Do you have any idea how common child abuse is? The script is almost always the same: young men/women working long hours, often less educated, seriously sleep deprived, rare social support, and their child won’t stop screaming. They engage in an impulsive action, often with tragic results. Physical abuse against a child is never acceptable, and should always be legally punished. But it is incredible the naïveté some of you show in labeling these people as lovers of Satan committing premeditated violence against their own children because they adore evil for the sake of evil. Young parents need to be told that a child can stress them beyond anything they’ve experienced and that it is OKAY to put them down in the crib and leave them for 5 or 10 minutes to cool down. Young parents with limited cognitive and material resources, with no social support networks need much more support than what they current get in society.

Source: I do forensic psychiatry, and worked in the past at a Medicaid child psychiatry clinic.