Time Warp
I agree with both Studio and Bala on this one. I don't think Ellis was particularly mean, she just never should have had a child. She was never cut out to be a mother and hence how she treated Meredith. There are lots of women, in the past and maybe still even today (but not so much) who have children because that is what they feel is expected of them. Unless you want a child, they will only become an inconvenience. Society tends to frown on parents (maybe not openly) who don't want to have children. Friends of my Brother and his wife don't want to have children, they decided. I don't know how many times I've heard people saying to them "Maybe you'll change your mind" - But why should they? That's their decision. At least they have the courage of their convictions to know they'd couldn't fully give to having children.
My personal opinion, by the way, is that if you do become a parent, then the child should be both of your priority, everything else becomes secondary. So it's a major commitment to make and shouldn't be taken lightly. You are shaping how a human being is going to turn out, that's fairly significant!