I’m sitting in the hospital waiting room and The Today Show is playing on one of the TVs. The ladies are discussing the “guilt of the working mom,” whatever the hell that means. Maybe it’s because I’m a guy, but I don’t understand why women would feel guilty about working and not staying home with their children. I don’t mind dropping the boys off and heading to work. In fact I could drop them off permanently and come back when they are fully-developed adults. Okay so that’s a bit extreme even for me.
Still, I don’t think anybody should feel guilty about providing for their children’s future. But perhaps it’s different for some people, they feel like they will miss some major milestone in their child’s development or something: their baby’s first step, spoken word, ad nauseum; if they are not in their child’s life every nanosecond. I did get to experience both those things and I can honestly say they are overrated. Now that I think about it, I don’t even remember what my firstborn said. Luckily moms remember those kinds of things.
I don’t really have anything against these people, I just feel like women in general need to give themselves a break and know that they are good mothers and that leaving their children for a few hours is okay. These ladies talking about guilt are not doing anybody any favors and might even make women feel worse about themselves. Just my 2 cents…
Random Misanthrope 
My mom worked off and on when I was growing up and never once felt like I wasn’t being mothered enough.
As for the “guilt” of the working mother, I think I’ll refrain from commenting on that and hand this one over to actual mothers, working or otherwise.
As a working mom, I don’t find myself self-flagellating very often. The benefits of Milky’s going to school far outweigh what I could provide for him at home.
I half-listened to the Today Show this morning and I wanted to slap the woman who was deliberately taking pictures of herself with her kids. What. The. Fuck. Milkface certainly doesn’t dominate every second of my being but I do not need photographic evidence to prove I care about him or that I’m a good mom.
Sometimes, it’s tough to see women at home with their kids while you toddle off to work. But there is an off button on the laptop and smart phone. You don’t need to know what is going on at work 24 hours a day. If anything broke me of being a faux workaholic, it was parenthood. As I tell Dock – unless your vocation involves saving lives, nothing is that important that it cannot wait until your child’s needs are addressed appropriately.
/rant
Well said. Those ladies drove me crazy!