Top 10 Reasons I Have Mom Guilt

Truth be told, I get mom-guilt several times a day, every day. Sometimes it's because I take everything too seriously, and other times it's because I’m lazy. I admit it; I get lazy in the summer. It’s partly because I have more kids home and more work to do in the summer, but it’s also because I miss sunbathing on the beach, while reading a book in total peace. I miss those lazy Sundays when I had nothing but the summer sun to worry about. There are instances when I shirk my mom duties and wish to relish just a moment in my younger, childfree skin. Hence the guilt. Because it's impossible for me to neglect my job for more than 5 minutes without something falling apart in my absence. In the summer, I can't even go in the bathroom without a strategy for my escape. Such is the life in a house full of little kids.

So, here are the top 10 reasons I have suffered from mom-guilt lately:

10.   My kids are covered with mosquito bites. Why does this always happen the night before we need the rascals to look their best? It doesn’t matter whether I use repellent or not – they’ll have bites glaring on their faces when they smile for that photo with Grandma.

9.       I let my kids dip anything in ranch dressing because they’ll eat it. It started with vegetables, but then I just got creatively lazy.

8.       I diluted the juice with half water and let the kids drink as much juice as they wanted.

7.       I let the kids eat hot dogs for dinner on game days during baseball season. With two kids in baseball, that's a load of hot dogs.

6.       I encouraged the kids to eat leftover pizza for breakfast and then cereal for dinner.

5.    One of my kids is using a big cardboard box as a nightstand. (How old does a kid have to be to get a real nightstand? I’m thinking 16.)

4.       I noticed peanut butter all over the face of my 3 year old, more than an hour after we finished PB&Js for lunch. (He's getting quite skilled at pretending to clean himself up, and I'm getting frightfully forgetful.)

3.       My 5 year old said, “Look how much I’ve grown!”, because he noticed his pants are about 5 inches too short. That’s when I realized I haven’t measured him on the growth chart in over a year.

2.       We skipped baths because we went swimming. For an entire week.

1.       I let them watch TV for an hour and a half so I could squeeze in a workout and waste time on the computer. At least they were watching PBS.