Three children found dead

[RedandChecker]

m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27122410

Very, very sad

[mercibucket]

heartbreaking

i cant imagine standing by and knowing there was no hope while 3 of my children deteriorated before my eyes.

[handcream]

I agree with manic, this woman has been of accused of killing her kids, the worst crime of all.

[clam]

None of us is in a position to be able to judge, and thankfully, few on here seem to be doing so.

Poor, poor family.

[EyelinerQueen]

Absolutely no judgement here.

I feel terribly sorry for every member of the family involved. So desperately sad .

[monicalewinski]

It's so sad, when I heard it earlier I thought of many posters I've seen on here coping and coping and coping with minimum respite.

I can't begin to imagine having to watch your kids deteriorate, knowing they'll get worse.

Poor woman, and poor children. Very sad for the husband and older daughter left behind.

[MacBee]

This is a horrible tragedy for the whole family

[Northernlurker]

No handcream the WORST crime is being without compassion or love. Just think about that because I think it is already clear that there was no lack of compassion nor of love in that house.

[expatinscotland]

I wish I lived in that world, where I could judge a person who is sat watching their child die by inches, fully aware, and have no compassion for them.

[Pagwatch]

Just heartbreaking.
Poor souls - all of them.

[coffeeinbed]

So desperately sad.

I heard on the local news that the woman had injuries too.
I wonder if she's tried to take her own life as well.

[manicinsomniac]

really expat - I wish I lived in a world where I didn't judge her. But I can't help it.

If it turns out that the children were actually close to death I'll find it easier but there is nothing (in that article or on msn news anyway) to suggest that. I don't have a tv so maybe that isn't helping but I'm not sure why it is already clear to posters that this was a loving household. We seem to know very very little at this stage. But that very little is making me sick with horror and sympathy for all the children and their father. But not for her. I can't.

[clam]

Life can be very cruel.

[OneStepCloser]

It's oh so easy to be judgemental when you haven't been in someone else's shoes isn't it?

What an absolute nightmare for them all, I cannot even contemplate what they have been going through.

[hazeyjane]

Just stunned, poor poor family.

We had a long wait for blood tests because it was thought that ds had spinal muscular atrophy, thankfully the tests were negative. It was torment.

Just tragic.

[CiderwithBuda]

Apparently (according to the Daily Mail) she was expecting the twin boys when the daughter was diagnosed. And then ovviously the boys turned out to have it too. How heartbreaking. God only knows what drove her to do what she did but I feel nothing but sympathy for all of them. She must have been at the end of her thether.

[Coffeeinthepark]

I can't begin to imagine the position they were all in. She may well have believed she had their best interests at heart. Stories like this never make me think "worst crime possible". I assume desperation, unbearable sadness or possibly compassion so strong she was willing to go to prison to end their suffering.

[expatinscotland]

'If it turns out that the children were actually close to death I'll find it easier but there is nothing (in that article or on msn news anyway) to suggest that.'

They were life-limited, manic, all three.

I've walked in similar shoes with one of mine. The sheer fucking hell of it, of watching her suffer and suffer and suffer. I wanted to die. I still do often enough.

Cannot and don't want to begin to imagine what the world was like for this person.

[claraschu]

Nothing but compassion for the mum and all the family-

[Anoriginalname]

My mum died of cancer, she attempted suicide at least once, and I still have the feeling we treat our pets better than each other, we can make the decision to not let a dog suffer, but our closest family and friends we let, sorry, make, them live in agony. I have a sn child, and there have been days when i didn't feel I could cope anymore. I tried to get respite, waste of time, the special needs services told the school he doesn't need their help, even though they were begging. Not cos he's awful, they loved him, but because he wasn't coping. It's all just terribly tragic

[phalanges]

So terribly sad. I can only imagine that mother was in a desperate situation. My heart goes out to them all.

[charitymum]

Surely we are able to feel compassion for the family and the challenges they were facing; an understanding of how someone might get to this point; anger at a system that may have failed to pick up this risk AND recognise,with some anger at the mother, that these 3 children have been deprived of life by someone who had no right to kill them.

If we don't have this anger - if we are all empathy and no justice for lives lost - then what message do we send. That it's ok to kill if circumstances are compelling? Where does that end?

Massive sympathy for all involved. But particularly for 3 children who have been denied the right to their life.

[phantomnamechanger]

How utterly sad. Poor family, poor mother. Life is so unfair.

It is so easy to sit in the comfort of ones own home and comfy family life and say "I would never do that". How can you know? None of us should judge, we have not walked in her shoes and known her pain - it seems unlikely that this tragic event was motivated by anger or revenge or anything like that as some of these sort of killings have been. She was those children's primary carer and nothing suggests she did not love them with all her heart and soul. How utterly devastating for all concerned.

[Pagwatch]

Why. Why is anger the only vehicle for sorrow that these children have lost their lives.
Why do I have to choose .

At one point in my life I genuinely believed - briefly - that my DH and my eldest son would be so much happier with ds2 and without me.
I came through that. What good would anger have done if I had made such a terrible decision in a black pit of despair .

[manicinsomniac]

expat I know they were life limited. But they were 3 and 4 years old and we don't know what condition they had. I have a friend with a life limiting condition. She's 24. It's unlikely that she'll see 30 but that's very very different to having your life ended for you almost before you've become aware that you've got one. I know that I should be assuming the most severe situation, as I guess everyone else is, but I can't help thinking that these were such small, defenceless children who didn't get a say in whether or not they lived as long as they were able to.

And I'm sincerely sorry for what you went through with your own daughter. I certainly can't imagine that pain. But I can well imagine wanting to die yourself.

onestepcloser - yes, I suppose it is. I haven't been in the shoes of any murderer. I suppose many of them might have very tragic and sympathetic back stories. But I still struggle to sympathise. I do find empathy difficult though. I can do it in obvious cases (ie the children, living and dead, and the father) but not in the more subtle and complicated case of the mother who has killed.