Women: Facing Careers,Children and Choices

Re “Create Work Policies Fit for a Mom,” Commentary, April 16: As a 27-year-old married and child-free-by-choice woman, I fear that women who are still under the delusion that they can have both a career and raise a family will ruin all the progress the women’s movement has made in my lifetime. A woman who chooses to have children and remain in the work force must understand that, ultimately, either her career or her relationship with her children will suffer. Furthermore, a woman should not expect her employer to support her choice to have a child beyond the employer’s legal obligations.

In this day and age, motherhood is a choice, best made after careful consideration of the permanent and dramatic impact motherhood will have on a woman’s life and future. Pressuring a woman to procreate because her fertility is declining is deplorable. It is far better to regret not having children than it is to regret having children. After all, statistics show that the greatest danger to a child under 5 is his or her parents.

Monica Lightner

Burbank