The other day I met a woman who said she used to love to write but couldn't find time for it these days because she was raising three young children on her own. She planned to return to it when they were older. I asked how long that would be. "The youngest is four, so I guess at least another ten years or so."
Raising children, especially on your own, is a huge responsibility but I wonder whether the responsibility referred to in the quote above isn't a pretty big one, too.
I'm not suggesting that she put the kids up for adoption or let them turn feral, only that she works out a way to find a couple of hours a week to do something she loves to do and that allows her to express her creativity in another way (I know that raising kids well requires a high level of creativity, too).
Maybe that could come through bartering with another single mother, or asking a family member to help out.
I got the sense she'd consider that selfish. It's an attitude I encounter mostly in women, even young women--that insisting on a bit of time for something meaningful for yourself is not right, that other's needs come first.
If you're putting off writing or expressing your creativity in some other way because you have too many obligations to other people, maybe reframing "responsibility" to include the kind referred to in the quote offers a different perspective.
