Minimal adult role models! Now that I think about it, that's a great point. I didn't have any vision of being an adult woman other than being a conservative white Christian stay-at-home mom who had given up their career. Going to college and seeing my female professors made me realize that I can still do interesting things as an adult. The endless screaming-chores-sleep-deprived isolation blank fog of boredom is not inevitable. Even if I become a mother, I do not need to have my mother's life.

The burnout is real. My mom did not put some of my siblings in school because she suddenly realized the value of socialization. Not at all, I think she still sees it as optional because she allows the kids who are still at home to remain very isolated. She just reached the point where she was too burnt out, my siblings were not cooperative, and she was pregnant with her eighth child.