Let go of parental guilt

Mummy guilt. You drop your child at school, only to realise he has a tear on his school shirt, and you forgot to bake cupcakes for the school fete.

Being a parent and feeling guilty seem to go hand in hand. You feel guilty for working too much, then you feel guilty if you give up work and your family struggles to pay bills. You feel guilty for feeding your kids pizza after you’ve had a tough day. Sometimes guilt can feel as though it’s crushing you. So, then you feel guilty for wallowing in your guilt and not putting on a happy face for the world to see.

According to psychologist Warren Cann from Raising Children Network, we feel guilty about our children because we love them so much. “Guilt comes from our ability to be empathetic; it’s likely to be present whenever we care, and there’s nothing we care about more than our children,” he explains.

Doing what comes naturally

Parenting isn’t easy, and experts tell us it isn’t necessarily something that comes naturally. That like any new skill, parenting is something that has to be learned.