"I want to leave and run away but then the feelings of guilt and worry set in and I’m not sure I could bring myself to do that."
"I always thought I wanted a family but now I wake up and immediately can’t wait for the day to be over."
"A mum is supposed to deeply and fiercely love her kid, and I just don’t."
These are some of the stories that you'll find in the forum r/RegretfulParents on Reddit, an online community that provides a rare space for parents looking to share their most challenging experiences and thoughts as parents – all of them centred on the idea that having children was a mistake.
Watch: The Mamamia team confesses the time they thought they were a bad mum. Post continues after video.
The community advertises itself as a safe space "for parents who think they shouldn't have become parents to rant, confess, get off their chest about their kids, significant others, families, whatever."
It has well over 100,000 members (both fathers and mothers) who post stories about their conflicted lives with children and who consider that it may have been a mistake to have them at all.
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