Latest / Regretful Parents / “I Feel Like Her Burden Has Been Set Free”
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome back to our Regretful Parents series. I'm Kristen.
- 0:03Speaker 2: And I'm Erica.
- 0:04Speaker 1: You see how comfortable we're all getting here? You're just
- 0:06Speaker 1: in my bed now, guys. That's how well we know
- 0:08Speaker 1: each other.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Is this the Dior lip gloss?
- 0:11Speaker 1: Yes. You like it still?
- 0:12Speaker 2: It looks really good. I really like this one.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Wow.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Another plug.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Dior.
- 0:17Speaker 2: Dior. If you want to support the show, buy that
- 0:19Speaker 2: Dior gloss, guys. It lasts three years and it looks
- 0:22Speaker 2: like great.
- 0:23Speaker 1: Link in the show notes.
- 0:24Speaker 2: All right.
- 0:24Speaker 1: So this one's on Facebook. It's on the I Regret
- 0:26Speaker 1: Having Children Facebook page. It starts... My friend had a
- 0:30Speaker 1: child last year. He recently passed away due to SIDS.
- 0:33Speaker 1: So that's the sudden infant death syndrome. Okay, so the
- 0:36Speaker 1: child was a boy. She, the friend, seems more happy
- 0:40Speaker 1: about it than sad. She didn't want her son in
- 0:42Speaker 1: the beginning because her boyfriend got her pregnant while she
- 0:44Speaker 1: was in college.
- 0:46Speaker 2: Ooh.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Yike. Could you imagine a college baby?
- 0:49Speaker 2: No, that's a nightmare.
- 0:50Speaker 1: That's a nightmare. I'm like, I think high school baby's worse,
- 0:53Speaker 1: but like college is like pretty close second, you know?
- 0:55Speaker 2: 100%. You're like trying to do your geometry. I don't know.
- 0:58Speaker 2: What do people learn in college?
- 1:02Speaker 1: You wouldn't know because you just got your fucking degree
- 1:04Speaker 1: like 20 minutes ago.
- 1:06Speaker 2: Oh, she's outing me now. It's a long story, guys.
- 1:09Speaker 2: Don't worry about it. But I'm a college grad now,
- 1:11Speaker 2: even though we went to college together.
- 1:13Speaker 1: This took her 20 more years to finish. Anyway, it
- 1:16Speaker 1: wasn't a great time for motherhood, but she couldn't get
- 1:18Speaker 1: an abortion because she found out about her pregnancy at
- 1:20Speaker 1: a late term. Like it was too late. Oh, no.
- 1:24Speaker 2: Do you think it was like I didn't know I
- 1:26Speaker 2: was pregnant situation?
- 1:27Speaker 1: No, because that would be the cool thing I would
- 1:29Speaker 1: have highlighted already because we love those stories. But I mean,
- 1:33Speaker 1: still to find out too late to have an abortion
- 1:36Speaker 1: is pretty crazy.
- 1:36Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty crazy. Now you kind of hear about
- 1:38Speaker 2: it more because abortion is so hard to come by. Right.
- 1:41Speaker 1: I know grief appears in many ways, but I feel
- 1:43Speaker 1: like her burden has been set free. I'm not here
- 1:47Speaker 1: to judge, but I do want to say do not
- 1:49Speaker 1: have kids if you're not financially, mentally and physically ready
- 1:52Speaker 1: to put up with them. And that's the whole post.
- 1:55Speaker 1: So a woman who got trapped, basically, I don't know
- 1:59Speaker 1: if that's a good thing to say, but basically she
- 2:01Speaker 1: got trapped, right? Like she didn't want the baby. She
- 2:03Speaker 1: had to have the baby. She had the baby. And
- 2:06Speaker 1: then it passed away unexpectedly. Like it's one thing to
- 2:10Speaker 1: like think about a theoretical baby. And it's another thing
- 2:14Speaker 1: to like actually give birth to a child, to physically
- 2:17Speaker 1: hold the child and then experience SIDS.
- 2:21Speaker 2: Like, I don't know.
- 2:22Speaker 1: We don't often read stories where the kid passes away
- 2:25Speaker 1: and it feels like a good thing.
- 2:26Speaker 2: I know. I just keep thinking like... Even in the.
- 2:29Speaker 1: I Regret Parent Facebook pages and Reddit threads.
- 2:33Speaker 2: I keep wondering, what is she doing that's displaying a
- 2:36Speaker 2: level of satisfaction? Like, did she hire like a marching band? Like,
- 2:42Speaker 2: did she wear like bright pink to the funeral? Like,
- 2:44Speaker 2: what did she do?
- 2:45Speaker 1: I don't know. But you know what it makes me
- 2:46Speaker 1: think of?
- 2:48Speaker 2: Who's that?
- 2:48Speaker 1: Who's that woman who allegedly killed her own baby and
- 2:52Speaker 1: then she like walked free? The famous case. Like the
- 2:56Speaker 1: like OG of like mom murders baby story. And she
- 3:00Speaker 1: like went partying. She like went to the club. She
- 3:03Speaker 1: was like living her best life while her kid was...
- 3:06Speaker 1: Casey Anthony.
- 3:08Speaker 2: Oh, Casey Anthony. I don't know the Casey Anthony story really. Oh, okay.
- 3:12Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, TLDR, her... baby allegedly like went missing and
- 3:17Speaker 1: then she just like went out partying and then the
- 3:19Speaker 1: baby was found man we should have a trigger warning
- 3:23Speaker 1: for this episode but the baby was found later and
- 3:27Speaker 1: basically everyone had concluded that she was responsible and during
- 3:33Speaker 1: the court proceeding or whatever she she didn't get charged
- 3:37Speaker 1: so she got let go but like still the entire.
- 3:39Speaker 2: How did she get away with that that's crazy i don't.
- 3:42Speaker 1: I just don't think there was enough evidence to convict
- 3:44Speaker 1: like enough physical evidence or something point being like that
- 3:47Speaker 1: that was i make i'm drawing parallels because the baby
- 3:53Speaker 1: was no longer on this earth and yet the mother
- 3:56Speaker 1: went and partied.
- 3:57Speaker 2: Yeah well they didn't say that the mom went and
- 4:00Speaker 2: partied did.
- 4:00Speaker 1: They No, but I'm just wondering if it was something
- 4:04Speaker 1: like that. I mean, they're in college.
- 4:06Speaker 2: If she's saying she seems more happy about it.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't freaking know. Yeah.
- 4:11Speaker 2: I'm so curious, like, for people like this, I wonder
- 4:14Speaker 2: how it changes the trajectory of their family planning future.
- 4:18Speaker 2: You know, like, I wonder if this person now is
- 4:20Speaker 2: never going to become a parent. Like, maybe she wanted
- 4:22Speaker 2: to be a parent at some point, and then now
- 4:23Speaker 2: she has a way out.
- 4:24Speaker 1: Right. There's a big difference in your mentality between 20...
- 4:28Speaker 1: And 35, though, you know, like, yeah, I mean, this
- 4:31Speaker 1: is why it's so important to have access to legal
- 4:34Speaker 1: and safe abortions, because you're not going to be a
- 4:37Speaker 1: fit parent if you don't want to be a parent.
- 4:40Speaker 1: And it's like she's not ready. She might never want
- 4:44Speaker 1: a kid, but, you know, at the very least, she's
- 4:45Speaker 1: definitely not ready in college. Yeah.
- 4:48Speaker 2: Raising a baby in the dorms. Yeah.
- 4:49Speaker 1: So this is interesting because I'm looking at the comments.
- 4:51Speaker 1: The top comment here says grief shows itself or doesn't
- 4:54Speaker 1: in different ways with everyone. When my dogs died, I
- 4:57Speaker 1: had to continue to go to work and act normal. Meanwhile,
- 4:59Speaker 1: I cried in the car the whole way to and
- 5:01Speaker 1: from work every day for months. It was the only
- 5:03Speaker 1: place I could vent emotion without anyone seeing because it's
- 5:07Speaker 1: just a dog to most people. Just because she isn't
- 5:10Speaker 1: showing her grief doesn't mean she isn't feeling it. And
- 5:12Speaker 1: making assumptions like that is pretty shitty. I take issue
- 5:17Speaker 1: with this. I just think it's like, listen, would I...
- 5:20Speaker 1: Expect to experience grief if my infant died suddenly and unexpectedly? Absolutely.
- 5:28Speaker 1: Do I think that that's something we need to impose
- 5:31Speaker 1: on every single human or they're, like, wrong?
- 5:36Speaker 2: Hmm. I don't know.
- 5:37Speaker 1: Was that a hot take? What do you think?
- 5:39Speaker 2: I think that the commenter has a point. Like, grief
- 5:42Speaker 2: can be expressed differently.
- 5:45Speaker 1: Of course.
- 5:45Speaker 2: Of course.
- 5:46Speaker 1: But the underlying expectation here is every single person who
- 5:51Speaker 1: loses somebody is expected to experience severe grief or something
- 5:55Speaker 1: is wrong with them.
- 5:56Speaker 2: Right. Now, in this particular situation, I think it is
- 5:59Speaker 2: absolutely rational that she's like, fuck, yeah, I got my
- 6:02Speaker 2: life back.
- 6:03Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's really dark, really, really dark. But also,
- 6:08Speaker 1: I mean, one plus one equals two in this case.
- 6:13Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. I don't want to say something that I'm
- 6:14Speaker 2: going to regret.
- 6:16Speaker 1: Well, I know I'm already like, did I say something
- 6:18Speaker 1: I regretted?
- 6:19Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 6:19Speaker 1: But like, I mean, I feel like it's true, right? Like, like,
- 6:23Speaker 1: I just I also think, you know, I'm just what
- 6:25Speaker 1: we were reading something for the podcast where it was
- 6:28Speaker 1: like a woman's child died and she wasn't behaving the
- 6:31Speaker 1: way that the police expected. Yeah. Remember that? And, you know, unfortunately,
- 6:36Speaker 1: in this case, it was a black woman. So it
- 6:38Speaker 1: was like the white police community is like, oh, like
- 6:42Speaker 1: she wasn't behaving how I would expect her. grieving mother
- 6:45Speaker 1: to behave and suddenly it's like she's therefore a bad
- 6:50Speaker 1: mother or a bad human and it's just like yes
- 6:52Speaker 1: everybody does behave differently everybody reacts differently and I just
- 6:56Speaker 1: hate that there's societal expectation is like you need to
- 6:59Speaker 1: behave a certain way in every circumstance for it to
- 7:02Speaker 1: be acceptable especially as a woman I also.
- 7:06Speaker 2: Think like sorry I'm trying to sort out my And
- 7:12Speaker 2: also be careful because I'm not trying to, I'm not
- 7:14Speaker 2: trying to say like, thank God this baby died because obviously,
- 7:21Speaker 2: but I just think like women already get the short
- 7:23Speaker 2: end of the stick in a lot of situations, you know,
- 7:26Speaker 2: especially motherhood. I also think women are generally overlooked in
- 7:30Speaker 2: a lot of situations, you know, like even in a
- 7:33Speaker 2: college setting, I know people are going to push back
- 7:34Speaker 2: because women are the majority of college attendees now. This
- 7:38Speaker 2: is kind of like, you know, to me, this is
- 7:40Speaker 2: kind of like the conversation. If I was in the
- 7:42Speaker 2: hospital pregnant and you had to choose between saving my
- 7:46Speaker 2: life or saving the baby's life, who would you choose?
- 7:50Speaker 2: And sometimes women are like, choose the baby. I'm like,
- 7:53Speaker 2: shut the fuck up. Choose the woman who is here,
- 7:56Speaker 2: who is experiencing life. I get it is sad that
- 8:00Speaker 2: a baby died, but I'm also like, The baby also
- 8:04Speaker 2: didn't really live. Give this woman a chance to live.
- 8:07Speaker 1: I mean, this comes down to a philosophical question of like,
- 8:10Speaker 1: is a younger life inherently more valuable than an older life?
- 8:16Speaker 1: And society has deemed a child of any age, infant,
- 8:19Speaker 1: et cetera, is more valuable than an adult. And I
- 8:22Speaker 1: tend to agree with that. You do? Generally. I think
- 8:26Speaker 1: I do. Because it's like, especially like me and you,
- 8:28Speaker 1: it's like, we've lived enough. We've experienced enough.
- 8:34Speaker 2: But would you give up your life for a child's life?
- 8:36Speaker 1: Would I give up my life for a child's life?
- 8:38Speaker 2: Yes.
- 8:39Speaker 1: A thousand percent. A thousand percent. A random stranger's life,
- 8:43Speaker 1: I would absolutely throw myself in front of a bus
- 8:46Speaker 1: to save a child. Well, yeah.
- 8:49Speaker 2: That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying a genie comes
- 8:52Speaker 2: up to you and they say, it's you or little Timmy.
- 8:57Speaker 2: And you're like, I don't know who little Timmy is.
- 8:59Speaker 1: I would still let little Timmy live.
- 9:01Speaker 2: What if little Timmy is kind of a bad kid?
- 9:04Speaker 2: What if little Timmy has been a little dick? Yeah.
- 9:09Speaker 2: I'm trying to think what little Timmy could be doing.
- 9:13Speaker 2: Little Timmy has been.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Like, let's say he's hurting.
- 9:16Speaker 2: He's the bully. Yeah. He's the bully of the school
- 9:19Speaker 2: and he hurts animals. Well, OK. Look at her eyes. Suddenly. Well,
- 9:24Speaker 2: suddenly it's not so clear.
- 9:26Speaker 1: I blended two things because a bully, I tend to think,
- 9:30Speaker 1: is the product of their environment. There's maybe something wrong
- 9:34Speaker 1: with the parents' house. You know, maybe, you know, they're
- 9:37Speaker 1: not being treated well for their mental health conditions. But
- 9:42Speaker 1: abusing animals is clearly a link to sociopathy, right?
- 9:47Speaker 2: Okay, so if they hurt animals, it's a yes?
- 9:50Speaker 1: If they hurt animals, it's more of a question because
- 9:52Speaker 1: I'm like, are you going to hurt humans one day?
- 9:56Speaker 1: Because usually, you know, serial killers, they all abuse animals
- 10:00Speaker 1: as children.
- 10:01Speaker 2: Yes, but this person is hurting people now. Okay, there's
- 10:04Speaker 2: two kids, Timmy and Jimmy. Okay.
- 10:09Speaker 1: Okay.
- 10:10Speaker 2: A genie comes up to you. He has a line
- 10:12Speaker 2: of children behind him.
- 10:13Speaker 1: This is a fucked up genie, by the way, but okay.
- 10:15Speaker 2: I know. I know. But look, I don't make genie rules.
- 10:18Speaker 2: This is just the way it goes.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Okay.
- 10:22Speaker 2: First kid comes up. It's little Timmy. Timmy hurts animals. Okay.
- 10:29Speaker 2: Your life or his life? It sounds like you're saving
- 10:31Speaker 2: your life for the animal herder.
- 10:34Speaker 1: I still think I have to give it to the kid.
- 10:36Speaker 1: I think I have to give it to the kid.
- 10:38Speaker 2: It's still a kid. It's still a kid.
- 10:40Speaker 1: And they and, you know, I don't I can't predict
- 10:43Speaker 1: that this kid can't be rehabilitated or something.
- 10:47Speaker 2: OK, well, if you're going to give your life to
- 10:49Speaker 2: this little animal killer, then you're definitely going to give
- 10:51Speaker 2: your life to the kid who hits his grandma. Obviously.
- 10:53Speaker 1: But you started with the heart, the harder one first.
- 10:56Speaker 2: Yeah, I should have done it the other way around.
- 10:58Speaker 2: But the results would have been the same.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Yeah, they probably would have. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I think
- 11:04Speaker 1: I would. You really don't think you would? You don't
- 11:06Speaker 1: even like living. Every time we talk about this, you're like,
- 11:08Speaker 1: just take me out. Every time there's a life-reducing error,
- 11:11Speaker 1: you'd rather die. So it's like, why all of a
- 11:14Speaker 1: sudden is your life fragile and valuable?
- 11:17Speaker 2: But I do feel a little conflicted because it's like,
- 11:19Speaker 2: if that person is killing animals, do I really want
- 11:22Speaker 2: to give my life for an animal killer?
- 11:24Speaker 1: It becomes a whole different story, too. What if the
- 11:26Speaker 1: kid is hurting your animal? And then a bus is coming.
- 11:30Speaker 2: The bus is no longer in the picture. The genie
- 11:31Speaker 2: is here.
- 11:32Speaker 1: No, you're watching the kid. You're watching Little... Who's this
- 11:35Speaker 1: fucking Jimmy Timmy? Who is this?
- 11:37Speaker 2: Jimmy is the animal herder.
- 11:39Speaker 1: Okay, so Little Jimmy is hitting your cat in the
- 11:44Speaker 1: middle of the road with a stick.
- 11:46Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
- 11:48Speaker 1: And he's going whack, whack, whack, whack. And then a
- 11:49Speaker 1: bus comes around the corner. What do you do?
- 11:51Speaker 2: Is the bus going to hit my cat?
- 11:52Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
- 11:53Speaker 2: No.
- 11:55Speaker 1: Just Little Jimmy. Timmy. Jimmy.
- 12:01Speaker 2: So as long as my cat gets away... Yeah. I
- 12:07Speaker 2: do think I would be more worried about my cat
- 12:09Speaker 2: than little Jimmy.
- 12:11Speaker 1: You're like, wow, okay.
- 12:13Speaker 2: I mean, I love my cat more than anything on
- 12:15Speaker 2: the face of the planet.
- 12:17Speaker 1: I know, but the cat's going to live no matter what.
- 12:19Speaker 1: It's a matter of your life versus Jimmy's life, and
- 12:21Speaker 1: you just witnessed Jimmy whack your cat a bunch.
- 12:25Speaker 2: Seems like kind of a little... where are jimmy's parents
- 12:33Speaker 2: you know it's like it doesn't even seem like they're
- 12:35Speaker 2: worried about jimmy why do i have to be more
- 12:37Speaker 2: worried about jimmy than jimmy's own parents come get your
- 12:40Speaker 2: kid yeah jimmy's parents yeah yeah why is this on
- 12:44Speaker 2: my it's not gonna lay bare on my.
- 12:47Speaker 1: Soul yeah maybe the right action then is a middle
- 12:52Speaker 1: ground where you run into the road and say stop
- 12:56Speaker 1: yeah but you don't like push the kid out of
- 12:58Speaker 1: the way and sacrifice your own life. Like you're trying
- 13:00Speaker 1: to like a middle ground. Yeah. I don't know.
- 13:05Speaker 2: In reality, I probably would still try to get the
- 13:07Speaker 2: kids safe, but in the case of being entertaining for YouTube,
- 13:12Speaker 2: funnier to say I would let Jimmy die.
- 13:15Speaker 1: No, I feel like I have like in, and I'm
- 13:18Speaker 1: sure a lot of people are like this, at least women,
- 13:20Speaker 1: because I witnessed this with like my.
- 13:21Speaker 2: Husband when we were walking. A heightened sense of empathy.
- 13:24Speaker 1: Not necessarily empathy, but awareness for danger. And like, you know,
- 13:29Speaker 1: our amygdalas allegedly are bigger and those sense dangerous things more.
- 13:34Speaker 1: So when I'm like in the park and I see
- 13:35Speaker 1: like a kid without like his parent around, I'm like,
- 13:39Speaker 1: where the fuck is the parent? Like I'm like, eyes
- 13:41Speaker 1: on the kid, eyes on the kid. I was at
- 13:43Speaker 1: the beach and there was an old grandpa and his
- 13:45Speaker 1: young little boy and they were like in the water,
- 13:47Speaker 1: but the tides are really intense. And I was like,
- 13:51Speaker 1: I need to keep eyes on these people because I
- 13:54Speaker 1: need to, like, rescue them. Like, I'm like, I'm going in.
- 13:57Speaker 1: I'm going after Grandpa and Timmy or whatever. And so, anyway,
- 14:01Speaker 1: but it's like, I'm constantly, like, in the outside scouring for, like,
- 14:06Speaker 1: opportunities to save lives.
- 14:13Speaker 2: Wow, what a hero. Guys, you heard it here first.
- 14:16Speaker 2: This girl who can barely sit upright today. She's out
- 14:22Speaker 2: there looking to rescue old men and young men alike.
- 14:26Speaker 1: I mean, I'm going down with them. I know that.
- 14:29Speaker 1: There's no scenario where I'm actually capable of saving anyone.
- 14:33Speaker 1: I just want it to be known that I tried. Yeah.
- 14:37Speaker 1: I tried.
- 14:39Speaker 2: Wow. I'm so honored to host this show with such
- 14:43Speaker 2: a national treasure. Anyway.
- 14:47Speaker 1: A national treasure who would.
- 14:48Speaker 2: Give her life to save a serial animal killer.
- 14:52Speaker 1: Okay. Well, when you say animal killer, I just don't
- 14:57Speaker 1: like that. I just don't like that.
- 14:58Speaker 2: She loves animal killers so much that she's willing to
- 15:01Speaker 2: sacrifice herself to give a small animal killer a chance
- 15:05Speaker 2: at killing more animals. Do you kill bugs? I used to.
- 15:09Speaker 2: I don't really do it anymore.
- 15:10Speaker 1: So you're the animal killer.
- 15:14Speaker 2: Not anymore. I'm reformed.
- 15:16Speaker 1: So see, little Jimmy could be reformed is what we're saying.
- 15:19Speaker 1: That's the conclusion.
- 15:20Speaker 2: No, it's not the same.
- 15:22Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, killing a cat is very different than
- 15:24Speaker 1: killing a bug. Obviously, guys, before you start fucking typing
- 15:27Speaker 1: in the comments, I fucking know there's a difference. Anyway,
- 15:31Speaker 1: we got to go. If you enjoyed this episode, there's
- 15:34Speaker 1: a shit ton more. We also have this version on
- 15:36Speaker 1: audio only now. So search for Grateful Parents wherever you
- 15:39Speaker 1: find podcasts. If you just want to listen to this
- 15:42Speaker 1: shit again, I don't know why.
- 15:44Speaker 2: Or if you have friends that are not YouTube people,
- 15:46Speaker 2: you know, and want to listen, you could share it
- 15:49Speaker 2: with them.
- 15:49Speaker 1: Or you could have a surround sound experience where you
- 15:52Speaker 1: queue up the Spotify to the YouTube and you hear
- 15:56Speaker 1: us in the back like Jurassic Park.
- 16:00Speaker 2: Yeah, wow. That's a really interesting idea.
- 16:05Speaker 1: Also, don't get pregnant, everybody.
- 16:07Speaker 2: Don't get pregnant. Oh, my God.
- 16:09Speaker 1: But shop our merch for Don't Get Pregnant at dinkypod.com.
- 16:13Speaker 2: Goodbye.