Coming out as regretting parenthood is a humanitarian service

Any child of parents can probably imagine what it might feel like to see a picture of their mother’s (or father’s) face in a major publication accompanying an article whose headline basically screams, “I wish I’d never had the lot o’ ya!”

Isabella Dutton doesn’t say that, exactly. What she does say is that she never wanted to be a mother and that, after becoming one, as much as she loves her two children, she still wouldn’t have chosen to be a mother and believes she would have been happier had she not been one.

Many of the comments (closed after more than 1,000 posted) side with the children, imagining the pain Dutton must have caused her son and daughter by admitting to being an unhappy and resentful parent:

I wonder how loved your children feel after having read this article? What made you publish this article and put this out in public? I resented some of the free time I had to give up, but my children (who are now grown) know that I love them, and if I did not, I certainly would not have written an article and had it published.

It’s never too late to be a good mother; you could start by keeping hurtful confessions to yourself instead of airing them in a national newspaper for no good reason. God knows how your kids feel when they hear how you feel….. your…