World's best mom goes to...

[MLRyan]

Sorry if this is a repost, but this pissed me off a metric F-ton. I know hundreds of military spouses that deal with the same thing everyday, but they manage to take care of their families. The military has a massive support network for spouses, why didn't she use it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ressed-husbands-deployment.html#ixzz25TBXcD3I


"A Texas woman who claims her military husband's deployment overseas left her too stressed to care for their three young children, one of whom died, remained jailed Friday in connection with their alleged neglect.
Tiffany Nicole Klapheke is charged with three felony counts of injury to a child in connection with her 22-month-old daughter's death and the severe neglect of her two other daughters, ages six months and three years, Abilene police said.
Her toddler suffered from dehydration and malnutrition from a lack of basic care over a period of time, according to the preliminary autopsy report from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office in Fort Worth.
Klapheke, 21, remained in the Taylor County Jail in Abilene with bonds totalling $500,000. She does not yet have an attorney, according to jail records.The report also shows that the toddler weighed only 17.5 pounds and her body had chemical burns, indicating the child was exposed to human waste.
The toddler died at an Abilene hospital after being found unresponsive at her Dyess Air Force Base home Tuesday.
The woman's two other daughters were treated for severe neglect at a children's hospital in Fort Worth, about 150 miles east of Abilene. They were to be taken out of intensive care soon, Abilene police said.

Marleigh Meisner, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said her office has custody of the two girls.
Meisner declined to discuss whether Klapheke had a prior history with the agency. Her office is talking to relatives as part of its 30-day investigation to determine the best placement for the children, she said.

In an interview from jail, Klapheke told Abilene's KTAB-TV that she should have been a good mother and taken them to the doctor, but 'I didn't put them first anymore.' Klapheke, who moved with her husband to Texas a couple of years ago from Lexington, Kentucky, said none of her relatives live in the area.

She also said she tried committing suicide three weeks ago but a friend stopped her.
'I'm so just stressed out and depressed, and I just need help taking care of them, and I don't have any help,' she told the station.
Klapheke recalled her impatience over her children's potty training, saying she left her toddler in the crib in her own urine for nearly a week.
'I just got tired of always changing the sheets, so it was on there a little bit longer than it should have been,' she said about her deceased daughter's exposure to human waste.
'I made a horrible, horrible mistake that I'm going to pay for for the rest of my life,' she said.

 

[Fatboy Joe]

Three year old, 22 month old and 6 month old...and she is 21...I feel for the kids...

 

[mugsy]

Three year old, 22 month old and 6 month old...and she is 21...I feel for the kids...

I feel for the kids too but it has nothing to do with the mom being 21. When I was 21 the first of my 5 children was born, I was relatively newly married (still first year) and still in flying training. Our second child was born 20 months later. There is stress and there are hard tasks but no one in their right mind "forgets" to feed, clothe, and clean their kids. My wife who was a little younger than I certainly never did.

Many of my peers had children at the same time and they were expected to take care of those kids - most did just fine (in fact all that I know of). It seems to me that many people "excuse" themselves or others from responsibility by simply saying - I/he/she am/was young or depressed. Yet many young people also help their parents run companies, or become our young military leaders, or take care of their elderly or sick parents etc. It isn't just about age and maybe isn't even primarily about age - I tend to think the blanket "age" excuse is a canard used because we assume that the cultural stereotype of irresponsible, drunk or drugged young people is the reality. There are many irresponsible people but there are also many, many who do the right thing from square one and keep trying their best throughout their life.

 

[Fatboy Joe]

I feel for the kids too but it has nothing to do with the mom being 21. When I was 21 the first of my 5 children was born, I was relatively newly married (still first year) and still in flying training. Our second child was born 20 months later. There is stress and there are hard tasks but no one in their right mind "forgets" to feed, clothe, and clean their kids. My wife who was a little younger than I certainly never did.

Many of my peers had children at the same time and they were expected to take care of those kids - most did just fine (in fact all that I know of). It seems to me that many people "excuse" themselves or others from responsibility by simply saying - I/he/she am/was young or depressed. Yet many young people also help their parents run companies, or become our young military leaders, or take care of their elderly or sick parents etc. It isn't just about age and maybe isn't even primarily about age - I tend to think the blanket "age" excuse is a canard used because we assume that the cultural stereotype of irresponsible, drunk or drugged young people is the reality. There are many irresponsible people but there are also many, many who do the right thing from square one and keep trying their best throughout their life.

My reasoning on mentioning her being only 21 is that having three kids by that age makes a person grow up fast. Add to the fact that she doesn't appear to have a support network to fall back on. It isn't to say that she doesn't have responsibility for what she did or in this case didn't do. There are many young adults who put themselves through school, help with their parents, and have their own kids but there are many others who don't. Having a wife that battled through depression after our child was born, sometimes you feel helpless for them. They have to fight through it. It is a condition that those who have not been through it don't understand. I still don't understand it.

 

[Billybob]

Sorry if this is a repost, but this pissed me off a metric F-ton. I know hundreds of military spouses that deal with the same thing everyday, but they manage to take care of their families. The military has a massive support network for spouses, why didn't she use it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ressed-husbands-deployment.html#ixzz25TBXcD3I


"A Texas woman who claims her military husband's deployment overseas left her too stressed to care for their three young children, one of whom died, remained jailed Friday in connection with their alleged neglect.
Tiffany Nicole Klapheke is charged with three felony counts of injury to a child in connection with her 22-month-old daughter's death and the severe neglect of her two other daughters, ages six months and three years, Abilene police said.
Her toddler suffered from dehydration and malnutrition from a lack of basic care over a period of time, according to the preliminary autopsy report from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office in Fort Worth.
Klapheke, 21, remained in the Taylor County Jail in Abilene with bonds totalling $500,000. She does not yet have an attorney, according to jail records.The report also shows that the toddler weighed only 17.5 pounds and her body had chemical burns, indicating the child was exposed to human waste.
The toddler died at an Abilene hospital after being found unresponsive at her Dyess Air Force Base home Tuesday.
The woman's two other daughters were treated for severe neglect at a children's hospital in Fort Worth, about 150 miles east of Abilene. They were to be taken out of intensive care soon, Abilene police said.

Marleigh Meisner, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said her office has custody of the two girls.
Meisner declined to discuss whether Klapheke had a prior history with the agency. Her office is talking to relatives as part of its 30-day investigation to determine the best placement for the children, she said.

In an interview from jail, Klapheke told Abilene's KTAB-TV that she should have been a good mother and taken them to the doctor, but 'I didn't put them first anymore.' Klapheke, who moved with her husband to Texas a couple of years ago from Lexington, Kentucky, said none of her relatives live in the area.

She also said she tried committing suicide three weeks ago but a friend stopped her.
'I'm so just stressed out and depressed, and I just need help taking care of them, and I don't have any help,' she told the station.
Klapheke recalled her impatience over her children's potty training, saying she left her toddler in the crib in her own urine for nearly a week.
'I just got tired of always changing the sheets, so it was on there a little bit longer than it should have been,' she said about her deceased daughter's exposure to human waste.
'I made a horrible, horrible mistake that I'm going to pay for for the rest of my life,' she said.

'I didn't put them first anymore.' That says it all, somehow I'm guessing she didn't miss meals or lay in her own messes.

 

[Wheel Gun]

Folks, learn from stories like this. Try to get to know your neighbors. You may just save a family like this before they spiral out of control. I feel sorry for the kids. I feel sorry for this unequipped, young woman too.

 

[MLRyan]

My reasoning on mentioning her being only 21 is that having three kids by that age makes a person grow up fast. Add to the fact that she doesn't appear to have a support network to fall back on. It isn't to say that she doesn't have responsibility for what she did or in this case didn't do. There are many young adults who put themselves through school, help with their parents, and have their own kids but there are many others who don't. Having a wife that battled through depression after our child was born, sometimes you feel helpless for them. They have to fight through it. It is a condition that those who have not been through it don't understand. I still don't understand it.

What do you mean she doesn't have a support network? Her husband in in the Air Force(judging by his uniform in the pictures in the article) which means she has a HUGE support network tailored specifically to spouses left at home during deployments. All she had to do was call his First Sergeant or the head of the spouse's group and she would have had more help then she could handle. DO NOT make excuses for this woman.

 

[Fatboy Joe]

MLRyan, I am not making excuses for her. I just believe that 99% of the people in this world in their right mind would never harm their own child. She may be part of that 1%, but then again she may not have been in her right mind. I hope that it is depression or other things that caused her to do this. Her responses do not sound like someone who is a responsible adult. I also agree that she had the opportunity through the Air Force for support, but that doesn't mean she knew how to access it. She didn't have family around to help. Surely when her friend was around 3 weeks earlier she would have said something.

I just don't judge people on the news I hear. It is like the girl who was kidnapped and held captive for 18 years...She had multiple opportunities to leave, but mentally couldn't. We don't know this girls mental state.