That article about women regretting motherhood

Listeners/readers, I will be on Morning Air this Thursday to talk about that article at The Cut, “I regret having children.” It’s behind a paywall, but you can look it up. In it, they interview three women who evidently, despite loving their children, regret having them, and long for their former lives. Ho hum.

A lot of Catholic women got their hackles raised about this one. I say - well, of course there are parents who feel this way. Parenting is the single hardest thing you will do in life. It is relentless, it is exhausting, it is expensive, it is disorienting, and it is far from instant gratification. Nothing in life prepares you for the demands of motherhood. And of course, we live in an extremely anti-family society, as evidenced by things like the extreme, even prohibitive, cost of childcare. So no wonder there are women out there, overwhelmed, stuck in the worldview of a secular life, thinking they should be able to “have it all,” unable to even tell what real happiness is, “regretting” their choice.

I’ll be offering a few ways for all of us, those that regret starting a family and those that do not (safe to say, I am in the latter camp, but I can empathize nonetheless) can change perspective and allow ourselves and others a little more grace. You can catch the conversation around 8:20 am eastern this Thursday, March 26. See here all the different options you have for how to listen.

And of course I’ll put it out there that we should all pray that our society and world become more family-friendly - that is what we mean by a “culture of life” - but I admit I do not see that happening any time soon. Nonetheless: we pray.