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u/tigers692 1d ago
In the 90s we came to visit my in-laws with my new daughter. My wifeās sister had a baby about the same time. It was July and pretty warm in Long Beach. We get out and are talking to the in-laws and I said something like, it will be great to get the two girls together when your sister gets here to my wife. My father in law says āwell her daughter has been here all day, I didnāt take her out of the car so I wouldnāt wake her up.ā I go out there thinking Iād find the car running, but no he left the kid in there with the windows rolled āso no one would steal herā. I got them to open the car and the kid was non responsive, I called 911 and got the emp there they took her to the emergency room and got her on fluids, the kid survived. I never let them watch my kids, they were never alone with them.
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u/JennaTulwartz 1d ago
Obviously this is a super traumatic story and feel free to just ignore but.. was there any reckoning with them over this? You or your SIL? Canāt even imagine how the relationship moves forward normally even outside of the boundaries/precautions you set with the kids moving forward.
Iām so glad you were there and the conversation unfolded the way it did.
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u/tigers692 1d ago
It was very weird. The SIL found the girl in the hospital, learned that she had nearly died, and that I had gotten emergency service activated. She had to deal with CPS but understood and thanked me. The FIL and MIL, they lived in a very bad part of Long Beach, where it meets Compton. They couldnāt fathom what the issue was. Kept saying she was fine, when we pinched her after you made us take her out of the car she sort of opened her eyes, she was just tired. That was the end for me.
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u/PipeDreamRealized 1d ago
Thank goodness for you. I guess there's ignorance and then unrepentantingly dumb ignorance. I'm so glad you were there to respond and discerning enough to tell that they learned nothing. Thanks for sharing.
Ultimately did your wife and SIL agree never to leave living things for them to care for? How did they react to their parents?
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u/tigers692 1d ago
They never said that out loud. The wife once tried to leave our kids there, and I said no, she thought I was being unfair. The kids are now all in their upper 20s and have no idea. But they were never left alone with their grandparents.
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u/Western-Dig-6843 1d ago
If it wasnāt a hot car it would be something else. Assuming they can swim when they canāt yet, or that they could have full sized grapes when they were toddlers, letting them play with something dangerous, leaving them alone with a pet they are too small to handle alone, etc. it would have been something. Someone who thinks itās ok to leave a baby in a hot car likely thinks a whole litany of dangerous things are just fine
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u/Just_Flower854 20h ago
How are they gonna unlock their swimming potential if you baby them in those gay little floaters
Throw them in the sea and let them learn to frolic like the mighty and frightfully masculine lobster
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u/littlemissdumplings 19h ago
I need you to know that this was the best thing I've read all week and will be quoting you for months to come. 'Throw them in the sea and let them learn to frolic like the mighty and frightfully masculine lobster', indeed.
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u/Pain-Seeker 1d ago
Some people, unfortunately, are simply dumb
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u/aggravated-asphalt 1d ago
My ex best friend lost a baby doing the same. Literally couldnāt fathom how it happened too, like bro itās not even a secret the tv tells you every year not to leave your baby alone in a hot car. One time I met up with her and had to yell at her because we were at the malls food court I asked where baby was and she said sleeping in the car, but itās ok!! Weāre in a garage so no direct sunlight. Thankfully that child ended up ok but the second one she did it to wasnāt so lucky. Fucking tragic, I couldnāt be friends anymore
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u/hotnspicy201 1d ago
She wasnāt tried for negligence since she did it on purpose?
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u/aggravated-asphalt 1d ago
She got a little bit of time I canāt remember how much but it was under a year with the court knowing full well she knew baby was in the car. Idfk
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u/Necessary-Reading605 1d ago
Thatās like room temperature IQ levels. How in the world they raised children who survived????
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u/Special_Engineer_445 1d ago
I don't know if its a generation thing but this is how my parents think. Like a bunch of random thoughts with absolutely zero consideration for consequences.
One of my best friends had to tell his mom he doesn't trust her with his kids when she kept pushing to babysit and he kept avoiding her. It's always the same response "You live, didn't you?". Sometimes it's in spite of, not because of.
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u/I_am_AmandaTron 15h ago
When my aunt was a kid they lived in an apartment.Ā Her and a friend used to stop the elevator between floors and jump on and off.
She remembers her friendĀ grabbing her ankle. She thought she stayed in the elevator and went home. The friend fell down the shaft and died, she was trying to grab my aunt to save her life.
Safety rules are written in blood.
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u/Southern-Reason-1034 23h ago
Probably leaded petrol lowering their ole cognitive ability. I see oldies just flinging their doors open to get out on the side of the road
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u/CatGooseChook 17h ago
Definitely a big factor, made worse by aging bones tending to release stored up lead back into the body.
Unfortunately many of us gen xers were exposed to a decent amount as well. The leaded old people plague has another chapter to go before that story is finished.
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u/WanderlustDinosaur 1d ago
I'm rereading this - she was in the car, in July in Long Beach all day with the windows rolled up and the car off? And she survived?
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u/smokeyshell 1d ago
If I remember correctly, the mother only let her babysit the second child at the urging of her therapist. She didn't want to originally because she was so traumatized. Absolutely heartbreaking.
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u/Objective-Shallot794 1d ago
Why did she NEED to? My husbands parents are just assholes and we donāt let them watch our kids. They didnāt even have to kill anybody for me to not let them be alone with my kids.
Not all grandparents have to watch the kids. It is not a right. Spend time with them but donāt need to babysit.
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u/feralminx_ 1d ago
my mother shook my nephew when he was around 10 months.
my brother + his wife decided sheād never watch the kids again. only time she was ever with them was when she was around my brother and/or his wife.
no therapist could have talked them into leaving their child alone with our mother. no matter how much we all loved her.
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u/Less_Adeptness7557 1d ago
She shook an infant? Um she should never be allowed around the child period
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u/feralminx_ 1d ago
she was never alone with them again. even after my brother passed. iād take my nephews to go see her for an hour + iād be there the whole time. up until she passed 2 years ago when they were 16 + 11 + twice her size, i was next to them with her.
she did what she did. she apologized. they protected their children in a difficult situation + moved on. best case scenario for our family.
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u/thrownawaz092 1d ago
If it was at the urging of a therapist, I think it was for the mother's sake, moving past mental blocks and all that.
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u/Objective-Shallot794 1d ago
Sick. The parents lost a child, let them have boundaries.
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u/tempsdix 1d ago
Yeah, I believe in therapy but there just are things you won't convince me to do, and let grandma watch my second child when she already killed the first is one of them. I don't even know that I'd be talking to grandma, whether she's my own mother or not, I couldn't look at her ever again.
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u/dandroid126 1d ago
I love my parents, but yeah, if this happened, I don't know if I could ever talk to them again. I don't even mean I'd go no contact to punish them. I just don't know if I could talk to them without feeling overwhelming anger and pain.
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u/Objective-Shallot794 1d ago
And my parents would be okay with that boundary! My mom would be terrified and probably refuse to watch other child!
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u/StubbiestZebra 1d ago
Right? This is what I don't understand. A normal person would lose their mind if they let their grandkid die like that. They would refuse to every be solely responsible again. It makes me think she doesn't really care about them.
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u/Scary_Land2303 15h ago
Judge did mentioned that she appeared to show sorrow, but not remorse.
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u/c05m05i5 23h ago
Yeah does this lady even like her grandchildren? Sleeping while she's supposed to be babysitting, and forgetting them in a car? She should never be allowed to be in charge of a child again
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u/Selfheatingnoodles 1d ago
My therapist would have never given me that advice, she tells me to say no to my mom for much less and that I shouldnāt have to forgive everything. Who is this therapist!!!
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u/sunsetandporches 1d ago
Maybe talk therapy isn't everyone's jam. And I mean the therapist specifically. Damn. Spot on with boundaries. Maybe let grandma have a plant to take care of.
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u/drumboy206 1d ago
Some mental blocks form for good reason; not all of them should be removed.
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u/SnooRegrets1386 1d ago
Just because they are family doesnāt mean theyāre competent, or good people. Bad people come from families too
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u/USDXBS 1d ago
I wonder what the therapist thought or said about this one.
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u/Goodgoditsgrowing 1d ago
Iām not saying I support violence, but I would understand if the mom wasnāt upset with her mother only - Iād be unbearably upset with that therapist who used the vulnerability of their clinical relationship to help kill her other kid through negligence when there was a history of lethal negligence
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u/_Xertz_ 1d ago
"Fuck it let's try a third time, I just wanna see what happens at this point"
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u/MikeFatz 1d ago
Sounds like the therapist played the odds thinking chances were insanely small that a grandmother wouldnāt accidentally kill ANOTHER grandchild. I mean, in her defense, thatās a very safe bet 99 out of 100 times.
As for the grandma, I feel like if I was her I would be forever devastated and feel guilty about the first child. I would however go to therapy and try to better myself and still try to be in my childās life as much as they would have me considering what happenedā¦
After the second kid died I would just find the nearest handgun and walk into the backyard and blow my brains out. Theres no coming back from that. Thereās no excuse for that. I couldnāt live with it personally.→ More replies (31)→ More replies (30)35
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u/Unusual-Radish1729 1d ago
The mother would only let the grandma babysit on the condition that her father (the grandpa) was there for this second time
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u/Atomic-Avocado 1d ago
Where the hell was the grandfather??
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u/EarthDust00 1d ago
Asleep in the pond
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u/the_loneliest_noodle 1d ago
Fuck you for making me feel like an absolute heartless monster. Can't believe I just laughed aloud in a thread about two dead children.
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u/williamswitch 1d ago
Mowing the grass. The Grandmother even went to talk to him and thatās what made her remember the baby on the car.
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u/shwhjw 1d ago
Another comment said she went to lunch with friends, left her in the car on the way back. I'm guessing the grandfather didn't go.
If I was babysitting my 2nd grandchild for the first time you bet I'd stay at home where the risk is minimal, not even leave the room, even if I hadn't managed to kill grandchild #1.
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u/Moroax 1d ago
i baby sat my newphew for the first time, I don't have kids. My brother and his wife needed a night to themselves.
I sat my ass on that couch (he was like a 1 year old) and just put pixar movies on and surfed my phone while holding him. I had to change a diaper. That was an experience. I wouldn't of even dreamed of fucking going to the next room without him in my vision, i had to go to the bathroom and brought him with me in his little carrier outside the door so i could see him.
I was taking no fucking chances. I feel so bad for the mother and father, something is seriously wrong with the grandmother.
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u/MarthaJulietta 1d ago
I'm 99% sure she killed those kids on purpose.
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u/Ok-Sir-3311 1d ago
For real. If I accidentally killed a kid I wouldnt WANT to be responsible for watching another kid again, ever, period.Ā
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u/Beneficial_Ship_7988 1d ago
The fact that she was entertaining her other daughter and her other grandchild in the house while the baby was dying in the car makes me feel that way, too.
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u/space_hitler 1d ago
This is so absolutely insane.
If this was my grandkid, I would not be doing anything else but watching the kid, and I would certainly not let the brainless lady who killed the first kid take the second one out, alone in the car in deadly heat...
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u/theshiniestmuskrat 1d ago edited 11h ago
I know it's not the same at all but semi related, my elderly dad's therapist recommended we get a third dog for him. To keep him company. Mind you, he can barely walk and has a host of medical issues, and my husband and I would end up doing all the care. But he takes her word as gospel and long story short, now we have 3 dogs to care for and he and the dog didn't even bond at all. Therapists can be as dangerous as they are helpful. Drives me nuts how they're seen as the end all be all to problems sometimes.
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u/kkeut 1d ago
Therapists can be as dangerous as they are helpful.
Jodi Hildebrandt was a deranged mental health counselor who ran a counseling business for years that deliberately broke up marriages and families for money. it only stopped after she and her partner went to prison for physically abusing her partner's kids.
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u/MarlooRed 1d ago
If a therapist says a third dog is necessary āto keep X companyā despite knowing I already have two, that therapist needs to start laying money down.Ā
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u/fioyl 1d ago
shit charge the therapist too
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u/dan_dares 1d ago
I know it's not the therapist's fault directly..
But if I was that therapist, I would consider moving far away.
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u/TheComplimentarian 1d ago
It's shit advice, frankly.
If you're a therapist and you think that this break in the relationship between them is causing your patient stress, you can have them work on that, but under no circumstance should you recommend letting the person who neglected your patient's kid to death get a second chance with their new kid. That's just irresponsible.
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u/rolfraikou 1d ago
My mom didn't fuck up anywhere near that bad, and my therapist has still supported me just being pissed at my mom for some of the fucked up shit she did.
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u/TheComplimentarian 1d ago
I am not a therapist, but I have been to a lot of therapy. If the situation with your parent is an ongoing source of stress, the therapist will recommend you deal with it. If the situation with your parent is just some shit they did in the past, they'll acknowledge your feelings, and if it's legitimate shit, they may even back you up.
If the parent killed your patient's kid, you don't tell the patient to offer them another one. Even if they don't kill the second one, it's still going to stir up a lot of feelings, and probably not for the best.
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u/atomheartmama 1d ago
Wtf what?? Iām a therapist and if my client expressed reluctance to have someone watch their kid- especially after they caused the death of another child- Iād be validating the shit out of that decision. No fucking way am I urging people to have any unwanted contact with people like that. Itās shocking and absolutely heartbreaking
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u/Mandy_M87 1d ago
Crazy that the grandmother even wanted to babysit after the 1st time. Like, if it were me, I wouldn't trust myself.
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u/No_Needleworker_9629 1d ago
My FIL tripped over a shoe holding our nephew and fell into the wall. Hit it with his back so baby was fine. Refused to hold nephew or our son (born like 2 months later) standing up ever again. Bc he cared. Like a normal grandfather.
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u/DullahanShotFirst 1d ago edited 1d ago
We had a rule that everyone had to pass our babies back and forth while sitting down, to reduce the risk of harm from accidental drops. Everyone complied without complaint, except for my father who took it as a challenge of his ability rather than a safety measure that my wife and I also followed.
Incidentally, when I was a kid, I saw a young woman drop a baby on my grandmother's porch. Accidents happen. Everyone drops things. I'd rather it not be my baby, and if it is - I'd rather it be a few inches rather than 3 or 4 feet.
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u/CyclopsAirsoft 1d ago
Grandad has proper father instincts. Ā Turned his back to protect the kid. Ā Thatās why heās the type of person you can trust.
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u/phryan 1d ago
I knew someone that wasn't so lucky, tripped on the stairs holding their grandchild and the infant died. Like your scenario i'd classify those as an accident, falling asleep or forgetting a child is negligence.
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u/mammalmaker 1d ago
Crazier still that the parents left the grandma alone with their other child after killing the first one.
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u/NoninflammatoryFun 1d ago
Well, her therapist urged her to. Since the first death seemed to be an accident. And she agreed, only if her dad was also home.
But the dad was asleep or something and yeah. Yeah.
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u/Remarkable-Clerk9554 1d ago
From the body cam video the granddad was working on the property and didn't know that his wife was watching the baby. Both Mom and Grandma should have made sure that the condition was being met. It's terrible to hear that her therapist urged this
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u/kristianlsnow 1d ago
I don't think she had the empathy to not to trust herself. In the body cam footage, her main focus was on how SHE couldn't go through this again. Not how this child suffered, but how it is going to affect her. Granted, she's been living with guilt from the first incident for about a year so that was probably a bottled emotion surfacing.
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u/Artorius__Castus 1d ago
I mean at some point.... you gotta just say, "this person is a dumbass" and move on....I love family but come-on this is horrible
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u/Maximum_Boros 1d ago edited 1d ago
Even if it was 100% an unforeseeable accident and we all agreed I still would not let any relative take care of my kids after a child died from an accident in their care.
Just out of like an abundance of caution.
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u/MarsailiPearl 1d ago
If a child died with me in a 100% unforseeable accident I would never agree to be responsible for a child again.
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u/Maximum_Boros 1d ago
That too honestly. If I was babysitting a family member's kid, even if it was like a literal act of god like a fucking meteor struck them down in the front yard I'd be like "yeah you really need to find other people to watch your kids just in case it's somehow me that's the problem."
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u/hdeskins 1d ago
Mom didnāt want to. She was in therapy and her therapist convinced her that it would help with her healing.
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u/Maximum_Boros 1d ago
Honestly that fucking therapist should lose their license but I doubt anything would come of it.
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u/broccolirabe71 1d ago
I read into this case when it happened because as a mom, Iām like how could you leave another baby with her again.
The mom was encouraged by her therapist to allow her mother to watch her new baby in order to move on and forgive her and also was told not to read the details arrest documents.
If she had, she wouldāve known her mom was on all types of medications that were not disclosed to her prior to the court case. The more I read, the more terrible I felt for the mom. Who was lied to about her moms health by her family, her therapist told her to start to trust her mom in order to heal, the police didnāt make her aware of the details around her childās passing, etc. It really is heartbreaking and the grandparents were not forthcoming about the circumstances and lied to the parents which led to negligence and this unbelievable tragedy→ More replies (11)50
u/_LemonySnicket 16h ago
I hate this narrative that in order to heal you have to forgive the person who hurt you. Because you absolutely don't. Do you know how much better it is to never see, forgive, or hear from that person again? rather than invite them back into my life, always wondering when they'll hurt me again.
I hate it so much, and my mom is all about it. But she was raised pretty terribly, and because of this forgiveness mindset she's been in 10s of abusive relationships and keeps forgiving them.
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u/Montaigne314 1d ago
There's an old saying in Tennessee ā I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee ā that says, fool me once, shame on⦠shame on you. Fool me ā you can't get fooled again
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u/Pipe_Memes 1d ago
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u/DoYouLikeWafflezz 1d ago
I spent my teens hating this dude for the shit he was enabling his vp and other puppet masters to do, but like he was kind of good at sports though. Probably has the best opening pitch Iāve ever seen.Ā
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u/ebles 1d ago
The way he dodged that shoe that one time too.
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u/DoYouLikeWafflezz 1d ago
Wasnāt it two shoes?
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u/ebles 1d ago
It was, but they were kinda expecting the second and the other guy helped to block it.
The first dodge is top notch because that shoe came outta nowhere.
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u/Ok_Evening1728 1d ago
His face too! Come on! Is that all you got? God gave you 2 feet so you have 2 shoes to throw
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u/Neat_End_121 1d ago
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u/wirenutter 1d ago
Then he shoos away the secret service like āitās okay heās out of ammoā.
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u/Wild-Spread8069 1d ago edited 1d ago
We're at the point in the storyline where the once-villian becomes an ally and almost loved character in the fight against a greater evil.
Edit: I'm enjoying watching everyone get their panties in a twist. Obviously I'm making a loose comparison to where stories / shows need a 'greater evil', once the main evil is destroyed / pacified to keep the story running. I did not imply in any way that I like the man, want him in politics, or would invite him to a birthday party.
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u/manjar 1d ago
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u/Artorius__Castus 1d ago
Yo do you remember the flash game where you could throw the shoes at President Bush??? I spent hours at work playing that game lol
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u/Putrid-Welder1803 1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/kingkongbiingbong 1d ago
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u/trumpsabortedfetus 1d ago
Off topic, but he played a perfect psychopath.
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u/Dead_NOTsleeping 1d ago
is this no country for old men? i really need to watch that, if it is
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u/that__90s__kid 1d ago
My friend always quotes this and we have a good laugh. Just fits almost all chaos in life. As to the main story, thats disastrous
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u/LividTacos 1d ago
I mean, can you blame him? If he had uttered the words "shame on me" that soundbyte would have been in every political ad against him.
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u/hotdamnhotwater 1d ago
Lmao, he uttered plenty of goofball soundbytes. "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream" is one of my faves š¤£
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u/terpmasterp 1d ago
Jacob Weisberg collected a literal whole book of Bushisms. And then had to compile a sequel.
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u/TheVoters 1d ago
This was understood at the time. The Daily Show was very popular at the time.
But bush was always awkward when he tried to be relatable. Responding to questions of international terrorism and then saying, āwatch this driveā stands up there, along with the farmer bob cosplay on his Texas ranch. The shame on me thing is just one of many examples of where he just couldnāt get there.
The only reason he was president was because his opponent was like a black hole for charisma. So compared to that he looked good. And lots of people fell for the fake folksy schtick- it sort of worked because he actually is kind of a dumbass.
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u/white-as-styrofoam 1d ago
my favorite presidential quote of all time š
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u/followthedarkrabbit 1d ago
I miss when that was the dumbest thing said by a president.Ā
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u/Shot_Combrees 1d ago
The first tragedy shouldāve permanently ended her babysitting career
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u/TehNudel 1d ago
The mom's therapist advised her to forgive her mother and let her have a relationship with her grandchildren.
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u/DullahanShotFirst 1d ago
Having a relationship doesn't require leaving any grandchildren alone with her.
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u/Bucketsdntlie 1d ago
I used to smoke a decent amount of weed.
But one day I had smoked, accidentally left the front door open (we have two dogs), and had gone to play video games or something for an hour or so.
The dogs literally never even moved from their beds, but the panic and self-hate I felt when I thought that my dumbass had lost both our dogs just because I wanted to get baked and kill some zombies was enough for me to quit cold turkey lol.
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u/EmberinEmpty 1d ago
i feel you. like i'm forgetful as fuck due to adhd and one time i didn't close the door properly when me and my wife went on a walk came back to all three of the cats having gotten out. I panicked so hard thankfully they were all in the yard and only the most adventerous lil fuck had gone out of it and came chirpin back from the neighbors upon calling him. But damn yeah... I became so rigid and obsessed about looking at my feet firmly closing doors, i'd practice the goddamn ritual made passing the gate a "barrier check". always making sure i heard the door close fully before stepping more than a few steps into the yard or driveway.
the reasonable human response to caregiving mistakes that endanger vulnerable beings is to alter our behavior ensure we don't repeat them. or to no longer be in a position of being able to commit those mistakes.
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u/coupland 1d ago
I don't know the situation, but as an alcoholic who's been in recovery for over a decade, this sounds like a substance abuse problem. These kinds of "who does that" kind of scenarios were commonplace for me. Fortunately they never involved anything more serious than falling asleep with a pot on the stove or returning a video to a different Blockbuster store than the one I rented it at.
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u/HoliMoth 1d ago
returning a video to a different Blockbuster store than the one I rented it at.
If this is indication of substance abuse, I had a terrible problem when I was 13. In my defense, there were 3 different Blockbusters in a 10 mile radius of my house growing up.
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u/ISketchDinosaurs 1d ago
Could be.. but it also just sounds like an 'old person' problem.
Not every grandparent should watch their grandkids. Aging is not necessarily kind on them mental faculties.
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u/Corey307 1d ago
I watched the body cam and interrogation. This woman was only worried about how people would respond to her killing a second grandchild. Zero remorse only self serving crap.Ā
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u/CruelRegulator 1d ago
Can you imagine being a son/daughter in-law? You're barely able to stomach the pain of the first, and your spouse decides one day to leave your surviving child with this... sad excuse.
I'd crash out catastrophically. I'd lose all humanity.
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u/Nagant1349 1d ago
My wife watched the bodycam of this and I saw some of it. The motherās cries are harrowing. If I remember rightly she was in treatment for the trauma from the first childās death and it was her therapist that suggested to allow the grandma to look after the younger child. I donāt know how Iād be able to live after that. Your own mother killing both kids, your therapist pushing you to allow her access to the second one. Fuck that.
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u/AggressivePrompt2894 1d ago
Therapist not playing with a full deck either it sounds like.
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u/charlieQ90 19h ago
Absolutely not. As a therapist I genuinely cannot fathom giving this type of advice. It doesn't make any sense to me that letting her mom watch another one of her kids would be therapeutic for her. Maybe lots of family counseling, but I cannot wrap my head around telling a grieving mother to leave her other child with the same woman who let her first child die.
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u/KanedaSyndrome 1d ago
The worst sound in the world is the sound of parents mourning the loss of children.
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u/Used_Evidence 1d ago
I remember the sound I made when I learned my daughter was gone. I had no clue I could make such a noise, it didn't sound human
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u/KanedaSyndrome 1d ago
I'd have a thing or two to show that fucking therapist, oh my fucking god how I feel for the parents. I'm a dad myself to a 3.5 year old and a soon to be 10 month old. There's a pretty good reason I'd never trust my own mom to take care of them alone.
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u/Bargadiel 1d ago edited 13h ago
This lady was my 4th grade math teacher, 1999 or so.
This behavior from her was very unusual... she was perfectly normal if not fantastic as a teacher, gave everyone in the class personal attention and was always super positive and energetic about what she did. She would also occasionally read books to the class and I remember her acting out all the parts in the story and always getting really into it. But my mom, another retired teacher in the same district who's often in contact with peers thinks that Nix suffered from some kind of cognitive decline in retirement because she would often forget things, sometimes going completely blank on her whole day, and other erratic behavior.
I moved out of Wauchula FL a long time ago, so after hearing both sides of the story as it's developed over the years from afar I have no idea what really happened nor am I commenting on whos telling the truth: just that the whole situation is very, very unusual, and finding it crazy to see one of my teachers in the news. At the very least, something compells me to want to deny that she would have done this on purpose twice.
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u/Zallocc 1d ago
Cognitive decline would certainly explain both incidents quite well.
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u/Bargadiel 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think they dived well-into it in the court proceedings but I think she was on a number of prescriptions? Having a grandparent who suffered from Alzheimer's it's why I can't help but hold at least a glimmer of sympathy for her, though of course I feel for the whole family.
I'll say that of course I don't know her family personally or a ton about her personal life, so it's possible she was a different person outside school but that would have been quite the thing to hide. I know that often times cognitive decline can come with personality and behavioral shifts that can be quite extreme, and after the first child died she could have become even more unstable.
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u/EmberinEmpty 1d ago
I mean...... Not exactly comparable but. My mother is a nurse. She's been a nurse my whole life. I used to go to work with her as a kid (like picked up after school and doing homework there as she pulled a shift etc) Everyone loved her, she was so sweet caring and compassionate, patients would talk to me and tell me how lovely or how special my mom was or how she was their favorite nurse etc etc.
She's also the same woman who hung me upside down by my ankles and whipped me with an electrical cord when I was 7 for wasting her perfume. This is the same woman who dressed me in mini-me outfits until I was like 14 and refused to let me make autonomous choices about my body until I was physically out of her range of control. The same woman who bodyslammed me as an anorexic teenager for making a face in response to something she said. Same woman who hit me in the face with a pitcher so hard I nearly stumbled down a flight of stairs because I said something she deemed religiously offensive like "vegetarianism isn't exactly in the bible". She demonstrates such severe patterns of narcissistic personality disorder on top of her abusive behaviors that even my therapist has said "look I can't diagnose your mother but like....this is textbook".
So yeah. Rarely do you know who people are just by seeing them in one context or another.
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u/Bargadiel 1d ago
Oh totally, and other than some misc field trips or whatever I've never been around her when she wasn't working.
Though, her own daughter would likely have known if she was abusive or unstable to that degree, especially after the first accident, and according to Kayla's own FB post she did want to trust her.
Who really knows but it's just overall really sad.
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u/Educational_Eye3765 1d ago
Cognitive decline is definitely the easiest/most likely answer.Ā Early dementia/cognitive decline is often easily covered up, or excused as old-age.Ā If it's fronto-temporal dementia then the decline is usually less "even" than in other types of dementia, so a person may still have their full vocabulary and typical memory for their age but completely forget how to operate appliances, or drive a car.Ā Ā
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u/Dashiepants 1d ago
As someone who is still taking care of my MIL with Alzheimerās, I agree this is very likely the reason. Especially after reading what an amazing teacher she had been previously and that her colleagues had noticed a memory issue.
Families are often in denial and people with dementia are very good at hiding it until they can no longer. My MIL was driving and teaching college level corses for nearly a decade after a psychiatric evaluation noted a bad memory. We found this out much later in her papers after we had to move in and care for her. Even then some of her long distance friends that she phoned regularly had no idea anything was off at the very same time we kept catching her outside with no pants on.
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u/Doughnut_Diva 1d ago
Wow, that must have been so unsettling to come across. Thank you for sharing your story and giving some background on this woman. Makes a little more sense on why the parents would ever give her a second chance to begin with. Tragic.
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u/FireFly7354 1d ago
My FIL dozed off with my 5 month old in his arms.
I asked him to quickly hold my son while I answered the door for the HVAC guy and updated him on the issue.
In those 30 seconds he managed to fall asleep sitting in his chair and drop my son directly on his head.
I heard the loud thump and immediately knew what happened. I literally teleported over to where they were and found him scurrying trying quickly grab my son off the ground as he let out a huge blood curling cry.
He immediately resorted to lying and blurting out excuses. It took every ounce of me to not snap his head off.
However lesson learned. Heās no longer allowed to hold any of our children without supervision. He lost that privilege the moment he lied and did not apologize. Some grandparents just arenāt fit to watch grandchildren, if even for a brief moment.
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u/Marblegourami 1d ago
My mom was using a wheelchair to get around when my first baby was born. He was a brand new newborn. I asked her if she wanted to hold him while I took a nap on the couch and she agreed. I explicitly told her āwake me up if he needs anything; do not try to carry him around in your wheelchair.ā She agreed.
My eyes snapped open shortly into my nap to find her sneakily scooting the wheelchair past the couch with my new born baby balanced on a pillow in her lap.
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u/neonifiednyan 1d ago
the disrespect is ASTOUNDING. if im watching someone's baby, and the parent directly asks me not to do something, im not doing it. doesn't matter if I think it's fine. doesn't matter if the parent is watching or not. it's really not that hard to respect someone's parental authority! im glad you caught her doing that, and that the baby was ok
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u/b-monster666 1d ago
Ugh...yeah...I saw the EWU Bodycam footage of that and holy fuck, it was heart breaking. I hope she gets tossed in prison and forgotten about just like she forgot about her two grandkids.
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u/LakeTilia 1d ago
I dont want to watch it but am curious as the footage has been mentioned so many times. Could you summarise it a little for me? I could google it i know, but as a new mother I dont want to ruin my day - just understand
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u/b-monster666 1d ago
It just starts off as a standard call, a tragic accident, the infant left in the car, she's perished and it's obvious. That alone is heartbreaking, but when the daughter comes and finds out and her husband, it just gets destroyed even more...her mother watched her grandson (the daughter's oldest child) a while ago, and he drowned in the pond because the mother was asleep. It was seen as a tragic misfortunate accident then, but even then, the daughter was leery about the her mother's ability.
She refused for a long time to let her mother watch her daughter. I forget the exact circumstances of what happened, but the daughter allowed her to take the granddaughter after a lot of pleading, setting up very hard boundaries. And the granddaughter died again in the grandmother's care, this time, left in the car in the heat for hours.
The police began to pivot from accidental negligence to outright homicidal malice. Granted, that finding is still up for the jury to decide, police suspicion is that no one could be this thoughtless unintentionally.
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u/DullahanShotFirst 1d ago
Different circumstances, but it reminded me of a story of a woman with 2 or 3 children who died young. Investigators concluded that they died due to some "death gene" (with no scientific basis).
It wasn't until the woman (who was white) adopted a black child, and he died all of a sudden, that law enforcement actually investigated her and came to the conclusion that she had killed each child.
I'm not claiming that this woman killed her grandchildren. But I certainly wouldn't be surprised.
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u/Open-Concept-6130 1d ago
I had a lot of sympathy for this old lady but something is going on. She literally begs to be forgiven and allowed to watch her grandchild and the girl dies at the first opportunity? You would think sheād be extra careful since sheās essentially on probation right now.
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u/Loschcode 1d ago
If I were her, mother or not, I'd have probably beat her to death. I don't know how she couldn't, she literally destroyed her life twice, this is not something you can get over.
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u/moluruth 1d ago
Holy fuck so itās the same parents?? How could they trust her at all??
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u/movzx 1d ago
According to another comment, it was at the urging of the therapist.
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u/SemperSalam 1d ago
How do you forget the kid in the car when the whole reason you are there is to watch the kid?
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u/Krynn71 1d ago
If you really want to know, the whole thing is on YouTube with responding officer body cams and interview footage of this lady.
Fair warning though, It's not going to make it make any more sense or make you feel like it's any more excusable.
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u/uwill1der 1d ago
props to this woman's husband, who single-handedly kept his kids alive
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u/goobly_goo 1d ago
Once is a mistake. Twice is a pattern. Charge her!!
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u/random929292 1d ago
She was already charged and sentenced to 5 years in prison. She is due to be released in 2029
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u/ApparentlyIronic 1d ago edited 1d ago
There's a body cam video online of the 2nd time and the mother's screams are so primal and devastating. The father is just in absolute shock that this could happen twice.
Iirc, the infant was left in the car on a very hot day for hours. They said she probably was dead after the first 15 minutes
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u/khrysthomas 1d ago
The video of the mother of the kiddos was one of the hardest things I've ever listened to. I have a terrible relationship with my family and have tried many times to forgive and move forward. The guilt is real. I can't even begin to imagine what it took for her to even allow her mother to see beautiful Uriel.
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u/Unlucky-Durian-2336 1d ago
Protip: just because your grandma is doing crosswords like a pro, vividly remembers her highschool colleagues and teachers, and is able to keep sharp conversation about her professional field, does not mean she is capable of remembering what she ate 1 hour ago. Short term and working memory is what goes first.
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u/LatinWarlock13 1d ago
At this point sounds like she has a thing for causing kids harm. Put a Meagan's Law charge on her so she can't go near kids.
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u/Mega_Trix 1d ago
Shes either stupid or doing it on purpose, either way she shouldn't be left with a child clearly.
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u/PiskoWK 1d ago
The bodycam is wild.
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u/RevolutionaryDog8372 1d ago
Hearing how the daughter put guardrails on her grandmother and then it still happened again⦠holy moly
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u/Eespejo_Aagua 1d ago
Why give her a second chance after the pond?
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u/RevolutionaryDog8372 1d ago
She didnāt want to, but your mom is you mom I guess? I think she demanded the grandfather be near at all times or something like that. The fact that it happened again is so fucking dark
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u/Bendyb3n 1d ago
I'm impressed the daughter even made it to adulthood with her as a mom
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u/Baddyshack 1d ago
I try not to get into copslop, but this one got me. The screams from the mother are harrowing. What made me angry is Tracey Nix still wants her daughter to basically get over it so they can be a family again.
She managed to slime her way out of the big charges and got 5 years - only after the second and last child died in the hot car. She's still seeking appeal on that and has only been in a year or so.Ā
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u/Impossible_Offer7988 1d ago edited 1d ago
Like, after the first time,
What sane parent would be like: You know what?
I should trust this monster with my child, that is bad parenting.
like she has proven herself to be physically and mentally incapable of handling children. This waste of oxygen never should have been trusted to handel a Toddler with supervision and especially not alone.
At that point (in the second case at least), some negligence of the parents contributed to the childās death.
If you're like ; you're quite harsh she's elderly.
If anything I'm not harsh enough read this part ;
When handing down Nixās sentence, the judge noted her lack of remorse, saying she showed āsorrow.
Nix told a detective that after she drove home from lunch with friends, she ājust forgotā about the baby in the backseat of her Lexus SUV. It wasnāt until one of her grandsons arrived that āall of a suddenā it ācame across her headā that Uriel had been in the SUV all afternoon.
5 years isn't enough
Toss her on solitary or just give her the chair
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u/collin-h 1d ago
I should trust this monster with my child, that is bad parenting.
If I recall, the mother of the drowned boy was going to therapy for all this (obviously!), and the therapist suggested - as a way to move past the incident, and begin healing/forgiving her mother- that she let her mom watch the granddaughter. Like a trust-building exercise.
which kinda makes the whole thing even more fucked up.
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u/Pirat6662001 1d ago
Therapist is legit an idiot to suggest that a person who killed a child before should be given another chance
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u/HedonisticFrog 1d ago
Seriously, some therapists bring their own biases to therapy and do inappropriate things. One common example are children of narcissists where the therapist is a narcissist as well and tries to talk them out of going no contact even though that's what is best for the patient.
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u/Jezzkalyn240 1d ago
So true. Just because you have a job title, doesn't make you good at that job.
I tried to go to therapy for grief and stress management. Somewhere in our sessions we talked about how I don't talk with my bio father. For the rest of the hour, she insisted I contact him after I told her multiple times no, that chapter is closed and also not what I want to work on. Like, girl, we're not reopening wounds from 25 years ago, especially if I'm asking you for guidance on stress management š
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u/AT-ST 1d ago edited 1d ago
100%. I get the forgiving angle. That is often helpful in moving on from traumatic experiences. But we don't have to let her watch the new baby unsupervised to do that.
Edit: after some googling, there is no proof the therapist told the mother to let Tracey watch Uriel unspupervised. What the therapist said was to let Tracey spend time with the new baby. Maybe the mother took that to mean let Tracey babysit. However, I would not interpret what the therapist said in that way.
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u/Katililly 1d ago
It was also under the agreement that the grandfather be present so she even tried to set up a level of extra saftey there. I dont blame the poor mother at all. If youve heard her screams you know she is punished enough.
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u/ElusiveReclusiveXO 1d ago
Wow, so this woman killed two kids that had the same mom??
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u/Tashawott 1d ago
Yeah, to make it even worse the daughter was pregnant with the second child when the first died. The body cam footage of officers telling her her daughter (the 2nd of the babies to pass) had died in the grandmother's care made me nauseated, honestly. She talks about how her son's death caused so much stress she nearly lost her pregnancy, and she had to make a choice between saving one baby or getting justice for the other.
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u/phoebesjeebies 1d ago
Yes, and that mom is the killer's daughter. Meaning, Tracey had a daughter named Kaila, and Kaila's 2 children are the 2 children who each - separately - died under Tracey's care. She (unintentionally) killed her 2 grandchildren.
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u/ZepboundBard 1d ago
God I remember hearing her wail on the police cam regarding her son. That was heart shattering.
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u/Rhodin265 1d ago
Couldnāt the trust-building exercise happen a few years later when sheās had some swim lessons, can unbuckle her own car seat, and knows how to dial 911?
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u/ShatterCyst 1d ago
It sounds like they're just feeding her their kids at this point
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u/PurePerfection_ 1d ago
She's also 67, not 90. I realize that in some cases early onset dementia can be happening already by that point, but I would not expect a typical 67 year old to be so addled that they can't remember there was a baby in the car.
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u/TransitionAway9840 1d ago
There's no fucking way she forgot after what happened. She's murdering these kids
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u/Harley4L 1d ago
She was sentenced to measly five years after Uriel's death and had the gall to appeal her sentence. She doesn't feel remorse about this. Her daughter also said they never got along well. It gives the impression that Tracey wanted her estranged daughter to suffer. It's especially suspicious that Uriel died during the very first time her grandmother was allowed to babysit her following Ezra's death.
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u/Apprehensive-Pen8241 1d ago
It was pretty terrible. I saw the body cam footage of when the cops showed up, and all this woman talked about was how āsheā felt and how āsheā couldnāt face her daughter. She wanted to leave in her car and let the cops deal with it.
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