I'm not surprised. Not at all.

Like you, having my daughter was very fulfilling. But I've seen first hand as she's been growing up how unhappy and miserable many of the other parents around me have become.

I prepared for my child before I had her so I wouldn't get forced back to work too soon. I did a lot of things different than what we're "supposed" to do. Frankly, it made all the difference. I didn't suffer from motherhood the way most women do.

I also refused the martyrdom narrative. Hard no. I got shunned and ostracized for it a lot, but I kept my sanity, have never needed mommy juice to make it through the day, and I've never been so bad off that I've needed to take an antidepressant.

Not to say it was always a cake walk either, because it wasn't. It never is.

I also wasn't carrying around a partner who was dead weight or even a well meaning but hapless one who inadvertently made a lot of things worse than they needed to be. So many women are married to men who do anything with helping with the kids.