytime I've ever known of a woman killing her kids, it has made headlines everywhere and has been talked about on message boards. However, when the father is the one doing it, it seems to only make the local news. Why is that? Is it because the mother is seen as the one who should nurture?

This story that I originally read on MiMi's link about the daycare provider was what made me think about this. It happened a year ago, yet I don't think I ever even heard about it. ABSOLUTE WARNING!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-mug-kaushik-patel,0,4633747.photo


I didn't read the link you posted. I did read Mimi's. (I can't take the details again. I've been overly emotional lately)

But, to answer your question, yes. I think a lot has to do with the mother being seen as the nurturer. Add to that, the fact that the woman actually carries the baby within her until birth. Before too recently, the father went and worked. Mom stayed home with the kids. Because of this, I think accepted that the father is less attached to the child, therefore more capable of causing harm. Less likely to make a big splash for media.

Just want to note, that's not at all how I feel. It's how I believe the media feels society thinks.

[pawprint]

While I am equally appalled by both crimes, I don't know what it means to be a father. I don't know what the FEELS like. I do, however, know what it feels like to be a mom, so I think some deeper part of me is pretty fucking horrified by a mother killing her child.

[MiMi_of_4]

omigosh, Boho, I DO remember that...it still makes me sick to my stomach.

[JudyJudyJudy]

The man in my link looks mentally ill. Yes, I'm stereotyping based on looks.

[MiMi_of_4]

The man in my link looks mentally ill. Yes, I'm stereotyping based on looks.

Ya think? LOL I'm glad to know we're in the same boat with that piece of stereotyping.

[Sadalsuud]

Also too, animal kingdom=males killing offspring that doesn't belong to them when males take over new females. I wonder if this is one reason why many child abuse cases are by the mom's boyfriend/male that isn't the child's father?

Either way, it is horrible that people would harm a child rather than abandon them in a safe place, regardless of the child's age.

[Bellaelle]

I feel like killing both equally and am disgusted the same. I do notice the fathers will often times face and receive the death penalty whereas the mother does not.

If I was a juror on one of those trials, you better believe I would push for the death penalty for either mother or father.

[MiMi_of_4]

I'm a staunch equal opportunity killer when it comes to murdering children, too, Bella.

[QuiltyConscience]

I'm a staunch equal opportunity killer when it comes to murdering children, too, Bella.

Yes. I don't know that there is anyplace good one can go after murdering theor own child.

I wonder if it makes the news when Women do it, because it is simply not as common. I don't know the stats, but I think it is less common. Could be my perception.

[rock__]

I'm with quilty, I think in the simplest of terms, it's just less common for mothers to kill their children. Every time I pick up the damned paper I recently made the mistake of subscribing to, there is at least one story in there about a man (usually boyfriend or stepdad though) who's commited some horrible act of violence against a child, often resulting in death. Sadly, it just doesn't seem to horribly uncommon.

That said, I have no idea what the true statistics are for women killing their own children, but I believe it's lower.

I find them both equally horrifying and sad, but one I probably would be more shocked about.

[rock__]

Stories like this: (Child abuse/death)
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011409dnmetboy.6c64a7f.html

I wondered where the mom was during all of this. When I looked it up just now, I found this. She's being charged too, as she should.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011608dnmetdotsonarrest.ad9a1ec.html

[QuiltyConscience]

Stories like this: (Child abuse/death)
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011409dnmetboy.6c64a7f.html

I wondered where the mom was during all of this. When I looked it up just now, I found this. She's being charged too, as she should.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011608dnmetdotsonarrest.ad9a1ec.html

I don't even understand that. I cannot understand how someone comes up with the idea of holding a child underwater for punishment, nor can I understand a mother knowing her boyfriend is doing it and not stopping him.


I could easily understand a mom killing her boyfriend for hurting her kids, but all too often, they stand by, know it happens, and help cover it up. And I don't think fear of abuse is always the reason the women do that either.

[still_me]

Yes. I don't know that there is anyplace good one can go after murdering theor own child.

I wonder if it makes the news when Women do it, because it is simply not as common. I don't know the stats, but I think it is less common. Could be my perception.


I wonder if it isn't as common too.


From the beginning of time, men were the warriors-the killers. Whether it be nature or nurture, that is how it has been. So, I believe that since we have always had that knowledge in our genes, it doesn't seem off that a man kills. I am not saying that it is an excuse to kill though. Women from the beginning of time were gathers. They were the nurturers. I think it is harder to see them as killers.

I know that no matter what the sex is, a human can do the same evil deeds. I just think that is why society as a whole, is shocked when a women kills anyone.

[steelady]

Also too, animal kingdom=males killing offspring that doesn't belong to them when males take over new females. I wonder if this is one reason why many child abuse cases are by the mom's boyfriend/male that isn't the child's father?

Either way, it is horrible that people would harm a child rather than abandon them in a safe place, regardless of the child's age.


Don't mothers eat their young when there is some sort of abnormality? Further, won't a mother reject a baby that smells like another female/animal?

I think we see what we want to see in the animal kingdom. Male seahorses give birth, male penguins incubate the eggs but somehow we all think of the situations where males are fighters and females are care-givers.

[JudyJudyJudy]

Yes. I don't know that there is anyplace good one can go after murdering theor own child.

I wonder if it makes the news when Women do it, because it is simply not as common. I don't know the stats, but I think it is less common. Could be my perception.


I'm with quilty, I think in the simplest of terms, it's just less common for mothers to kill their children. Every time I pick up the damned paper I recently made the mistake of subscribing to, there is at least one story in there about a man (usually boyfriend or stepdad though) who's commited some horrible act of violence against a child, often resulting in death. Sadly, it just doesn't seem to horribly uncommon.

That said, I have no idea what the true statistics are for women killing their own children, but I believe it's lower.

I find them both equally horrifying and sad, but one I probably would be more shocked about.


But y'all are talking about men versus women. In most cases I hear of where men kill kids, the kids aren't their children; they're usually the children of their wives or girlfriends. I wonder what the stats are in comparing mothers to fathers, not women to men, who kill children.

[MiMi_of_4]

Stories like this: (Child abuse/death)
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011409dnmetboy.6c64a7f.html

I wondered where the mom was during all of this. When I looked it up just now, I found this. She's being charged too, as she should.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011608dnmetdotsonarrest.ad9a1ec.html

Anything less than beating this asshole over a period of days and then dunking him underwater until he drowns is too good.

Mother should rot her ass out in solitary confinement with her son's autopsy photos plastered all over her cell for the rest of her life for letting that poor baby be a punching bag.

This pisses me off more than it makes me sad...and believe me, it makes me sad.

[JudyJudyJudy]

I chose not to read those articles. I've had my fill the past two days. It's heartbreaking.

[MiMi_of_4]

At least the last one happened in Texas where the death penalty still stands, Judy.

[Bellaelle]

Not to mention the Texas Syndicate ( Mexican American prison gang) is very well known for what they do to asswipes who abuse and murder children.

Rot in hell, motherfucker.

[JudyJudyJudy]

I'd rather such people be thrown in with the prison gangs myself.