I am sorry for your experience, but I am surprised a woman who is old enough to have two children is just now learning a well known fact. The airlines do not care? Of course they don't. They never have.
Here is how it works. Most Americans (and citizens of advanced nations) deal in a world where a service is offered, you pay for it and if the service is not delivered as agreed upon, you receive some compensation (even if it is only a sincere apology).
This is not the world the airlines inhabit. They devise a plan which relies on everything going perfectly (the weather will be sunny, planes will not break, employees will show up) and have puny/non-existent contingencies when they do not. Every day (especially the winter) is a fly by the seat of your pants (pun intended) world where they make it up as they go along (standby/other airlines/tell you tough luck).
Here is how I approach the airlines. I will be working a NFL game on the 2nd. We always allow additional time/day when our crew travels to anticipate the "uncertainites" of the airlines. I was offered tix to the Orange Bowl in Miami on Jan 3. If I had chosen to go it would have required booking the last flight out or the first in the morning and a connection. I decided to pass. I had no confidence I would make it even though it was a night game on the 3rd. I don't want to watch the game in a bar in the Atlanta airport so I will just go home.
I would submit that you should approach air travel in a like fashion. Expect delays, cancellations and their not being prepared to accommodate you when the service fails. You MUST be the one prepared because at the end of the day, if they get you there in the same week as your original flight date their attitude is, "you should be grateful we got you there at all".
They are all the same and it will only get worse as they consolidate. But if you want to continue to tilt at the AA windmill, they should eventually give you vouchers of some kind which only means you get to gamble on their service again.
Good luck.
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