Working Mom Guilt: How to Stop Feeling Torn

Eight hours at work, the commute, an evening with your child, a night with chores — and a constant background hum: "I don't give him enough," "a good mother doesn't do this," "he's growing up without me." Working mom guilt is rarely about real failures. More often it grows out of two incompatible demands pulling you in different directions at once. It's possible to sort out where real responsibility lies and where it's just guilt.

Where working mom guilt comes from

Guilt shows up wherever there's a gap between "how it should be" and "how it is." A mother has plenty of such gaps: the picture of a perfect day doesn't match the real schedule, and there's always less energy than there are tasks.