My brain cells have taken an early vacation. Although I teach middle school until the end of the month, I seem to be doing things like putting the milk in the cupboard and losing my keys five minutes after I’ve found them.
Somehow, though, I can still find the energy to feel guilty, the subject of my latest humour column in The Calgary Herald.
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Here’s an excerpt:
Forget heart disease and Alzheimer’s for a moment. The illness that cripples all mothers – or at least me – is Guilty Mother Syndrome, also known as GMS. This condition is a distant cousin of that hormonal witch, PMS, and it afflicts mothers mostly when they’re exhausted, craving alone time or breathing.
Click here to read the rest of Guilty Mother Syndrome May Be Hereditary.
And then tell me: Do you have guilt?
I knew there had to be a very scientific name for it! Also I suck at planning playdates too.
Love it! My guilt shows up most in the food arena. My kids are mostly picky and I would rather just not deal with it, so I give in all too often to their food demands. Which isn’t a big deal until it involves OTHER people. *sigh*
Great article! My problem is the guilt makes me do dumb things… like volunteer to coach my daughter’s soccer team. Huh. What was I thinking? Loved the post. Have fun on the playdate!
Yup!!! That’s our job. GMS lasts forever. ps. Great writing Leanne.
Canadians use Celsius? Wow. Oh, and loved the article!
Your daughter sounds very good at organizing and delegating. And yes I think you are really on to something with the mom guilt thing – my mom and grandma are real pros 😉 try not to be too hard on yourselves though, you’re trying your best!
LOL… thanks I needed this – as I’m not at the zoo with my son for his school’s outing like he begged me to be but am at work. And he can’t tie his shoes either. Maybe we can hire someone and have a shoe tieing class for both our boys! We could call it a playdate……
Velcro shoes at his wedding… that’s hilarious! He’ll be okay, it took my son awhile too… I think our daughter was tying her shoes in the womb!
Look at it this way – the GMS gene is directly linked to your ability to procreate. Mind you, I DO think that there is an inverse relationship: more children = less GMS. Trust me, if you have four or more pleading, whinging, being food nazis or hogging the TV remote you DO NOT HAVE TIME to suffer GMS.
You are worse at losing the speeding fine letter, knowing whose underpants are whose and having to call your own mobile to find it – luckily I haven’t put that in the fridge, but I did put a spoon of coffee in the sugar bowl……
Ugh..mom guilt. Somehow twins seem to sense and exploit it. Kind of like how they’ve been in their swimsuits since 7am and there’s a good chance we won’t even go to the pool today….
I had a good friend who gave me a hard time a few years back because my poor, neglected children had never carved a pumpkin for Halloween. They had also never had sparklers for Independence Day or a real Christmas tree. We didn’t string popcorn, make cutesy crafts for Grandparents’ Day, or bake cakes “just because.” Hey, I felt like a champion when I got my kids to take a bath and put on matching clothing. The thought of aiming for a Donna Reed existence made me break out in hives and cower in the closet with a box of tissues. Happily, my book club read a book titled something like CONFESSIONS OF A SLACKER MOM. We all identified, and I realized that I am not alone. Slacker moms unite! Perhaps we can get together at our GMS Anonymous meeting. Thanks, Leanne!
I think the guilt thing is just part of motherhood. You just need to learn to live with it. I have! (4 grown children and we all survived)
Haha – brilliant idea, Julie Glover – GMS Anonymous meeting? I’m there! You are SO good, Leanne!
I had the guilt for #1 and #2, ditched it in favour of acceptance by the time #3 came along 🙂
Yep, I’ve got it. 🙂
My son is almost 11. He can’t get the velcro shoes in his size anymore and decided he didn’t want any more of those curly laces that eliminate the need for tying…so I HAD to teach him to tie his shoes at last. Sigh.
YES! I actually googled “guilty mother” into my iPhone while putting my 5.5 month old back to sleep for the fourth time and my 2.5 year old watched tv downstairs by himself. For the past hour I’ve been going back and forth between the two trying to play and then feed supper to my toddler, and get my baby to transfer into bed without screaming. Did I confess that I got upset with both of them at one point because the toddler was asking for crayons too loudly and the baby wasn’t going to sleep? Bad mother. See, there I go again with the guilt. I suppose it would be worse if we didn’t care at all.