Idle Hands

by Cassondra Windwalker

A woman’s odds of being killed by an abusive partner increase astronomically when she makes the decision to leave. And there are all the dynamics of being a single mother — likely to require some sort of government assistance, absolutely guaranteed to be largely absent from the children’s daily lives. If she’s going to work and put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, she’s not going to be the Super-PTA mom, too, showing up with treats at parent—teacher conferences, cooking breakfast in the morning, helping with homework in the afternoons, tucking them into bed at night. She’s a loss in your estimation, no matter which way she turns — either her children are poorly supervised runabouts lacking discipline and oversight, or she’s the monster who forces them to live in a home of violence and fear.