I was watching an episode of Top Chef Just Desserts on Bravo last night, and I almost fell off my chair when a talented pastry chef bowed out of the competition presumably for her kids.

Malika Ameen, a 35-year-old Chicago native and mother of three boys, studied at the French Culinary Institute and was starting to get a good reputation in the Chicago food scene. Snagging a spot on the show was quite a feat for any aspiring chef. But last night she decided to drop the whole thing even though she had just been showered with praise by the judges for her saffron panna cotta.

For weeks she had been talking about how much she missed her children, but it was a shocker when she walked away from it all. She seemed to offer a lame excuse that she wasn’t big on competition, but she was clearly dropping the blame for her departure on her children.

Is this a dumb or smart move? And why is it that women so often use their kids as an excuse for not following their dreams? (more…)