[sgover]

What do you think of Sara as a mother of 3?

[KC14]

Sara is a mother who cares about all of her children but with Kate's medical needs and with the constant threat of losing her, Sara devotes a huge portion of her time and attention on Kate. Sara would give her life to make Kate better, or even allow for her to live longer and she thinks that the rest of the family does or should feel the same way. Sara's life revolves around Kate and she has just enough energy left to be a mom to Jesse and Anna who only meets their minimum needs. Jesse's rebellion shows he lacks attention (not that it couldn't happen anyway, I know, but in this case I really believe he is trying to be noticed, positively or negatively, it doesn't matter) and although I can handle the fact that Anna was conceived to save her sister, it does bother me that no real thought goes into Anna as a person. She is not loved for Anna, she is merely Kate's life support in Sara's eyes.

[Perdy4]

It does help knowing the characters more intimately by the way the book is written. Not 'chapters', but rather characters. If the book was written from only Kate's or Anna's perspective, I probably would not care for Sara very much.
However, you do get to share a little more into her own fears this way.

"you help the child who needs the most help at the time" is a phrase that I have heard. I think in the situation with Sara, that Kate has been the most needy for so long that she has forgotten or 'unable' to see the needs of her other two children.
I would like to see her balance her attention among all her children and her husband and self better.

[sgover]

kc,

I agree with your comment about loving Anna as a daughter and not a life saver. This is obvious because she cannot see why anna wants to have a say in what is going on. She is not really concerned with why Anna has filed the lawsuit and more upset with the fact that she doesn't want to help Kate (which isn't necessarily the case, she just wants to have a say).

[sgover]

perdy,

After reading your post, I feel like Sara would be a good candidate for wife swap. HA!