Itâs not that Kate shouldnât have taken Aaron - itâs that Claire had a family. The moment Claireâs mother showed up at that funeral, Kate and Jack should have fessed up and given Aaron to live with his grandmother. Kate was using Aaron to fill her own emotional void.
Plus you know the little fact that when she decided to say Aaron was hers she was still wanted for Murder and other crimes and could very well end up in Prison. What then?
A) Aaron gets raised by the Nanny? B) Forster Care? C) Kateâs Mother? D) She tells the truth after Aaron had already bounded with her for two years causing him a lot of emotional pain? Um selfish and irresponsibly much? Â Itâs not like she knew her Trial would be a joke. She could have been arrested and put into Jail once she landed on Mainland for all she knew.
Aaron would have been better off if the Oceanic 6 had just told the truth about him.
Claire gave birth to Aaron than disappeared; they were unable to find her and were forced out to sea in an attempt to find civilization because they needed to feed the Baby.
Aaron would have been with his Grandmother right from the start. No stealing his complete identity from him. No trauma of being abandoned by his Mother in a Hotel Room waking up to a completely Stranger (And the only reason his own Grandmother is a Stranger to him is Kate in the first place).
But no, Kate needed an emotional Band-Aid.
With pretending she was his Mother for three years she caused a lot of damage and pain for Aaron, his Grandmother and once she comes back to the real world Claire too.
If you ask me Kate didnât feel guilty enough for what she did.
I truly and honestly believe that she (and the rest of the five that went along with the entire lie) had no other choice but to claim him as her child.
I disagree that there was no other choice; fact is the Aaron lie was completely about accommodating Kate's request. It had nothing to do with the Big Lie.
Kate came up with the idea because in her own words: âAfter everyone we've lost--Michael, Jin, Sawyer... I can't lose him, too.â
There was no need for any of them to claim to be blood related to Aaron and erase Claire out of the picture to make the Main Lie more believable.
Jack was even against it in the beginning and said it was unnecessary:
Kate: We could say that I was six months pregnant when I was arrested and that I gave birth to him on the Island. No one would ever know.
Jack: Kate, you know you donât have to.. [pause]Thereâs other ways to do this.
There is no other reason for Aaron being with Kate besides that she asked for him.
They couldnât say anything about Claire. Period. It would mean putting so many lives into danger (including their own), and would have been too difficult to explain properly to the mass public. All of the men were automatically excused from claiming him as questions of a missing mother would arise. That left Kate and Sun, who a) was already pregnant and b) would be very hard to convince a large group of people of being the biological mother of a pale, blonde haired, blue eyed baby. Kate was the only one that made sense, she knew this, and made a decision based upon it.
Kate wasnât trapped in circumstances where there was no other choice but claim the baby was hers because she was the only white female in the group.
Her decision was based on what she wanted at the moment. Lying about Aaron made the Lie more unbelievable if anything. Because now they added more unnecessary lies (Like Kate being pregnant while arrested) into an already weak story.
Transcript from No Place Like Home Part 1:
MALE REPORTER #1: And those of you who survived--you swam to the island?
JACK: No. We had, uh, cushions. We had some life jackets. We were in the water for over a day before the current took us in. By then, there was only eight of us left.
 So that means that in their version of the events there were three other people who survived but died between the crash and the rescue. We got more info on that during the enhanced broadcast and the DVD cut where this scene was added:
 MALE REPORTER #1: What happened to the other three?
JACK: One of them, his name is Boone Carlyle, suffered tremendous internal injuries and died a few days after the crash. A woman, Libby, she didn't make it through the first week. Charlie Pace, he drowned a few weeks before we were able to leave.
How would adding a fourth survivor or replacing letâs say Boone with pregnant Claire, who gave birth to her baby but disappeared and they assume she drowned being more difficult to explain? How would this version put anyoneâs life in danger at all?
  Now, at the moment I doubt she even thought about what would happen to him, jail time or whatever, all that mattered was keeping him safe. He was, as were all the rest of the survivors, her family as far as she was concerned, and they all needed to protect each other the best way they could in my opinion.
If all that mattered to her was keeping Aaron save, shouldnât the question what would become of him once they reach Mainland and what might be the (bad) consequences for him if she claims him the first thing on her mind then?
Aaron safety or whatâs best for him never come up during the time on the freighter at all.
The Baby Lie was so incredible selfish of her. Itâs all me, me, me when it should have been all about whatâs best for Aaron. But again whatâs in his best interests is never discussed.
How could she keep him save and care for him from prison? Did she and the rest just temporary forget that she was a wanted Woman, really?
And I donât buy thatâs she was oh so closely bounded to Aaron. She helped at his birth yes, but after that? She held him once in Maternity Leave and was afraid to do so in Eggtown. She never spend any time with him as an individual. Sun had a closer bound with Aaron during their time on the Island. But even if Kate had that close of a relationship with him that still doesnât give her any legal or moral rights to make the decision that from now on she should be his mother.
Aaron safety and a stable future that isnât poisoned by lies trump Kateâs emotional needs.
When Carole came around, sure she could have dropped him off on her, but then she would have had to explain where Claire was, and why they lied, and where Aaron came from and so much more stuff that Kate was trying to avoid having uncovered, if for nothing but for Aaron. And letâs not forget Jackâs role in this. As much weight as his words held with her, Iâm pretty sure had he asked her to tell Carole everything, she would have. NONE of them wanted Aaron away from the O6 circle; he couldnât have been protected from people like Ben if he had gone to Carole.
She could have told Carole the truth about Aaron being Claireâs son and own up to it in public without putting the big lie at risk âI lied about given birth to this child because I wanted to keep him.â does not = Magical island that disappeared into the sea.
She also had no problem telling Cassidy the truth so she could fulfil Sawyers request. And yet she canât do the same thing for Aaron sake?
He would have been just fine if he had been given to Carole while he was still a baby. Or if Kate had never lied about him in the first place. He wouldnât have been living in a House of Cards that could come crashing down at any moment.
If the rest of the O6 where so concerned about Aaronâs safety and Ben harming him how come that most of them didnât have very close contact with him for years, being off living their (in some cases) happy lifeâs until everything went down to hell?
Kate keeping him so she could protect him from Ben or Widmore was never mentioned or even implied on the Show. And how would Kate be able to protect him from Prison anyway? Again, when they came up with the Aaron Lie they had no way of knowing she would get off.
And why would they go after Aaron living a normal life in Australia with his Grandmother who knows nothing about the Island in the first place? Blackmail? In that case why is he under higher risk to be used that way than Jackâs Mother, Nadia or someone from Hurleyâs family? Â The O6 never mention or act like they fear that Ben or Widmore would come after them and their loved ones.
All in all, I think Kateâs reasoning for raising Aaron were much deeper than just self-indulgent ones, and even those I can understand. Every parent has children for selfish reasons in my opinion, you want something small and cute for yourself, whether it be for affection from another person, attention from others, whatever. It doesnât mean thatâs the only reason you have and love that child.
What Kate did goes way beyond the kind of selfishness you describe. People who have children and people who legally adopt them are not doing anything illegal. They do not actively hurt others by raising a child without any consent like Kate did. She put her own needs over Aaronâs and build her own happiness on Carole Littletons loss. She also created a heartbreaking and difficult situation for Aaron and Claire to face in the future, which would have been way less painful for everyone involved if Carole had been raising Aaron right from the time the O6 returned to mainland..  Â
 If thatâs the case, then Claire was selfish for keeping a child she knew she couldnât care for when Thomas left her, Rachel Carlson was selfish for having a child when she knew she was dying, Jin was selfish for staying to die with Sun when Ji Yeon needed him at home, and Ben was selfish for taking Alex into the barracks when Widmore ordered him to kill both her and Danielle.
How does Claireâs, Rachelâs, Jinâs and Benâs selfishness have any bearing on Kateâs wrong doings?
I'm pretty sure there are places do discuss those characters and their behaviour, but that's not the point here. This is about Kate. Whatever the others did or didnât do does not make the things Kate did any less wrong or has any effect on them.
Speaking of Ben, what I REALLY donât get is how most of the fandom hate Kate for raising Aaron, calls her a kidnapper and everything, but Ben does the same thing (well worse really, he actually DID kidnap Alex) and people love him for it? No one ever denies him as Alexâs father or belittles his role as such, even though everyone knows what happened and that Danielle was still alive (until season six, no one really knew if Claire was alive or dead tbh).
I donât know about the rest of the fandom but I actually agree with you that Ben is a horrible human being and is in no way Alex father but her Kidnapper. I donât like him as a person but Iâm entertained watching his character at least in the earlier seasons, wasnât a big fan of his redemption arc.
Even if Claire had actually been dead, that still wouldnât give Kate any rights to pretend to be Aaronâs Mother in any way shape or form.
I just really wish that if nothing else, people would recognize her as his mother, because she is (as is Claire I will never and can never deny this fact). She raised him as her own, cared for him well, taught him how to walk and talk, made good life decisions she normally wouldnât have for his safety, and she LOVED that boy more than (I think) she ever loved anybody else in her entire life.
There are Woman who snatch Babies from the Hospital to raise themselves.
Is that any less of a crime if they treat the child well and love them? Kate didnât rip Aaron out of Claireâs hands (for the record I have no problem with them taking Aaron off Island with them, itâs when Kate put the lie about him being her baby in motion that the problem starts for me.) but she did kidnap him from his Family. If you were Carole Littleton how would you feel knowing that you missed out your grandsons (the only piece you have left of your daughter) first words, first steps, first everything, that you are a complete stranger to him, that you thought he died with your daughter and might not ever would have known the truth just because some stranger with a criminal history decides that she wants him and she could just erase your daughter like she meant nothing, that she should raise him herself and even after she meets you face to face decided that she should just go on with it. Keeping him from you forever.
What Kate did to her and Aaron was horrible and criminal.
That Kate raised the Aaron well and might love him doesn't retroactively change her crime.
So as far as I'm concerned Kate is not Aaron's mother, but his kidnapper who has created a life out of lies just like babynappers do.
Who knows if she would have ever fessed up if it hadnât been for Ben treating to expose the lie.
I donât think she should have been guilty about that at all.
We have to agree to disagree
