I remember reading about this when it first happened but apparently the trial is about to start. To catch up anyone who might have missed it, this military wife names Tiffany Klapheke allowed her 22 month old child to starve to death in a filth-ridden home reeking of urine and feces. She blames the death on the fact that no one helped or supported her while her husband was deployed and that she was stressed out from caring for her three small children...she has three children and she is only 22 herself. REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?
The first problem with that is that she had moved a BOYFRIEND into the house while her husband was gone. She apparently had time for him but not time to feed her almost 2 year old...you know, the kid that can TALK...can beg for food. This isn't an, "I feel asleep and the baby wandered outside and fell in the pool". She (and the boyfriend...who swears he had no idea that the child was in the other room starving...ok whatever) ignored the child's cries and pleas, not for hours or for a day....for DAYS. Plural. The child had chemical burns on her bottom from the feces and urine of the unchanged diaper.
But here is my biggest problem. Since when does taking even MINIMUM care of the kids you chose to have become the Army's responsibility? I bet if she had ASKED for help or let anyone know she was struggling, people would have come. It is a very convenient excuse. Family Support Groups exist for a reason. But it isn't anyone else's RESPONSIBILITY to care for those children.
I'm going to be honest. I haven't always had the best luck with people helping me. I never got more than one meal delivered when I had a baby. No one from my husband's command showed up when I miscarried my first baby. When my husband deployed the first time, I went out alone maybe 4 times, even though I had family living close by. When I thought we were getting divorced, people ran from me like I had the plague. When he was deployed this last time, I was working fulltime, going to grad school at night, shuttling kids to activities after school every day of the week, and still cooking and cleaning and managing to keep people alive without much help. When Rick had his back surgery, no one brought meals or asked if I needed anything or came with me while I sat alone in the waiting room in another city. But you know what? I NEVER ASKED EITHER. I bet people would have helped if they knew I needed it, and I DID need it. But when you look strong and act like you have it all together, people forget to offer.
There are all kind of programs out there at ACS (Army Community Service) for deployed families. Free childcare hours, free dinners monthly with childcare provided, parenting classes, counseling, etc. She didn't avail herself of any of that. It is really easy to try to use the Army as a scapegoat for this child's death, but that is not even one bit fair.
This is the face of Tamryn Klapheke:
These are the little eyes that cried from hunger until she got too weak to do that anymore. This is the face of the child that was just too big a burden for her selfish, ridiculous bitch of a mother to care for. This didn't happen because Tamryn's daddy was deployed; this happened because Tamryn's mom is evil. I don't have any other words for it.
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