Have you felt guilty not spending much time with your child/ren in pursuit of personal growth, career progression or even just plain self-care? I know I did and it usually sprouts quite regularly. Yesterday, I had the same bout. I was working from 6 to 3 in the afternoon, arrived home around 330 pm, ate lunch until 4, spent a bit of time with the family until 5 and then I had to do some calls until around 8 pm in the evening. After this, my mind was still so clouded I had to take a breather and let my mind process all the information I have just heard. It is not always like this and it is very rare that I do this when I get home because I wanted to spend some time with my son as much as possible but why do I feel guilty?

How do I combat the guilt?

In my case, whenever I get to spend some quality with him, I make sure that my attention is always directed to him. I try to be as present as possible so that he can feel heard, appreciated and respected. I may not be physically present with him always but I always give him my all whenever I spend time with him and this allows me to be more self-aware.

I also notice that if I am well-rested, able to sleep well, read on topics that I am interested in, meditate, have some free time in the morning during weekends to catch up on my readings and online courses I joined in, I feel full and contented. I am happy. This happiness overflows to other areas of my life and this makes me a better individual and parent. This in turn benefits Kimi.

I then conclude that looking after myself and doing things that I am passionate about are not things that I should feel guilty about. I just had to own them and remind myself the reasons why I am doing them.