Mom Guilt

A good friend of mine just sent me an article about "mom guilt" that I loved and had to share. I hadn't heard the term "mom guilt" before. I guess I live under a rock because after a quick Google search, I saw it was everywhere. There are different types of mom guilt; new-mom guilt, working mom guilt and just plain old mom guilt. 

Before I really began talking about mom guilt, I was just curious to see if there was such a thing as dad guilt. Nope! Confirmed my thoughts! Ha! Moving on. 

So what exactly is mom guilt? It's the guilt we all carry around with us for things that we think we aren't doing as well as we should in regards to our children. Some examples: feeding your baby formula; buying your daughter the generic UGGS; spending time on yourself; working instead of staying home with your children; etc.

Working mom guilt is obviously the guilt you carry around that you work instead of staying at home with the kids. You miss the firsts and know that someone else spends more time with your child than you do. Not all people are able to stay at home due to financial reasons or due to the fact that they want to work. Chances are that most working moms have some sort of guilt. Did you know only 10 percent of full time working moms give themselves the highest score for their parenting?! So how do you let go of the guilt you carry around? Here are some tips.

Being a new mom is tough. No one really has any idea how tough it really is until they are a new mom. The roller coaster emotions, the lack of sleep, trying to keep up with everything at work while being at home, dealing with your husband who doesn't understand the emotion roller coaster and trying to figure out how to best care for your child. Been there, done that. Got the t-shirt. Yours probably has spit-up stains like mine does! Here's the deal. To keep your sanity (or to keep as much of it as possible) you do need "you" time. You need to spend time painting your toe nails and reading that book you wanted to read. You need to go out and have happy hour with your girl friends without your child or husband. It's hard to let go at first, but you will soon understand how much better you feel when you get some time to yourself. Here are some more thoughts about new-mom guilt. 

Incase you missed the link earlier in the blog, you really do need to read the general article on mom guilt titled "31 reasons you shouldn't feel mom guilt." It's a great article and it will make you feel better! 

Bottom line - it's hard. I know because I'm the pot calling the kettle black. I get it. I need to do a better job at letting go and so do you! Let's work on it together. I'm working on number one in 31 reasons.... My husband wants to take me to Vegas for a few days. I told him maybe this summer ;-)