Let’s Talk About Mom Guilt. I'm not sure why, but it's been the topic of conversation from family to the waitress at the diner, I love to go to. Mom guilt is something so many of us carry, but rarely talk about honestly.

We feel guilty for working too much, for not working enough, for needing time alone and guilty for losing our patience. We feel guilty for saying no and guilty for saying yes when we really wanted to say no and somehow, even when we are doing everything we possibly can, there’s still that little voice in the back of our heads whispering, “You could be doing more.”

But could we? Or have we simply been taught to believe that being a good mom means constantly sacrificing ourselves?

I think we need to start talking about mom guilt more openly. Not just the funny, relatable social media posts about hiding in the bathroom for five minutes or eating snacks in the car before going inside. The real conversations. The conversations about how exhausting it can be to feel responsible for everyone else's happiness. The conversations about wondering if we gave our children enough attention.The conversations about working while our kids needed us, and being home while worrying about work. The conversations about missing moments we wish we could have back. The conversations about looking at our grown children and wondering, “Did I do enough?”

Because here's the thing: we don't get to be perfect moms.

We get to be human moms.

We will make mistakes. We'll lose our patience. We'll occasionally say the wrong thing. We'll have days when we are running on empty and simply trying to make it to bedtime and that doesn't make us bad mothers. It makes us mothers.

Mom guilt doesn't mean you're failing. Sometimes I think mom guilt actually comes from how deeply we care. We feel guilty because we wanted to give our children everything. We wanted to protect them from pain. We wanted to make every birthday magical, every holiday memorable, every childhood moment special, but our children don't need perfect childhoods. They need love.They need to know they are safe.They need someone who will listen.They need someone who will apologize when they get it wrong.They need someone who will keep showing up.

Sometimes showing up looks like making dinner. Sometimes it looks like sitting beside them when they're having a terrible day. Sometimes it looks like a long conversation and sometimes it looks like saying, “Mom needs a minute.”

We need to give ourselves some grace. If you're a mom who has spent years replaying every mistake you've ever made, I hope you can give yourself a little grace.

Motherhood doesn't come with an expiration date, but neither does forgiveness. We can look back at the things we wish we'd done differently without allowing those memories to define the kind of mother we were. We can acknowledge our mistakes without deciding we were a failure.

So if you're carrying mom guilt today, put some of it down. You don't have to carry every mistake you've ever made. You don't have to be everything to everyone. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be you.