I’ve been interested in the conversation around pop star Chappell Roan’s comments on motherhood. The 27-year-old singer caused a bit of a stir online last week when she said on the Call Her Daddy podcast: “All of my friends who have kids are in hell. I actually don’t know anyone who is like…happy and has children.”
I’m 28. I’m not married and I don’t have any children yet. I think there is a societal fear of having children for a lot of women my age. Yes, it’s harder to find a partner these days, I think because of things like a gap in people’s values, and also the way in which we socialise less since Covid – but there also seems to be more of a fear of having children at the age where we should ideally be having them.
I would love to hear the reader’s opinions, especially those who are parents – I don’t think happiness per say is the reason anyone goes into motherhood. It’s for things like long-term fulfilment and it’s a biological instinct many women have. Have we created a society so focused on short-term happiness that young women are afraid of pursuing a life which brings some suffering, but a deeper happiness in the long-term?
-Maria