20/08/2026
A note before I share this: Nothing in this post is intended to condone, excuse or minimise what Lindsay Clancy is alleged to have done. The loss of three children is devastating, and my heart is first and foremost with those children and everyone affected by this tragedy.
But I think part of the reason so many women are responding to her story with compassion is because, somewhere within it, we recognise a piece of the struggle.
Not the alleged actions.
The overwhelm. The pressure. The vulnerability. The expectation to keep functioning. The experience of being a mother while potentially struggling deeply behind closed doors.
Compassion does not mean condoning harm. Two things can exist at the same time: we can acknowledge the horror of what happened while also being willing to have difficult conversations about maternal mental health, the pressures placed on women, and what can happen when someone becomes profoundly unwell.
Perhaps what women are rallying around isn't the act itself, but the uncomfortable recognition that sometimes a woman can be struggling far more deeply than the outside world realises.
