On Mommy Guilt

The Cuteness: another of Nature's ploys.

It may be a bit premature to be weighing in on this subject when Cal is only 10 weeks old, but hey, premature is the name of the game around here (I refer to my premature baby son, not boyfriend to be clear). Yesterday Felicity Huffman wrote a post about her own Mommy Guilt at not being a full-time house-wife so that she could go and be a Desperate Housewife. She quoted some glamour mag stat that said when polled, 87% of women feel guilty about leaving the house to go to work and 0% of men did.


In a couple of months I'll have to make the choice to go back to work full-time or not, and so I'm trying to come to a position on it now, before Guilt has a chance to really get up me,  before I get all emotional and blurry-headed about it.

Since having my son, whenever he fusses or grumbles to the point where I'm frazzled, I try to ask: What is the science behind this behavior? Most of the time, his fussing is to draw my attention, right? Stick with me here while get all cave-man analogous. The more whiney a baby is, the less likely mommy is to put him in down in the cave and wander off to look at a nice one-shoulder deer skin dress. Nature's smart like that.


I think Guilt works the same way. Babies fuss. Mommies feel Guilt. Not wanting to leave the house, and then rushing home when you have, is a really normal feeling. Mommy Guilt is a contributing factor to why we're so successful as a species. In mommy's arms is just the safest place to be.


The trick is not to Guilt yourself about having Mommy Guilt.