gitana1
Verified Attorney
- Joined
- May 31, 2005
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Ya know, the more I read about cases like this, the more I start to wonder just what we have done people over the last years? Is it something controllable that is literally causing diminished mental capacity?
I understand that society has changed. More women are working outside the home, more people end up in situations where it is necessary to leave their children with people that charge less than a traditional day care or risk losing their jobs.
It used to be that people might take a day off for themselves once a week or once a month, but it was always with the same babysitter, and if they couldn't find a sitter that they trusted, they didn't go. But what's so bad is that people seem to be genuinely trusting these abusers and killers. The law and the speed of information are trying valiantly to catch up, providing people with more avenues to access information about individuals every day, and people are literally too stupid to use it, too naive to seek out the resources, or too damaged to care. And I'm not saying stupid as a slam on any particular parent that does it, I'm saying stupid, as in, it seems like the population is losing IQ points. At least large percentages of the population.
Step in a time machine, go back to the fifties, and watch what would happen, if a woman went to her friends house, and told them that she left her one month old with her boyfriend so she could go gambling, jaws would literally drop, and that woman might be committed...and today people are doing it every day.
Well, there was also a lot bad about the good ol' 50's. Child abuse was rampant as college educated mothers could not always handle a life of child rearing and waxing floors and took it out on their kids. Also, it was really okay to beat the tar out of your kids, maybe even kill them. Women and children who were victims of abusive husband/fathers, were virtually ignored. There was no such thing as battered child syndrome, and no reports in the 50's in the news of children being abused, because it wasn't discussed and was considered a "family" issue.
Also, women divorced and remarried with rapidity back then and new daddies were not uncommon. I think some things have gotten worse but some have gotten better.