Women regrets having children; internet goes predictably apeshit

Although some question the validity of the Daily Mail post by a woman who says she regrets having children, I have to agree with Role's Reboot's Chanel Dubofsky and Nicole Cliffe from The Hairpin:  I'm glad someone had the nerve to present an uglier side of motherhood, one without the socially acceptable caveat, "it's hard, but worth it."

And for those who say, "well, if she didn't want children, she shouldn't have had them in the first place," it's not that easy. At least, it's not so simple for every woman. I'm grateful that I've never, from anyone, felt pressured into having children, but society's mores and expectations are incredibly hard to resist. Should she have put her children's names and pictures up? Probably not, but I still think there's room for her story within the usual narratives of motherhood.

Like Dubofsky, I hesitated just to post this. (I've already edited it twice.) I thought of all the ways I could approach it, like what if a man had written this? It's almost too easy to go there, and I suspect the overall reaction wouldn't exactly be kind and supportive either but the vitriol leveled at the author of the Daily Mail article is... not surprising. Women are allowed to admit that motherhood is hard, but we're always supposed to qualify by saying that in the end, it was all worth it. Regret is not an option.