Jen – I’ve just subscribed to Karen’s blog and have been enjoying it.

Kim L. – I’m glad that you liked it.

Rebecca – I suppose so!

Kimberly – Oh good!

Ladytink_534 – In this case, I don’t think the father is to blame, but I think it would be a case by case basis.

Dewey – Karen does take into account all of the things you talked about, especially the isolation of SAHM, lack of good parenting examples, and postpartum. I agree with the the isolation of SAHM especially as I feel like I’m one of them. I guess that’s why I enjoy blogging so much.

Tara – I agree that chemical unbalance does have to do with lack of parenting skills but wonder what causes us to just “snap.”

Anna – I did feel removed from the children. We didn’t really know them or witness any of the abuse.

Ginger – I think you would enjoy this one more as an adult. For you particularly, I wouldn’t rush out for it.

I also think that there is often abuse from the father or other male figure in the household, whether it’s abuse of the children or the mother, that creates such stress in a woman that she snaps. And when this happens, the man often gets off with no consequences at all because the horror of what the mother has done overshadows or completely obscures what he was doing.

And then there is often the fact that the mother in question had no role model for effective parenting in her own childhood, so she feels completely at a loss to know how to cope, and without the extended family, tribe, etc, I mentioned earlier, she just had no idea how to function in this new role.

And then there’s postpartum depression, which is stigmatized and hushed up in our society. I’ve had several friends with serious ppd and I didn’t have any idea until much later when they were ready to admit it, because women feel shame when they’re depressed instead of overjoyed about being mothers as they expected to be.

I just hope this book takes into account all these complex factors and more and doesn’t oversimplify the possible contributing problems. The main thing I hate about Jodi Picoult, for example, is the frustrating way she really simplifies and black/whites extremely complex issues.