A valid reason for a woman to leave her child?

[jaaaarne]

Guys, I really need your help. This is a pretty much relationship advice for a romance novel, though, so I'm sorry if the question seems stupid or inappropriate.

Now. The story is set in the modern era Western-type society, about 7-10 years in the future. There is a couple that once had a sudden, bright and passionate romance, that, sadly, turned out to be pretty short-lived. Therefore, they divorce, having gone from being madly in love to hostility. The question is, they have a 2 y.o. baby which I need to stay with its father after the divorce.

I don't want to demonize the mother and I really don't want to kill her off (she's not a bad person, besides, it would be awesome if I could still have this character later in the story), but I need to somehow make it work. Being a woman myself I honestly cannot come up with any explanations. This has to be a non-scandalous arrangement, no forcing the kid away from her mother or something. They have to agree on the terms. I need some valid reason for the mother to agree that the baby will be better off with the father, although she and her ex-husband are now pretty hostile to each other. The mother is about 27-29 when she divorces her husband. Also, she's a kind of a performer (not a celebrity!) traveling a lot, so maybe the arrangement can somehow be tied to that?

All and any input on this will be appreciated. :)

Comments

[bindingthreads]

I would guess that money, frequent travel and/or childcare difficulties would all be plausible reasons why a parent might feel that their child is better off with the other parent. Of course, these are all very circumstantial reasons that will vary from parent to parent.

One parent having custody also doesn't mean that the other parent will never see their child. There are different types of custody. I know parents who have primary custody, and the other parent has the child for summers/holidays.

[bindingthreads]

This probably doesn't apply to your scenario, but there's many historical examples of parents sending their children away, sometimes to another continent, so that the children might be able to leave war zones. I'm thinking in particular of WWII and the British evacuation of civilians (especially children).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuations_of_civilians_in_Britain_during_World_War_II

[jaaaarne]

I don't need to cut the mother from seeing the child entirely, although she is not going to see her girl often due to the line of work. What I aim for is a civilized divorce with the baby staying with the father. :) It's not the main storyline, but I want everything to be as plausible as possible.

Thank you for your thoughts. I'm now really inclining towards the "too much traveling" scenario.