Interesting article on CNN.com today. Its about a horrible situation, a little girl who was starved and beaten; she died. Her father has been setenced to 29 years in jail. Her mother is now about to be setenced. Her father beat her; her father killed her. But her mother let it happen and did not call for help until hours after she had died. Both parents obviously had some role in her starvation too. Her mother could receive 33 years in jail, while her father has alread received 29 years.
Now, who knows if she will get the full 33 years. I think her setencing is in a few weeks. Maybe the father was eligible for 50 but got 29. She might be eligible for 33 but get 10…who knows. But this raises the question of whether mothers are held to a higher standard. For the sake of arguement, lets not consider the starvation right now, although its a horrible thing. He killed her= 29 years. She let it happen= 33 years. That is not right. I am not sure 29 years is enough for killing a 7 year old, I don’t know what is the right punishment. But lets say the punishment is “X”. Then allowing the crime to happen is probably worth a setence of “X/4″ or “X/2″. Don’t you think?
Why would she be held to a higher standard than him? I notice that the victim’s last name is not the same as her “father” or her “mother” so maybe it was not his biological child and the mother therefore had a greater responsibility to protect her than he did? Is that why? Maybe since the girl was also malnourished and the mother was the primary grocery shopper/meal preparer and that contributed significatntly to her death? Or is it because no matter how far society comes in parental equality and co-parenting…its always the mother who is ultimately responsible for protecting the children? Is that a good thing? Maybe there is some evolutionary evidence for that arguement.
When I was pregnant with the twins I read that there is evolutionary reasons for why childbirth is so painful. It hurts so that you value the end product. If the babies just oozed out while we kept on doing our daily buisness, we would not value them. Think about fish….they squirt out dozens of eggs and keep on going. No matter what you think you saw in “Finding Nemo” fish do not anxiously await the birth and name each one. They are gone by the time the eggs hatch. Fish will never rule the world. Higher species are those that invest more time in their offspring. Humans invest the most time in their offspring….so we rule the world.
Pregnancy is uncomfortable. Childbirth hurts. Raising children is stressful. Mothers are enormously invested in their children, right from the first second. So, when that investment falls short and fails the child, maybe we are more to blame. Its a failure that is magnified by our starting point. We start so much farther in….to fall completely out is a long way. Longer than it is for a person who is less invested. But if that is true, then I had better not ever read another story about a mother who was denied custody of her children or received 1% less joint custody than she wanted. Its a two way street. You cannot say we are more responsible if you do not give us more rights. Pick a side people.
Related posts:
- The Head Injuries On Friday night , Geetle’s school had a family dance...
- Love to the inner circle BAGD wrote some nice things about me today, which I...
- Shame on me? Shame on you! Did you hear about the Orlando Fl woman who was...
- How do you know when you are a real parent? For me, it was when I found myself keeping or...
- Here’s why you parent as a team If you don’t parent as a team, you might punish...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
29 years is not enough for killing a child. Or anyone for that matter (unless it was in self defense, which was obviously not the case here). To get MORE time for just standing around and letting it happen doesn’t make sense to me. Yes, I agree that she should serve time because she let the child starve and allowed her to be beaten, but not as MUCH or MORE time as the person that actually did the killing.
I’m not sure if mothers should be more responsible for their children than the fathers, but I do agree that society feels that way. Maybe that is why it is so easy for someone to be a deadbeat dad in this country.
[childbirth] hurts so that you value the end product.
I’d question the book in which that appears. Anthropologists cite the relatively large skull that humans have (to house their relatively large brains) for all sorts of things, and I’d more readily believe an anatomical explanation involving that than some wacky behaviorist theory.