Can anyone really understand why a woman would kill her children?

I watched this same program this morning. I was holding my three-week old as I watched it and was just devistated. This is my fourth baby, so I understand the pressures of lots of kids, but what she did was evil. I understand about mental illness. My ex-husband has schizophrenia. The difference is he takes his medicine, I guess, but even when he's at his worst, he understands right from wrong. I said even before they said it in the show that Andrea Yates understood it was wrong because she asked the police to come. The husband eventually did divorce her and remarry, so I don't believe he supports her anymore.

Andrea Yates was mentally ill at the time she killed those kids, she wasn't some kind of evil monster. She had severe (maybe post partum?) depression which had worsened into psychosis and a few days before the killings she had some kind of medication change that put her over the edge.

Plus her psychiatrist told him not to leave her alone with the children because she was too unstable at all and he did. The husband was kind of negligent, and the wife was out of her mind and not responsible for her actions. It was pretty horrific what she did, but he had at least some responsibility for what occurred= I think he did the right thing by standing behind her.

Andrea Yates was a mentally and emotionally ill woman who was suffering from postpartum depression(a real disturbance that cannot be controlled by the person who suffers from it). She was obviously raised to believe that it is a woman's job to have lots of children, and then bare the brunt of caring for them all. Her husband apparently was raised the same way. She was likely also abused and mistreated throughout much of her life(which made her more susceptible to a mental break under the pressure of raising so many children).

Parents have been killing their children since the beginning of time. It used to be legal, and a legitimate punishment to carry out in public. Just read the Bible. Infact, the god of the Bible himself was ok with parents killing their children. Fortunately, most humans don't have the stresses that people thousands of years had(even though we like to talk as if things are much worse).

So fortunately, the killing of children by parents has become much much more rare. It's actually ghastly now, whereas it used to be quite OK. Killing children is much more common in the US than in other developed countries. So apparently the US has not tackled the reasons for child killings as well as some other countries have. Perhaps more mothers in the US are stressed out due to work demands, and more mothers are parenting alone than in other countries, leading to higher stress levels and more incidence of stress related mental illnesses.

I think it must be some form of mental illness as I can't even bring myself to spank my children, let alone seriously hurt or kill them.

My oldest is 15 now and I have never laid a hand on him but the rare occassions I have been REALLY angry I have still had the control to stop myself. There must be something wrong with a person who in a whole hour kills all her children!

It sickens me.

Where was the father behind all this? getting her pregnant AFTER suicide attempts and being depressed. why isnt HE getting blamed too? HE knew her condition also and still left the children unattended with her. I'm not saying what she did was right in fact its horrid but he should be taking some liability too knowing his wife was in a horrible state of mind and leaving their children with her. Wasn't there some talk of her telling her husband she wanted to harm them? anyways he stands beside her so he doesnt get into trouble. Mind you the s.o.b remarried.. yeah such a great guy?! He's keeping heat off his a**

You know what Its post-partum depression for some woman.... they get so stressed out with raising children it drives them to insanity. I mean personally I KNOW how kids can get and yes they DO drive a person insane but I would NEVER in a million years kill my own flesh and blood. I mean you hear sooooo many cases of children being shot, drowned, or beaten to death and then the parents say," oh I heard voices or oh I was on medication" I think that is BULL**** I mean how cruel could you be.... There was a case of Jehovah witnesses killing their own daughter because they feared she had signs of the devil so they killed her.... I mean WTF !!! is wrong with todays society. I would seriously send all those cruel people to the electric chair.....

Her kids names were Luke, Paul, John, and Mary.

See a trend there?

She said to her psychiatrist in jail "It was the seventh deadly sin. My children weren't righteous. They stumbled because I was evil. The way I was raising them, they could never be saved. They were doomed to perish in the fires of hell."

OK, sure, she is over the top. But when you have license or mandate by your deity... can you say suicide bomber?

Any act is justified if you believe it to be. And mental illness can certainly affect that. That's how we understand Yates.

I have no idea why they do that. I could never imagine doing that. Children are god most precious gift i cannot beleive women do that. it really makes me mad. Nothing could ever come between me and my daughter. there are plenty of women out there that would love to have a child. It just doesnt make sence to me

I would leave my husband if he even hurt any of my kids I even yel at him if he yells at them fo something little I couldn't imagine anything bad enough to even hurt on hair on one of my kids When I see anything bad I go give my kids big hugs and kisses my oldest was 6 weeks old during 9-11 I was breastfeeding her and crying and rocking her back and forth telling her everything would be allright

people like that should not have children, if they dont want them, give them to someone who does! many women out there cant have kids and then theres these monsters who just kill them, like its no big deal, well it is. its heartbreaking! no young innocent child can ever do anything to deserve their precious young life being stolen. i would never stand by anyone who did this