onlymaryjane, have you ever had children? Have you ever been a child? You must be having a really bad day. They usually happen right about the time dinner needs to be made, the kid(s) are tired and hungry and Dad's about to come home and you just wish the water would boil! I'm so glad that was 20 years or so ago. When you have one normal baby and one mother who's got ppd and is not sure she's qualified to take this baby home in the first place, the sleep deprivation starts when the vacuuming takes place any time the baby lets it take place. Sleep is low priority. I couldn't afford Pampers in 1982, and I was a lot cheaper than formula. I don't know how people with more than one child do it.

As soon as you start working away from home, you have to drive there and back, work with the Daycare, talk to them from work, make enough money to pay for the Daycare, wonder if kids or adults are mentally or physically torturing your child, and how you could find out, and then...do all the work at home that hasn't been done while you were driving and working--that was so restful, and much better for the kids than rotting with mommy at home.

I have a healthy son with no developmental problems. Moms are guilty. Whether others blame them or not (they do), moms want desperately to do a good job, and if your child has autism, you want to learn about his condition and try any therapy you could work at to help him, especially since it does not have a predictable course. This mom has the symptoms of depression, and whether or not she has education, family and money does not affect the occurance of this disease, I hope she realizes how valuable to her family she is and gets treatment to feel better and care for herself and her family. She is not spoiled or whiny.