One of our fellow working-mom bloggers wrote today's guest post. Her name is Katrina Alcorn, and her blog is Working Moms Break ("for moms who can do it all, but wonder why they should"). She writes intelligent, personal posts about important topics for working moms. Please check it out — but first read her guest post on guilt. — Susan

Almost all the working moms I know (and a good number of the stay-at-home moms) struggle with guilt. Now that I’m blogging about it, I’ve heard from hundreds of women and men (usually women), who worry they aren’t doing enough for their kids, or their careers. Or both.

Deep down, most of us know we’re doing the best we can, but for some reason, we can’t shed the guilt. It comes and goes as it pleases, like an alcoholic ex-boyfriend with a house key.

Part of our problem is that we’re so busy, our world can get very narrow. We think we’re the only person on the planet who’s not coping. This must mean there’s something wrong with us. We don’t talk to each other because we don’t want to whine. No one likes a whiner. So we suck it up and work harder.

It’s a self-perpetuating cycle that looks like this:

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