Parent’s guilt.  I’m not even sure when it officially begins, but it could be as early as when first looking into your child’s eyes and knowing that life will never be the same.  That moment when imagining what it was going to be like to hold the responsibility of caring for someone else.  The “shoulds” begin almost immediately with the thought of how we want things to be.

I “should” be with my child as much as humanly possible.

I “should” give them every opportunity to be independent yet fully set them up to depend on me for just about everything.

I “should” let go of all my personal needs and become Super Human to make sure my child gets whatever they need both physically and emotionally.

Something like that.

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