Kelsea Ballerini has it all, or so the world says. Fame, freedom, success, and a career that millions envy. Yet in her new song, the country star opens up about something missing — a family of her own.
Ballerini’s lyrics are vulnerable:
“Dad brought the picnic / Mom brought the sunscreen / Two kids are laughing and crying on red swings,” she sings, painting a picture of a life she could have lived. “We look about the same age / But we don’t have the same Saturdays.”
The song “I Sit In Parks” captures a quiet ache so many women face— a longing for motherhood that her career can never replace.
“Did I miss it? / By now is it / A lucid dream? Is it my fault / For chasing things a body clock / Doesn’t wait for?”
She continues, grappling with time, choices, and what she might have given up.
“I did the d**n tour / It’s what I wanted, what I got / I spun around and then I stopped / And wonder if I missed the mark.”
These are not the words of someone who despises her career; they’re the words of a woman who is beginning to see the cracks in the “career over family” illusion.
(Warning: Song uses profane language)
For years, young women have been told that career success must come first — that fulfillment lies in independence, ambition, and freedom from “traditional roles.” Publications like Rolling Stone frame motherhood as something that can always wait. But as Ballerini’s lyrics show, that promise often ends in emptiness.
“I wonder if she wants my freedom like I wanna be a mother/ But Rolling Stone says I’m on the right road/ So I refill my Lexapro, thinkin’”
Her song isn’t just about fame or fertility. It’s about a woman waking up to the heartache of what was lost in pursuit of what the world told her she should want.
Even with all the glamour, she sings, “I see just how far I am from the things that I want.”
“Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief.”
— Proverbs 14:13
Marriage and motherhood aren’t the only paths to happiness, but they are some of the richest and most natural callings written on a woman’s heart. Studies repeatedly show that married women with children report higher levels of life satisfaction and meaning than their unmarried or childless peers.
Yet, today’s culture tells women to wait. They say to perfect their careers, “live up” their young adult years, to chase their wildest dreams before embracing family. But time doesn’t wait. By the time many realize they’ve been sold a lie, their chance at motherhood has faded.
The truth is, no one, man or woman, can “have it all.” Every life involves sacrifice. But motherhood, far from holding women back, transforms them. It grounds them in something real, selfless, and eternal.