No one would ever...

As a logical adult (well, most of the time), I often trip myself up as a parent because it won't occur to me that a kid would do certain things. A perfect example of this happened on my last grocery shopping trip with Bishop and Cadence. The shopping itself was uneventful. We get everything loaded up and head out to the car. Bishop has this thing were I let him 'help' me unload the groceries into the back of my Blazer while he is in there. So I toss him in, put Cadence in her car seat, and then go to transfer groceries from cart to car. I get the first couple of bags in, when I hear a high pitched scream from the back. I turn, and there is Bishop, with a battery cable clamp stuck on his tongue. And honestly, my first response was to laugh. I did jump in to save him (and his tongue) but I was laughing the whole time.

I am sure anyone watching would think I am a terrible mother for not being more concerned. I mean, Bishop just clamped a very large alligator-like clamp on his tongue. And my response is to laugh?

The problem is that I know the child. And he has a propensity to clamp things on his tongue. Which makes absolutely no sense after doing it once. It never ends well, so I am not sure what the motivation here is. I mean, he screams and cries every time, whether its a cloths pin, bobby pin, hair clip, hair claw, and now, a battery cable clamp. What does he expect to happen here?

Clamp + tongue/lips= pain. Every. Single. Time.

Which is where the logic trips me up. I knew the battery cables were in there. We had to jump my car because a certain toddler had turned on my headlights while pretending to drive it earlier that day. I just never imagined he would attempt to clamp his tongue. Clamp on face=bad. But apparently it is all uncharted territory for a 3 year old. There is a disconnect somewhere in his brain. Maybe I need to stop saving him and just let him live with something stuck to his face for a while (a smaller clamp, clearly. The battery cable one could do some real damage, as it is about the size of his face itself).

I will be surprised if he makes it to 10 without a couple broken bones. Or a possible lip/tongue surgery.

The Casey Anthony Problem

So this is mainly a rant about the case, but you should understand a few things going into this. The first is that I support our judicial system. Yes, it may have it's problems, and yes, it does make mistakes, but it is operated by people, who inherently are flawed. The second is that I don't blame the jurors for not convicting her. That being said...

WHAT THE HECK! I know many people are outraged by the ruling, and while I can't say I am in that category, there are some things that happened that I don't agree with. Did she kill her daughter? I don't know. And that seems to be the problem that the jury had as well. The evidence is pretty circumstantial when all put together. Yes, it's fishy, but honestly, if I had been a juror, I probably couldn't have found her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The fact that the media decided she was guilty before and during the trial has made a huge impact on people; primarily because we all have watched it through the eyes of her being guilty for sure. Understanding that the jury wasn't allowed to watch any media reporting on it, and only had what the judge deemed to be allowable evidence does make a difference in their outlook. To condemn someone to death without being 100% positive that they are guilty...yeah, I can see their problem.

That being said, I think the fact that they found her innocent of the other charges is silly. I think it is clear through her actions that she is guilty of aggravated child abuse. Lets suspend reality for a moment, and say that she had nothing to do with her daughters murder. Why would you wait 31 days to report her disappearance? As a mom, the idea that my child is missing and that I wouldn't automatically report it to the police is beyond my comprehension. If she had nothing to do with it, why would she hide it? Another scenario- if I left my child anywhere for 31 days and lied about it repeatedly to my parents/friends/everyone wouldn't that be considered abusive? Like if I went for a vacation, and left Bishop at home by himself at 3 for a month, how is that not child abuse? IF she had nothing to do with her daughters death, then why would she wait for so long to tell anyone. And her 'looking into it herself' story? Yeah, right. I am sure she scheduled that in after her partying. She wrote in her journal 5 days after Caylee went missing that she is 'happier now than she has been in years.' How is that possible for a mom who is hiding the fact that her daughter is gone? There was no nanny, she wasn't staying with friends. Casey knew Caylee was missing, and did or said nothing about it. She wouldn't even have reported it if it wasn't for her mom, who called 911 and handed her the phone. Just because she had never been abusive previously, doesn't mean the act of not reporting it is not abuse in itself.

As for the aggrivated manslaughter, ^^see above. She knew that Caylee was missing and didn't report it. I think at the very least, she should be in jail for aiding in the murder of her daughter, even if she didn't do it herself. It's like letting your child be kidnapped while you stand there and then not say anything to anyone about it. You might as well have kidnapped them yourself for having allowed it to happen.

The fact that she is going to be charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in reparations to the court for the trial and to the company who searched for 5 months for her daughter does make me feel a little better. Add that to the fact that she is basically unemployable and it makes you wonder what her plans are. I can't see her going on talk shows, as she is almost universally hated, and what if someone asked her outright if she did it? She wasn't willing to take the stand for the same reason. Or maybe she will go on a bunch of shows and lie some more? Hopefully, she spends the rest of her life trying to pay off this bill for all the damage she did. Even if she didn't kill her daughter, the amount of neglect she showed in not reporting her missing and lying makes me hope that she has to flee the country.

Another question- where does she plan to live? She was residing with her parents before going to jail. But she burned that bridge...so? Should be interesting. I wouldn't rent to her. And I wouldn't hire her. I am pretty sure most of the country shares those sentiments.