I think they will be taking the babies on tour from what they have said but they don't have to do it again. If they do another tour in the future, they can leave the babies home with family or a nanny and schedule the dates in a way that allows them to come home more often to be with the children. They don't need to be with the children 24/7. My mum is a nurse and during the early years of my life, she was working in another city. I didn't spent that much time with her and there were days I didn't see her. I still have an extraordinary bond with her because when we did have time together, she made it worth. This idea that children only have great bonds with their mothers if they're there all the time is so weird.
I think the difference here is being a child Versus being a baby. Babies need stability in the first few years of their lives, they understand their environment and don’t like any change to it. Last year a friend came to visit us for one night, and another friend for two nights with her 9 month old baby ( born in lockdown ). They baby, even though constantly with her Mum was so upset and distressed during the nights and couldn’t sleep, as the change in environment deeply upset it. When back home, baby was fine once again.
So this isn’t really about right or wrong choices being made, its more about will the baby be ok with constant change in location, will Mum be ok if baby is not happy, will Mum be ok if she realises it’s not working out halfway through the tour ?
We can all speculate here, but this is more about what is the sensible thing to do, rather than “ I’m a strong empowering female, and can have it all “ narrative.
Finally a sensible and balanced comment on this. I don’t doubt the girls will do the tour and their job does provide a degree of flexibility but it also has its drawbacks. Touring is hectic and exhausting (especially when you perform like LM does) so I think they’d need their mums/families with them for support and help with childcare. Having a baby is bloody hard work and takes a lot out of you physically and emotionally and I just think it’s slightly naive to think ‘oh they’ll have nannies’ or that leaving your new baby isn’t a big deal and they’ll carry on as normal. It’s just such a flippant and unrealistic attitude towards having children. Having said that, there’s no reason for them not to continue with their careers obviously and any suggestion that they will or should is way off the mark. Things will change for them though as they do for every other working mum and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Totally agree