Me too!So many of these things that are coming across we strange or "off" are things that we do in my own family. Taken out of context, the majority of these things that the mothers did are my own family's "normal." (We have white and beige furniture, until you go into their bedrooms you can't tell that my kids live in the same house-we're a little OCD on clutter; we do the festival circuit (my 11-year-old son and I are going to Burning Man together this year); I'll admit that I "stage" my photos and they're the ones I share online (I keep the candids, which are often embarrassing for the kids, to myself); partly due to a genetic disorder that I have passed on down the line, my kids and I look a lot younger and smaller than our peers of the same age; we stay up all night; and I am wary of strangers-even the nice ones. (If a woman whom I'd just met had offered to "mentor" my children, I'd have given her a polite "thank you", exchanged contact info, and hoped I'd never hear from her again. Because I think that's weird.)
So many of these things that are coming across as strange to some people are perfectly "normal" to me. Individually, I don't see many red flags when you take some of these things out of context. When you put them all together and look at everything as whole, however, it starts painting a different kind of picture.
I know that it probably won't happen but I would LOVE to hear from a medical professional who had firsthand experience with Sarah, Jen, and the kids. Were there medical concerns about the children's sizes? Did Jen or Sarah ever get treated for a mental illness or personality disorder? What does the children's dentist (assuming they had one) say about the missing teeth? I know that we'll probably never know these things, or it will be a long time if we do, but so far there's only been speculation as to the mental and physical health of the family. I'd really curious about the professional opinions from doctors/counselors/former teachers who knew them and had firsthand experience with them.
Me and my kids are going to Burningman too...I have turned down many offers to "mentor my kids and do their hair" I mean seriously a stranger comes up and says "I can do your child's hair and mentor them" what mother is like "Yah, sure, since I can't seem to parent them myself" It implies you are not doing their hair (Abigail's hair looks gorgeous in the chicken pic) and that you need help raising your kids. We are doing hair today on my kiddo....she throws up if we do it at the salon so we are getting her ready for locks...I've been at it for six hours and we have only a quarter of her head done. She is bipolar and hair triggers violent rages...so do I have to explain that to every stranger the rolls up and offers to do her hair?
Every story has many sides. These women were controlling and abusive and not prepared to raise traumatized kids that "all or nothing jump" in my opinion was more about giving up and going down together than some vindictive murder of their children. By the way regarding food (while I don't think they had any therapeutic intervention) our therapists have pretty much said we need to cut out all sugar from my daughter's diet and focus on gluten free etc....yeah, try enforcing that at home and school when everything has sugar in it.