The Cinderella Effect

The Cinderella Effect

It's sad and horrible to think that a grown woman who helped raise a little boy would have something to do with his disappearance.  It's almost impossible to wrap our minds around the fact that she wrote hateful e-mails about him and blamed him for many of the problems in her life.  But, sadly, these kinds of tragedies do happen.  In fact, they happen often enough that there's a name for it: The Cinderella Effect.

  

According to Wikipedia...

 "The Cinderella effect is the alleged higher incidence of different forms of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents."

In fact, according to one well-known study:

• Stepchildren are from 40-100 times more likely to be murdered or maimed as those who live with two biological parents.
• Stepmothers are also substantially and significantly more likely to kill young children than genetic mothers.
• Only 53% of the stepfathers and 25% of the stepmothers felt able to say that they had any “parental feeling” (much less “love”) for their stepchildren. 

Now, let's put this in perspective.  Are all stepkids at risk?  No.  Are all stepparents evil?  Of course not.  But statistically, Kyron Horman was in a situation that put him at a substantially higher risk of being abused and/or murdered than a child in a two-biological-parent household.  And - no matter what kind of a pretty pink bow Terri, her mother, and her supporters try to wrap around it - there is some strong evidence that Terri may have fallen into the category of a stepmother who came to resent and hate the little boy in her care, especially when her care of him came to interfere with her care of her own biological children.

For example, Terri wrote e-mails stating she hated Kyron and blamed him for her failing marriage.  In her recent appearance on the Dr. Phil show, Kyron's biological mom, Desiree Young, described these e-mails and that they convinced her Terri was not only capable of harming Kyron, but likely did harm him.

Terri was also harsh in her discipline of Kyron.  One example was her demand for daily behavior reports from his teacher, and that Kaine Horman punish him if he brought home anything but a "green" behavior card.

"Terri blamed Kyron for her failing marriage, and wanted him out of her life.  She put that all in writing."

Desiree Young

By the time June 4, 2010 rolled around, Terri Horman was in a stressful situation to say the least. Her older (biological) son had recently moved out of the family home.  She had also been treated for post-partum depression and experienced weight gain after the birth of her and Kaine's daughter. And her marriage had apparently deteriorated to the point where she was willing to pay someone to kill her husband.  Combine these circumstances with a woman who may have already had some serious underlying personality issues, and it was a recipe for disaster.

So next time someone tells you it's "impossible" that Terri hurt Kyron (Dede Spicher, I'm looking at you) just remember the Cinderella Effect.  And trust me, that fabled glass slipper did not fit Terri Horman's foot.