I spent my morning watching the rebuttal argument for the prosecution for the Casey Anthony murder case. I have opinions. Boy, do I!
My opinion: She did it. She did it accidentally, but she did it. She didn't like the responsibility that came with being a mother and she needed to do something to keep up her life as a mom and the life she wanted. Since there was no baby sitter, she decided that Caylee needed to go everywhere she went, even if it was by forced sleep in the trunk of the car. Poor baby.
I have often heard that after a woman gives birth she will automatically know what to do because she is a mom now. I couldn't disagree with that more. So what! You're a mom and yes, there are some moments when you know exactly what to do but being a mother to young children is a very very difficult task and sometimes it's just NOT pretty. There are something that do come naturally and then there are things that one has to learn as a mother. You don't know the different cries of a baby, you have to learn that and the only way to learn that is by listening to your baby cry. And babies crying isn't exactly relaxing and soothing. Trial by fire.
There is a learning curve in motherhood. A girl can't have a child and then be asked to act responsibly and do the right thing all the time because the truth is, when you're 19, the right thing to do is party and hang out with friends and act a fool. Now that's not true for everybody. I know that but for the majority of the 19 year olds I knew (or was for that matter) partying and being social was a top priority. That was a top priority for Casey Anthony. She was a very selfish person, as we all tend to be at that age. Life experience changes that and she hadn't experienced life enough to know how to be a good mother to someone. It's easy to play with a baby and dress them and feed them peas but then you leave them with their parent and go away. That wasn't true for Casey. No matter how much her parents supported her, no matter all that her parents did for her, it wasn't enough. It wasn't enough to save Caylee.
Maybe Casey wanted to have her cake and eat it too. I'm sure she wanted to be awesome and amazing and still be able to do all the things that she wanted to do. She wanted to go out and have fun, have boyfriends, have flings, take part in bar contests and be a good mother. She wanted to do all that all at the same time, but the truth is, you can't really do all that. Maybe there a couple of people who can get away with that, but seriously, one can't do that without a baby sitter and without some serious judgment from a whole lot of people. And if you are the kind of person who cares about what other people think of you, forget it.
The person I think has really be put through the ringer though is her father, George Anthony. Poor George. That man was accused of covering up an accidental death, molesting his daughter and having an affair with an unknown woman. This man was so torn up that his granddaughter was missing and then found dead that he wanted to commit suicide and end his own misery. This is a man who according to people who knew him, loved his granddaughter so much he turned his life upside down to please Caylee. He knew the names of her baby dolls, my goodness! That's a grandpa for you! He defended Casey and wanted to help her. He tried to help her, even when she was sitting in jail, yelling and cursing at his wife. He asked her how he could help her and Casey kept lying. Casey kept manipulating him. She tugged at his heartstrings and continued to play him anyway she wanted. He didn't do it. He didn't molest Casey. He didn't find Caylee at the bottom of the pool. He didn't want to kill himself because of the guilt he felt at covering up the "accidental" death of a baby he loved more than life itself. It just didn't happen.
Anyway, I'm all over the place here, namely because my kiddos are all over the place here and I need to be a good mother and shower them with attention. Wrapping it up here, Casey did what she wanted to do, she always did and when people finally started to tell her to "mom-up" she was determined to continue doing what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it, only she was going to have to do it without the support of people who wanted her to grow up. She had to do it while dragging Caylee around everywhere she went. She was going to have to do it without a baby sitter and she was going to have to do it while lying about everything from friends, boyfriends and employment. It's a very sad situation that has touched so many peoples lives. It makes mothers angry! It made a woman try to cover up the sins of her daughter, it made a man want to kill himself. The death of a vivacious toddler has changed that way we look at young single mothers. Now they have to step up their game even more. Even the ones who are already doing it the right way... That's a sad state.
