I suspect the media tone would be a bit different if a woman left when her child was 8 and didn’t meet their grandchild until they were 12 to walk around the world…
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/nov/02/karl-bushby-uk-hull-28-year-walk-across-world
Also on the topic of weird dude who walked around the world for 28 years the media is obsessed with this week, he may have walked a long way in total and in some unpleasant places but his annual average was just over 2,000km. Sounds like a lot but I’m on target to log 1,200km of walks this year and I’m someone with a full time desk job, adult responsibilities I attempt to fulfil and multiple health issues. He must have done a LOT of sitting around