Australian Blogger's Son Dies- Sparkling Adventures

[theologygeek]

I just spent my Friday night in bed with a laptop reading that blog and watching videos. Here's my theory. Lauren killed the baby and David is taking the blame by saying he fell in the water. In one of the videos, Aisha interrupts Calista and David says something on the order of Calista having a right to her feelings and to let her express herself. In another part, the baby has a diaper on and David says something like "It's nice to have a nappy again." He seemed mindful of his children's feelings. Lauren on the other hand was constantly in a depressed state and left her husband to do everything.

[Rosa]

or he was going to commit suicide and take the baby down with him because he couldn't bear to think of the youngest being abused. It's super common for woman suicides - the usual gender pattern (of murder suicide) is men kill their wives and maybe the kids; women kill the kids and then themselves.

That video is just absolutely heartbreaking.

I know I've told this story before, but we had a woman here several years ago throw her twins off a bridge and jump in after them. She was 24 or 25, with 4 kids and untreated bipolar disorder. She was rescued, one of the twins drowned. She'd previously tried to get someone, anyone, to take them - her own family, their father's family, social services. Nobody would, they said it was her responsibility. So she threw them all in and jumped in after. She and one twin were rescued; the other died. She got a prison sentence.

[Witsec7]

I just spent my Friday night in bed with a laptop reading that blog and watching videos. Here's my theory. Lauren killed the baby and David is taking the blame by saying he fell in the water. In one of the videos, Aisha interrupts Calista and David says something on the order of Calista having a right to her feelings and to let her express herself. In another part, the baby has a diaper on and David says something like "It's nice to have a nappy again." He seemed mindful of his children's feelings. Lauren on the other hand was constantly in a depressed state and left her husband to do everything.

I never thought about the possibility of Lauren killing the child accidently. Being the attention whore she is, it would be natural for her to convince the hubby to take the blame.

[princessjo1988]

Wowsers. I wasn't aware of the youtube channel either and I also found deeply disturbing. At least for me, I really felt there was something wrong about his voice - it sounded 'off'.

Thanks for finding the youtube channel FJ'ers - you have confirmed many of my own suspicions, and also, created a few new ones.

This is a state that left me in an abusive situation after many, many reports of inappropriate behaviour about my father, by different girls (including me). It doesn't surprise me, at all, that the girls are still with her. It is deeply concerning that they (DOCS) haven't seem to have learnt anything in the intervening 10+ years. That said, I am comforted that it doesn't appear that she can be alone with them - at least until the 'facts' can be established.

It is such a sad case, and I hope that both she and the kids are being surrounded by caring, level headed family and friends.

[Sumeri]

I nearly bawled when I saw this one - he has such a look of joy at seeing his little girls. What the hell happened here?

www.sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=721

[theologygeek]

What the hell?

Look when she made this blog post:

This present moment Sunday, June 24, 2012 8:27 AM http://www.sparklingadventures.com/inde ... on=article

This is what she put in the blog post:

It’s been over twenty-four hours since I last fed Elijah. My breasts are hard bags of marbles, sore to the touch and constantly leaking. I have folded up a small towel and placed it inside my shirt to absorb the moisture.

This is when David took the baby for a walk on June 23:

Reaching the pedestrian bridge at the Logan River Parklands, Mr Fisher took Baby Elijah in his arms and fell 15 metres into the river at around 6:45pm.

What breast fed baby goes over 10 hours without eating??? During the day.

[theologygeek]

Could someone from Australia look and see what the time on that rss feed post says? I would like to know if the time is set to my time in the US and if it is different if someone from Australia looks at it.

[Sumeri]

What the hell?

Look when she made this blog post:

This present moment Sunday, June 24, 2012 8:27 AM http://www.sparklingadventures.com/inde ... on=article

This is what she put in the blog post:

It’s been over twenty-four hours since I last fed Elijah. My breasts are hard bags of marbles, sore to the touch and constantly leaking. I have folded up a small towel and placed it inside my shirt to absorb the moisture.

This is when David took the baby for a walk on June 23:

Reaching the pedestrian bridge at the Logan River Parklands, Mr Fisher took Baby Elijah in his arms and fell 15 metres into the river at around 6:45pm.

What breast fed baby goes over 10 hours without eating??? During the day.

I don't think she breastfed exclusively. I seem to remember a post once where he was using the bottle.

[lilith]

I don't think she breastfed exclusively. I seem to remember a post once where he was using the bottle.

That was a one off cause his sisters wanted to feed him so she expressed some milk. Most of the time it seems she kept him in a sling and demand fed.

[devilsadvocate]

Those youtube videos definitely make it sound to me like the dad had some underlying mental issues before this. It sounds like the strain of the marriage problems pushed him over the edge and made him think of suicide. For whatever reason he probably thought he should take his son with him, but once he hit the water his own survival instincts kicked in and he decided not to kill himself.

I really doubt that the Mom had anything to do with the death. They did an autopsy and it should have been easy to determine if the poor little guy died of drowning or some other cause.

It's really terrible how this has destroyed their family. I agree that a lot of their parenting ideas were pretty out there (and in the post about the stillborn foal that poor mare does look too skinny though it's hard to tell in the one photo of her), but I can believe the mom really did love her kids.

[Witsec7]

She should give up the sparking adventure bullshit.

So I buried my only son today, but our lives continue, and as a smaller family unit, we move into the next phase of our sparkling adventures together.

[Cerdwin]

What the hell?

Look when she made this blog post:

This present moment Sunday, June 24, 2012 8:27 AM http://www.sparklingadventures.com/inde ... on=article

This is what she put in the blog post:

It’s been over twenty-four hours since I last fed Elijah. My breasts are hard bags of marbles, sore to the touch and constantly leaking. I have folded up a small towel and placed it inside my shirt to absorb the moisture.

This is when David took the baby for a walk on June 23:

Reaching the pedestrian bridge at the Logan River Parklands, Mr Fisher took Baby Elijah in his arms and fell 15 metres into the river at around 6:45pm.

What breast fed baby goes over 10 hours without eating??? During the day.

That feed has her Elijah's last day post being made on the morning of the day he died. I think that the time stamps on the above linked RSS feed are based on US times, not our times here in Australia. I have been following her blog recently, and she tends to post very late in the evening.

[Witsec7]

... I can believe the mom really did love her kids.

Andrea Yates loved her kids too.

[Koala]

She should give up the sparking adventure bullshit.

I agree. It's very disturbing to see her posting as if her child's death is just a bump in the road.

Here's what I wonder: From the sounds of things her husband did the bulk of the work, taking care of all of the girls while mom floated around with only the baby to care for. The rest of the time she was prattling on about the village helping her raise the kids, or letting them roam off on their own. Who is going to take care of them now? I worry that she might become even more irresponsible than she is now, farming those poor babies out to lord knows who, or leaving them completely to themselves while she lies about in bed all day.

2 other things. Who were all of these people she was having to drive around town in the days after her son's death?

How does this family make money? I mean they were flying, staying in hotels, and eating, so where were their funds coming from?

[theologygeek]

I agree. It's very disturbing to see her posting as if her child's death is just a bump in the road.

Here's what I wonder: From the sounds of things her husband did the bulk of the work, taking care of all of the girls while mom floated around with only the baby to care for. The rest of the time she was prattling on about the village helping her raise the kids, or letting them roam off on their own. Who is going to take care of them now? I worry that she might become even more irresponsible than she is now, farming those poor babies out to lord knows who, or leaving them completely to themselves while she lies about in bed all day.

2 other things. Who were all of these people she was having to drive around town in the days after her son's death?

How does this family make money? I mean they were flying, staying in hotels, and eating, so where were their funds coming from?

She leases out her house, and she lives in the shed on the property. The shed is huge, but it's still a shed. They also had a carpet business.

[theologygeek]

That feed has her Elijah's last day post being made on the morning of the day he died. I think that the time stamps on the above linked RSS feed are based on US times, not our times here in Australia. I have been following her blog recently, and she tends to post very late in the evening.

I hope it's in US time, because if it isn't, then something is definitely wrong. I did a google search on her site and the only time the word bottle came up in reference to feeding was one time when she let her daughter feed the baby. Otherwise, that baby was breast fed on demand.

[Boltingmadonna]

I'm not going to read her blog because I can't take it, but based on the amount of neglect people are describing here, I think this goes beyond passive neglect. They actively put their children into dangerous situations to such an extent that it feels to me as if some part of their minds hoped something would "happen" and the kids would die. It wouldn't be their fault, but the responsibility would be lifted from them by fate. Lo and behold, that's what happened with the baby--an "accident." It's no accident when you keep courting danger this way. It's like playing with matches--which I'm sure they let their children do too. There's some serious mental dysfunction going on here, and I don't think either of them is a fit parent.

[pixydust]

Those youtube videos definitely make it sound to me like the dad had some underlying mental issues before this. It sounds like the strain of the marriage problems pushed him over the edge and made him think of suicide. For whatever reason he probably thought he should take his son with him, but once he hit the water his own survival instincts kicked in and he decided not to kill himself.

I really doubt that the Mom had anything to do with the death. They did an autopsy and it should have been easy to determine if the poor little guy died of drowning or some other cause.

I think that is probably what happened, not sure why the dad would feel like he should kill the baby with him, but that isn't really uncommon. As for the mom, IF she is the one who killed the baby, she could have drowned him at home, and dad freaked and took the body and was going to kill himself (jump while holding the body), but the survival kicked in (like you said) and he saved himself.

[Sumeri]

I don't think it's the mom. The most upsetting part of looking through that blog to me (other than the startling neglect of those girls) is the deterioration of David. It's astounding. At the beginning he looks happy and responsible and, well, normal. When you read toward the end he has those dead eyes and just looks insane. No smiles, no emotion.

[FJSharkJump]

My guess is they both were suffering, but he decided on a sparkling adventure when he took the kid in the carriage and decided to go off roading with it and not consider the consequences. Neither of these individuals paid a lot of attention to consequences. He outfitted a totally unsuitable truck for their forays into the bush, and didn't care that their beloved son slept in box while on the road. They routinely used a white gas stove when cooking in the shed. Not to mention the baby's 'freebirth' at the Rainbow Gathering. The video clearly shows the child's cord wrapped around his neck as he presented.

I think this is the second reference to the cord being around the baby's neck. Not that I think having a baby out in the middle of nowhere without easy access to medical intervention (if needed) is a good idea, but the cord-around-neck shouldn't be held as evidence that the baby was in danger during the birth. Babies are born with the cord around their neck frequently. You just unwrap it, as the Dad did in the video. An OB or midwife would have done the exact same thing. I understand that it can be an issue if the cord is particularly short, and I believe in that case the cord is cut and clamped right away so the baby can maneuver the rest of the way out of the birth canal without pulling too tightly on his own neck or pulling too hard on the placenta. The cord issue itself doesn't really mean anything in the assessment of these parents' brand of neglect and crazy.

[FJSharkJump]

They also let their small children wander off unattended on several (I think one post said 50?) acres behind their house where there are several horses located. The children walked right up to the horses (with no supervision) and started petting them and brushing them. On one instance they came upon a stillborn foal (which just makes me wonder who owns these horses and if they were/are being neglected as well).

sparklingadventures.com/index.php?id=1018

Edited for disclaimer.....there is a pic of a stillborn foal on this link.

According to the blog post, the kids weren't unattended when they went to brush the horses. Their dad went with them.

[Witsec7]

I think this is the second reference to the cord being around the baby's neck. Not that I think having a baby out in the middle of nowhere without easy access to medical intervention (if needed) is a good idea, but the cord-around-neck shouldn't be held as evidence that the baby was in danger during the birth. Babies are born with the cord around their neck frequently. You just unwrap it, as the Dad did in the video. An OB or midwife would have done the exact same thing. I understand that it can be an issue if the cord is particularly short, and I believe in that case the cord is cut and clamped right away so the baby can maneuver the rest of the way out of the birth canal without pulling too tightly on his own neck or pulling too hard on the placenta. The cord issue itself doesn't really mean anything in the assessment of these parents' brand of neglect and crazy.

Thanks for a clarification on the cord issue. I think they got lucky on this birth. There are always a few unattended births at Rainbow Gatherings.

[FJSharkJump]

I'm going to take the risk of being flamed and say that letting the children handle very recently dead animals doesn't bother me all that much. Children are natural scientists, and this sort of (supervised) exploration seems like a very valuable experience. I actually thought the examination of the dead bird was really interesting. I also think it gives a lot of context to death and the cycles of life and nature. I think it's actually a better educational moment than waiting until middle school to dissect already dead animals reeking of formaldehyde. And it isn't as though the children were handling animals that were already rotting or covered in maggots or anything like that. There really is very little risk of disease transmission from a recently dead animal (Who would shoot and then field dress a deer if there was?), especially if thorough hand washing is a mandatory part of ending this kind of investigation.

For me, this isn't evidence of careless parenting. It sounds like there is much more concrete evidence for careless, or really, outright dangerous parenting in other actions the parents have taken. The whole vehicle transportation sans car seats situation alone would have me calling CPS on this family.

[Witsec7]

The whole vehicle transportation sans car seats situation alone would have me calling CPS on this family.

Let's put this into perspective. The parents and infant rode in the front seat of the horse truck. The children were in the back of the truck with no seats. There was a plastic viewing port installed so that the parents could see the kids in the back but basically the kids did what they pleased when the vehicle was on the road.

[FJSharkJump]

Thanks for a clarification on the cord issue. I think they got lucky on this birth. There are always a few unattended births at Rainbow Gatherings.

Sure, you're welcome. And, yeah, those unattended births are just insane to me. I'm all for natural, unmedicated labor and birth (tried it myself actually) and even supportive of home birth with the right kind of back up care plan. But purposely laboring and giving birth without swift and easy access to medical intervention is seriously fucked.