What I Won't Defend — A Father's Take on the Lindsay Clancy Case

There are things I'll debate. This isn't one of them.

I've watched people online try to explain away what Lindsay Clancy did to her kids. Try to soften it. Try to say they understand it, that they might have done the same thing in her shoes. And I want to be clear about something: I don't buy it, and I won't pretend to.

If hearing a hard story makes you want to leave a relationship that isn't right for you, leave it. That's your call to make, and I'll support anyone walking away from something that isn't working. But that's not what this is. She killed three people. Her three children. And no amount of reframing changes what that is.

Here's where this lands for me, and why I'm even bringing it up: as a man, when I think about who I want in my life, one of the first things I think about is my kids. I'm looking for someone who's going to take care of them — care for them, nurture them, help them grow into who they're supposed to be. That's not a small ask. It's the ask.

So when I see people making excuses for something like this, it doesn't just bother me in the abstract. It tells me something about how seriously they take that responsibility in the first place. And that's disqualifying, full stop.

I don't have a clever ending for this one. Some things don't need a bow on them. This is one of them.