But on a night this month, about 20 mothers ditched their duties. They left their children and homes behind and headed to a high school football field.

One by one, they emerged from the shadows and gathered at the 50-yard line.

They stood in a circle under the soft lights, and for 20 glorious minutes they screamed and screamed and screamed, said Sarah Harmon, a therapist, yoga teacher and mother who organized the gathering.

Their voices, which carried years of pain and rage that they could finally release, merged into an anguished chorus, according to videos of the gathering.

“It was so nice to feel out of control for the first time,” one mother told Ms. Harmon, who lives in Boston.