Mental illness is a tragedy.
I have learned the hard traumatic way to not make assumptions based on just one person's depiction of an event.
When his disappearance was first announced, his father was quickly skewered. After what I have experienced myself, this ripped a hole in my heart.
It was reported that the mother claimed her ex beat her because she let their baby "oversleep".
I thought back to our own tragic year on high alert and to this situation, one of many:
Dad comes home after working all day, finds baby in bed in same diaper as when he left 9 hours ago and no evidence of any bottle feeding (after physician ordered breastfeeding discontinued cause could not trust mother due to non evidence available to confirm feeding). Father immediately changes diaper and starts a bottle warming. Mother complains about the warming of bottle because in her mind warming the bottle is not necessary and dad is giving baby too much attention. Dad reminds mom that the pediatrician said bottles must be warmed and they had also discussed it with her psychiatrist. Father works hard to keep his cool, speaking calmly to mother. Mother screams that she knows what's best for HER baby, SHE's the mom. Father says it's going to be alright, have a nice cup of tea and relax. Mom grabs baby out of crib and runs through the house stomping hard on wooden floors and screaming "I'm the mom, I'm the mom" (shaken baby syndrome), completely out of control. Father, amazingly calm but quick, gets moms mental attention by firmly putting hands on each shoulder and then says "give me the baby honey, its going to be ok". Mother then flips baby UPSIDE DOWN, dangling baby and stomping while singing a nursery rhyme, head flapping wildly. Father, to save baby's life, presses mom to sofa and holds her while yelling at me to take the baby. I do. I feed baby while mother and father go into bathroom for privacy and have long discussion about why she is not taking her medication.
I can EASILY see how this could be MISINTERPRETED by a mentally ill or personality disordered as " the baby overslept and he got physically violent with me over it". In fact, that kind of thing WAS said many times in that year.
Shortly after, the psychiatrists recommended she be involuntarily committed.
When I read the version of events as Skye's mom had portrayed them, I definitely had flashbacks.
