I kind of agree. I don't think that casey physically abused Caylee or yelled too much but I think she exhibited a ghastly indifference towards a precious little girl who just wanted love from mommy.
I think casey saw Caylee as an object to serve her needs - her need to be seen as a good mom or her need to be seen as a caretaker, or her reason for needing money, or a doll to dress up, etc.
But casey didn't really love Caylee. And unless people were wacthing her "perform" her role of a good mama, I think Caylee's basic needs were met and that was about it.
The eerie videos of Caylee where she is trying so hard and so pathetically to get a response from her mommy, to get some kind of interaction, some kind of expression, anything from her mom, but saw nothing but a cold, expressionless person staring at her steadfastly with a camera in her hand, those videos say it all. They are haunting.
To watch Caylee's face as she tries in vain to communicate with her mother, turn to confusion and then concern and then to watch that little face screw up in anguish, it breaks my heart. Yes, she was a Mommie Dearest.
I remember watching a program about how infants begin to understand facial expressions and what they mean. They showed this mom with her seven month old infant who was sitting in a high chair. The mom was instructed to simply stare at her baby and to make no facial expressions of any kind.
At first, the baby smiled and babbled and reached her little arms up to her mom. She kept trying to flirt to charm her mom in order to get a response, but none came. The baby began to look away and to make little sounds of discontent. She kept stealing looks at her mommy to see if there was a change in expression. None ever came.
Finally, the child began to show visible signs of distress and eventually began to cry and then to howl.
It reminds me so much of Caylee in those eerie, silent video tapes. Except before Caylee gets upset or too upset, the tapes cuts off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCYd9hKh4Dw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDoeJm74dd4
Now here is Lillian Glass' blog about one of those videos. I think Ms. Glass goes too far in much of what she says about body language in general - she takes too many liberties and I read her blog for entertainment only, but she does make some interesting points here and her still shots are worth looking at:
http://drlillianglassbodylanguagebl...ct-by-casey-as-casey-speaks-the-words-i-kill/
Poor Caylee