My dream, becoming more distant

I recently wrote out a childrens picture book style story. Im in a very dark place mentally and struggling with my purpose. My Aunt recently passed from poor health. She was sick for a while, and decided to write a story for her children and grandchildren during this time, so she could leave a lasting piece of love behind. She had it illustrated and self published it. I didnt like my aunt...I didnt like her story, but I liked the sentiment. Im 35 and failing miserably to be an adult and mother. My kids deserve the absolute world...and I can barely afford to keep the lights on. Im never going to be or do anything memorable.

So one night I thought...why cant I write a story. I chose something absolutely mind numbing (unintentiinally) for a topic and instantly thought, no way this is going anywhere. But the reason for the topic has very deep meaning for me. The topic is something my son absolutely loves to do and wants to do all the time. Its something that my niece profits from greatly and has built an incredible business doing. And its educational while being fun and, hopefully, not boring.

I finally let my kids and husband read it...I've found a 16 year old artist who I'd love to give this incredible opportunity to and Im working towards self publishing it.

However....In my self publishing journey, I've read a lot about people doing this same thing for passive income ​while using AI to generate stories and illustrations instead of creative talent. I've seen obvious signs of books with AI, especially in the illustrations, but I have a hard time deciphering AI writing while people on socials are always calling it out. So I wondered, how do people know something is AI generated and how do platforms like Amazon publish it and people buy it if its that obvious? I decided to ask AI if "this" was AI generated and posted my story. AI said YES! And gave me the reasons behind its answers like it was negative. When I told the AI it was my story it "apologized" and commended me for my writing, layout and story lines even though it was mocking those same things when it thought AI wrote it. Can people actually decipher AI writing or is everyone assuming it is like the AI did? I truly belive in my story and have big plans for it...but Im worried people will group me with the AI users and push me to the side.

I'd also like to add. My story is super basic educational material and there are a lot of books about it in circulation already. But I've never seen anyone take the direction with it that I did, though there very well could be. I've enjoyed the process and have been so proud of myself that I also have another story in the works (same vision, different topic) and Im brainstorming a series influenced by my youngest son(all childrens books). Im so excited about it and have been ridiculously hopefull that my first story would be loved by anyone that read it. I am an employee for a big distributor/publisher and seeing my books come through would be...indescribable. Now I just feel like giving it all up.