Ambitious parents experience significant guilt related to their work and family life balance. Many feel that pursuing professional success can lead to being perceived as neglectful at home, creating a conflict between personal ambition and parenting responsibilities. This dilemma affects both mothers and fathers, as well as stay-at-home parents with side projects. Cultural perceptions and social media exacerbate feelings of inadequacy by showcasing idealized parenting scenarios. The comparison to other parents and their seemingly perfect engagements amplifies this internal struggle for working parents.
For many of us, especially women, ambition and parenting have long been thought of as rival (if not warring) priorities. A parent who is all-in at work is assumed to be checked out at home.
The culture tells us you can't be fully present in both places. And if you try, be prepared to be stretched thinner than a toddler's patience in a long checkout line.
Social media certainly doesn't help. While we're eating chips over our laptops, we scroll past moms packing bento box lunches with star-shaped cucumbers and love notes.
The comparison game is brutal, as we see dads coaching every Saturday soccer game while we're FaceTiming from a hotel room on yet another work trip.
Collection
[
|
...
]