One thing they don’t tell you when you are giving birth to your first child is that this is the last guilt free day of your life. I am convinced that along with the saline in that IV there is also a “guilt magnifier”. It begans the moment they are born. If you don’t breastfeed you feel like you are setting them up for failure against all immunites. If you send them to the nursery so you can sleep you feel bad because what if they get mixed up with another baby. Upon discharge the guilt continues to multiple and magnify every fear you have ever had.

During the toddler years if you don’t take every opportunity to “make a memory” you feel like your child is going to look back on his life and feel cheated. How many of us have stood in that long line for Santa only to have to slink on the floor and hold your child’s hand while they scream thru the picture with Santa. Most kids are scared of the big bearded man that is reaching out to grab them but we do it anyway because we feel guilty if we don’t.