By now you all know that the news that grabs my attention is not what Jessica Simpson is wearing today (or dating) or whether Oprah did some cocaine at a party years ago (which according to the tabloid covers has Stedman seeing RED). Yes, I do confess to a slight addiction to the Enquirer. LOVE that mag. It has the most fantastical articles and is a great read when there's nothing worth watching on TV and I am just not in the mood for a book. Although the black and white rags that feature cover stories of alien babies and 110 year old women who give birth to sextuplets are a very close second. So there. Confessed.
However, when it comes to reading actual news put out there by actual reporters, I pass over the fluff and get down to the matter! I'm not really into reading about the Middle East problems (the Middle East to me is like Africa - they have always had major issues and they will always have major issues. Not going away. Same story - different decade).
What really catches my eye are the stories about murder. The who, where, why and how of them. Mostly the why and how of them.
So, it should come as no surprise that I am following the case of the mother and stepfather down in Galveston who murdered little Riley Ann Sawyers. The why and how is really beyond my comprehension. Thus the title of this blog "How not to discipline your child".
For a little background for those of you less morbid than myself, Riley Sawyer was found floating in the Galveston Bay area in a plastic container partially filled with concrete. She had multiple fractures to her skull and had been dead for a while.
The police put out an artist sketch of what little Riley may have looked like and low and behold, Riley's paternal grandmother up in Ohio contacted them and said it looked like her grand daughter whom she had not seen in a while and was told had been taken away from her mother by the department of human services.
This lead them to the mother and stepfather down in Texas who had met while playing games online.
Apparently mom and step had devised a list of things to teach little Riley and had "discipline sessions" whenever Riley was "bad". Now exactly how bad can a 2 year old be that she requires "discipline sessions"??
The police found this list in their home after their arrest. It contained nine things that 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers' mother and stepfather wanted to teach the toddler to help her behave better.
The list, called "Rules for Riley," included such things as "being polite," "behaves in public," "toys stay in her room" and "listen to mom & me." Sounds innocuous enough. These are all things we want to teach our children.
"But as the capital murder trial of Riley's mom, Kimberly Dawn Trenor, resumes, her attorneys will continue arguing before jurors that a discipline session to teach the child these behaviors spun out of control and their client never intended for her daughter to die as a result". I would ask, how can a discipline session spin out of control on a 2 year old? Did she grab a gun and threaten to shoot her mom? (no, but she should have).
Both Trenor and Riley's stepfather, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, were charged with capital murder for the child's death. Prosecutors are arguing both Trenor and Zeigler are equally responsible for Riley's death on July 25, 2007.
After Riley was killed, the couple bought a plastic container, partially filled it with cement, stuffed her beaten body inside and stored it in a shed at their home before dumping the remains in Galveston Bay in September 2007, according to authorities.
Even though Zeigler is set to be tried later, he has been constantly referenced during Trenor's trial.
Trenor, in a four-hour videotaped statement to police that was played in court earlier this week, admitted to whipping Riley with a belt and helping to repeatedly dunk her head in a bathtub of cold water.
But she said the discipline session was Zeigler's idea and the three skull fractures that resulted in the toddler's death were caused by him when he threw the child across a room in their home after getting frustrated that the discipline session wasn't working.
"The discipline session wasn't working". When you are beating a child and dunking her head in a bath tub of cold water, do you honestly expect the child not to cry and struggle? How exactly did they know the discipline session wasn't working on a 2 year old? What did they expect her to do exactly?
Another problem I have with the mothers "defense" is her saying she shouldn't be charged with capital murder because the discipline session was her husband's idea and she only "helped" dunk Riley's head in the tub "repeatedly". OOHHHH. That makes all the difference in the world. Uncuff that woman and set her free!!
Now students, if you want your child to behave (i.e. stop crying, stop struggling, stop gasping for breath, stop bleeding, etc.) you should first and foremost NOT BEAT HER, THROW HER AGAINST A WALL AND DUNK HER HEAD IN A BATH TUB! OR allow anyone else to do it either.
I would probably just give her a time out or at the most extreme slap my hand on her little butt a couple of times. Yes, students, I spanked my son when he was growing up. Now, I never spanked my daughter. Not because I loved her more than him or because she was perfect (nearly, but not quite). I just didn't have to spank her. She would respond positively to a time out whereas my son would only use that time to color on the walls, or sing a song, or (if I put him in a time out in his room) play with his toys. Time out to him was fine. Sometimes when I went to get him after his time out was over, he would beg for me to shut the door and leave him in time out longer.
She, on the other hand, would cry as if her heart was broken in two. She hated to get in trouble. He, didn't phase him ONE iota.
She responded to time out. He responded to getting his little butt spanked. Plain and simple.
Now back to Riley. Killing her is bad enough and both the mother and stepfather deserve death row because of it but if you have to allow one of them to live, I say let the stepfather get life in prison but definitely put the mother down!
Why would I say that if the stepfather is the one who actually caused her death by throwing her against the wall fracturing her skull in 3 places?? Because the mother bore 100% responsibility for her daughter's protection and safety. The mother should die before allowing her child to be harmed by anyone in any way. That is the way it is. She refused to do this in order to keep her man and she needs to die because of it.
Anytime a parent (mother OR father) allows their child to be abused, neglected or harmed in any way, they should die.
Had the step father kidnapped both the mother and child and was holding them hostage and took Riley out away from the mother and did this to her so the mother couldn't intervene, then there might be a touch of mercy afforded to the mom. However, that wasn't the case was it? She was there. She was in a position to have protected her child and she made a conscious decision not only to not protect her child but to actually participate in the torture and murder of her child. She needs to die.
And if participating in the torture and murder of her child wasn't bad enough, she assisted her husband in hiding the body and then threw it in the ocean like some bag of garbage. I don't care if Riley was the worst child in the universe, NO child deserves to be discarded like trash. Especially after you have put her through the terror of torturing her and murdering her.
THEN (it just keeps getting worse) she STAYED WITH THE STEP FATHER! She continued to live with him of her own free will. She continued to keep her mouth shut about what they had done of her own free will. She continued to have sex with him and go out on the town with him and bought him Christmas presents and did his laundry for him and in all reports given by their neighbors and "friends" they had a relatively happy marriage after this event.
She's whining that he "forced" her to keep quiet about it. He "threatened" her. She was "afraid" of him. PLEASE!
She was afraid of going to prison and possibly getting the chair (or whatever they give you now - "getting the injection" just doesn't sum it up like "getting the chair" does).
Had she AT ANY POINT during this nightmare walked into the police station and told the police what happened and where little Riley's body was, I might recommend showing her mercy. But she didn't do that did she?
She continued to love the man who murdered her daughter and only spoke ill of him after she was arrested and is now in a fight for HER life.
I swear, there are some people in this world who need to be fixed. They should never have children. Women like her seem to have the idea that so what if one of them gets murdered. If I miss them at all, I'll just have another one and maybe this one will be better behaved. OR, at least with the next one, I'll know not to throw them against the wall.
In closing, I sum it all up with this...........NO MERCY!
But that's just me.
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