In a story posted this past month on TheAwl.com, writer Amy Sohn detailed the bad behavior she’s observed among married moms in her Brooklyn neighborhood, calling it “the 40-year-old reversion”:
“…We’re masturbating excessively, cheating on good people, doing coke in newly price-inflated townhouses, and sexting compulsively—though rarely with our partners. Our children now school-aged, our marriages entering their second decade, we are avoiding the big questions—Should I quit my job? Have another child? Divorce?—by behaving like a bunch of crazy twentysomething hipsters. Call us the Regressives.”
However, another mom, Shanon Cook, on CNN.com, says it’s possible to have a satisfying social life (with the occasional downing-few-too-many-cocktails evening) without risking busting up the marriage by cheating or engaging in illicit drug use:
Truth be told, I actually enjoy going out more now, simply because I’m a parent. There’s a sense of accomplishment that I haven’t felt before, having co-created this awesome little creature who giggles her way through the day. These days I feel lighter and happier when I’m on the town. I laugh more because my baby constantly reminds me how funny we all are. I relax more because I know it’s useless wasting rare moments away from the house on being uptight.
Also, the pressure’s off. I’m one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to size up every dude in the bar to see if they fit the husband mold. My husband is at home playing video games or dozing peacefully in the room next to my sleeping kid. Or, even better, it’s date night and he’s right in front of me topping up my wine. My nights out end the same way, with me going back to a home that makes me happy.
Has the expectation that once you become a mom, your partying days are over died a slow death, post-Sex and the City? (Hot moms Miranda and Charlotte, after all, both found time to get away and have martinis with the girls.) Or is it worrisome that parents are relishing the escape from their children so much?
[CNN]
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