I
Unless your life belongs to someone else, I don't see how it could be considered selfish.
If you wanted to sell your car, that's not selfish. But if it was a car you shared with someone else - selling it on your own would be selfish IMO.
I do struggle with how I feel about parents of young kids ctb'ing. Bringing kids here then bailing on them (while leaving them stuck behind) rubs me the wrong way.
I agree this is a sad circumstance but does occur because, unfortunately, there are depressed people who have children....this can be positive in giving the person a reason to live as well as contributing to life fulfillment and joy. Having a child gave me passion to be better and do better in order to provide a comfortable life for my child, and I was a phenomenal parent while I also worked on myself and earned a degree. However, my health and mental status have declined and I've been struggling internally for many years, it's gotten to the point of exhaustion and everything keeps going to shit, basically.
I do believe that sadly, when it comes to highly depressed/mentally instable parents with small children, that the thought of leaving them behind could be a reason for catastrophic endings in which they take their children with them when they ctb. This is a sad reality where, instead of children being a positive reason to improve their lives, it goes the opposite direction...in this case it is better to leave children behind as they at least will have a chance at life, but it is sad in any case for a parent to leave their child.
I had never thought about doing something like that ever, that is so awful. So I agree with you, and I also feel that even when they become adults and we get older and life tends to get more and more difficult to keep up with, our lives still belong to them....it is super difficult not to think about them ever.