The mothers SHOULD have known better, but keep in mind that they too were taught from childhood that failure to cooperate with the leadership of the church, and failure to submit to the will of their “husband”, would lead to eternal damnation.
They also have little or no education, no marketable skills and were told that they would be evicted from the community if they didn’t cooperate. And they didn’t have any family to turn to because, for most of them, the only family they know is also FLDS.
Somewhere in this mess, there was a huge, willful dereliction of maternal duty...the mothers’ mothers, perhaps?