No Child Left Behind

I recently read a Yahoo news story of 2 women who each decided she was done being a mom.  One of them had 2 little kids, & the other had 3 middle schoolish-aged children.  Both divorced & the fathers have full custody. 

You can see by my above title that my opinion of motherhood is different from theirs. 

Most of the article is about how & why they did it, but a particular sentence about the 2nd mom really struck me - "I became a mom when I was 20.  I did not have the life a normal 20 year old would have."  Seems to me she feels cheated.  I can relate to that - if I let myself, I can feel really cheated.  I bet you can, too.  Hardly a rare emotion. 

"Is there life out there, so much she hasn't done!  Is there life beyond her family & he home?"  Reba

"There's no normal life, Wyatt.  There's just life."  Doc Holiday to Wyatt Earp in Tombstone 

The only thing I don't find odd about these two women is that they did have the normal feelings that mothers have from time to time.  Everyone under the sun wants to do something that they just want to do for themselves.  What I find extremely odd is that these two became so fixated on themselves that they left their children.

An interesting point made by one of them was something like "nobody thinks twice if a father (either married or divorced) doesn't want to be a full-time dad".  That's true. 

I wonder how extreme this story is?  Would they have continued to be moms if they'd stayed married?  Did they really feel they couldn't achieve what they wanted professionally & still live with their children?

I'm pretty certain there are a lot of people who live with their children but neither care for nor parent them.  How do their children turn out?  In fact, English gentry culture for generations shows children raised in the same manor house but by servants & governesses - or shipped off to school.

I have a lot of ideas & dreams:  things I want to learn, do, & build.  Places I want to go & explore.  I've even picked out the violin I want to get (so I can learn.)  I've never felt my children an impediment to any aspect of my life.  They enrich my life daily.   

The biggest question I want answered is:  how will each of these women feel about their decision when she is 70?