I have a theory.

So for the last few weeks I've been working with a new starter. She's a nice girl, we get on pretty well and have a laugh as I'm teaching her the job.

Unfortunately however, it was probably inevitable that the topic of kids would eventually come up. I don't know why, but it always, -always- seems to. Is it just one of those things that no-one told me would be inescapable once entering the realms of adulthood?

Anyway, she finds out I'm childfree, vasectomy, the lot, so she knows she isn't going to get far trying to convince me, but then lately she's just started going on and on and on about how much stress and hard work her kids are.

How she's going home from one job and coming home to another, she can't have a cup of tea without it going cold because she's wanted for something every couple of minutes, how she has no free time, no sleep and on and on and on, we know how it goes.

So after about a week of this I just ask her, 'So do you regret having kids? Kind of sounds like it.'

She looks at me like I just kicked a puppy into a meat grinder.

'Oh no! Absolutely not! How can you even say that?! Having kids is the best thing you'll ever do! Nothing compares to it!'

After recovering from the whiplash, I thought about it over the course of the day and my theory is this:

Deep down the answer to that question was really 'yes'. For whatever reason she doesn't want to admit it to herself but the way she goes on, there's no way she can tell me with a straight face that she's happy and feels like she made the right choice.

I honestly believe the rants were how she really feels but when I actually straight up asked her about it, she realised just how much she'd overextended and quickly snapped back into her pre-programmed mum mindset and essentially tried to take it all back. Unconvincingly I add.

I've come to genuinely believe that they're living on autopilot, unhappy, trapped and miserable, and that these rants and little outbursts are their real selves trying to break out of it, if only for a few moments so they can remember what it's like to be free.

I've worked with many people who've intentionally stayed behind late after work just because they don't have it in them to face their screaming snot gremlins and nagging partners when they get home, so this wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

Curious as to whether anyone else has had any experiences like this?