Kelsea Ballerini's haunting new song exposes the loneliness feminism forgot

Singer Kelsea Ballerini's new viral hit, 'I sit in parks,' exposes generational regret among women who prioritized career and independence over family.

Our bodies, our hearts, and our souls have rhythms that no ideology can rewrite. For decades, women were told that "you can have it all" meant "you can have it all, later." But "later" comes faster than we think. Motherhood doesn’t end your story. It deepens it. Bethany Mandel is the co-author of "Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation." She writes on the Mom Wars Substack and co-hosts its podcast. She is a homeschooling mother of six children. Find her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @BethanyShondark and on Instagram: @bethanyshondark.

In just a few lines, she captures the ache of a generation of women who were told to chase freedom, ambition, and self-discovery — but never told what to do when they found themselves alone, wondering if they ran too far from the very things that would have grounded them.

Three years ago, Ballerini divorced her husband, saying she wasn’t sure if she wanted children.