Dear Carolyne: I’m pretty sure my mother would have chosen not to have children, if that concept existed in the 1970s when she had me. Instead, as a teacher, she faced many social and professional pressures to become a mother herself. Now that I have been the ages she was when she raised me, I understand my childhood much better. She hated every part of my upbringing. She gave up a lot of personal freedom, financial security, and much-needed introverted time (another concept that didn’t exist at the time). As someone who became childless myself (not surprising), I feel a lot of sympathy for her.
Gn entert
