Being a parent is no walk in the park and as any mum or dad will tell you it involves a lot of challenging work day in and day out.
This can sometimes prove overwhelming and difficult and many people will likely need a break from their kids and some 'me time' to recharge in order to be the best parent they can be.
However, others may find themselves struggling with their parenting responsibilities so much that a break isn't enough to make a difference.
One mum has recently admitted she's been left in tears and feeling like a "s****y" mother because she's too tired to parent her two children and "doesn't enjoy" spending time with them at the moment.
Writing in an incredibly candid post on Reddit, the anonymous woman said: "It hurts to be a s****y mother."
She goes on to explain that where she lives in the US, it has snowed, and as such the kids are off school on a snow day.
Her husband is working from home, but won't be able to take the children out to play in the snow and make memories as he's going to be in back-to-back Zoom calls all day.
However, she claims she could do this with the kids if she were to work from home as she has "nothing pressing or urgent going on in person".
"I could make it so the kids can go sledding. I could take breaks and do outdoorsy things with them. I could make hot chocolate when they come in. I badly want them to have these things, these memories. They got new sleds for Christmas this year and haven't even had anything remotely approaching a chance to use them, until today," she explains.
However, she feels too "broken" to do so and has turned to the internet for some much-needed advice and sympathy on her situation.
The mum adds: "I'm so tired. I am so tired of parenting these two very high-energy kids. I don't know if the pandemic broke me and I have just been hobbling along unable to catch a moment to fix myself ever since? I don't know. But I am so tired of them fighting and hitting and screaming and yelling and fighting. I am tired of all of it. I do not enjoy being around them, at all. When I envision a whole day spent at home I feel a sick sense of dread and anxiety in my stomach. Our home is not a safe haven. It is a source of stress and chaos and yelling and I do not want to be there with them any more than I absolutely have to, at this point.
"So I shoveled out and fought my way in, and now I am at work. It is silent because everyone else is WFH today.
"My kids are parked on the couch watching TV while my husband is in Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting. And I am just sitting here crying over how I am too f***ing burnt out to give my kids their first snow day of the year. It hurts so bad to suck this much as a mother. But not as bad as being around my kids for one more f***ing second.
"It's a damn good thing that everyone else in the office is at home because I can just sit here and let the tears fall and not worry about it."
Her post was quickly flooded with supportive messages from fellow parents who helped her "refocus" her way of thinking and sparked an interesting conversation around 'mum guilt'.
One person said: "Every parent I know detests snow days. Every time I try to do something I imagine will be magical with my kids it is 2 minutes of fun and then 2 hours of complaining and fighting and wet clothes and hot chocolate spilled or too hot to drink or now too cold. You're not a s****y mom because you didn't want to drop your work day on the fly to create a picture-perfect snow day. Your kids are probably thrilled to sit on the couch and watch TV all day. That was the real dream of snow days when I was a kid and if they really want to go sledding you can go tonight or this weekend or some other day."
Another replied: "Even when I've made an effort to make it fun, they last for like 10 min and want to come in haha. And I hate freezing my a** off. [Your kids] are probably loving getting to sit and watch TV all day! And you probably wouldn't get anything done if you WFH. Don't stress about it. The mom guilt is so hard sometimes. I always feel like I could be doing so much better."
Someone else posted: "You know what? It isn't your thing. It's some mom's thing but not others. You don't have to be every mom that ever existed! I am the snow day mom. I know others aren't because I'd have 10 kids in my yard. I'm not the movie night mom or the craft mom or the baking mom. Thank heavens someone else did that for my kids."
"Be kind to yourself, if you are saving everyone from a day of yelling and tears it's not the worst thing," commented a fourth. "When you get home and are a bit recharged, you could aim for like 20 min of connection time. You don't need 8h a day of that. Connection can be built in small bits."
While a different user added: "Only good mothers feel bad about being bad mothers sometimes."
Have you ever experienced mum guilt? let us know in the comments below.
