“One Less Mouth To Feed”: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

A burden…one less mouth to feed… I fantasize about the days when I will have no children to ferry around from Point A to Point B. The driving I do would make your head spin. When one, two, and three children have left my home to go to college and work, I will be sad. Relieved to not have the daily burden of childcare, meal prep, and homework, but sad for the times gone by.

My children will always have a home to come home to…a meal on the table…a place to rest their heads. The thought of sending my children out of my house due to not having enough food is incomprehensible to me. But, it happens.

In many parts of the world, families are living a hand-to-mouth existence. For these families there is no money for food, let alone toys and gadgets. Education is for those who can afford it. Food is a basic need. No one should have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, but many families worry about feeding their children.

I read the line “One less mouth to feed” in I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. Reading that line made me feel utterly dejected. The phrase was used by the parents of a little girl to explain why they were letting their daughter get married at 10. I CANNOT imagine ever using that phrase. Nor can I imagine allowing my daughter to get married at 10.

Nujood — the little girl who was married at 10 to a man twice her age — is living in the city of Sana’a in Yemen. The book — I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced — is a stark representation of what life is like for women in countries where women have few rights. Women in parts of the Middle East have no control over their lives. My daughters will not have to worry about their next meal or the right to vote or when they can marry.

I was given a copy of I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced as part of my participation in the Silicon Valley Moms Book Club.