How do you deal with parental guilt when you have to miss things? When my child was a baby it wasn't as big of a deal as long as I was around for the big stuff and was pulling my weight parent wise. Now that they're 4+ everything is big stuff, and every time I can't be there it really affects them. I know being successful in my career will set them up for the future, but it feels like I'm letting them down right now.

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What kinds of things are you missing? A school assembly or play you should be at but you don't need to be present to cheer on little Johnny every time he hits a tee ball. Personally, I think we put way too much pressure on parents to be present every time their kid does something. When I was growing up, my parents went to the major stuff - plays, holiday concerts, parent teacher conferences, big games - but they weren't chaperoning every field trip, at every scrimmage, or watching every dance class and I was totally fine. Teaching your kid to do things for their own enjoyment vs. because someone is watching and cheering is a good thing. Independence is a good thing. And yes, sometimes you needing to work comes before their play or game or whatever because teaching them the world doesn't revolve around them is a good thing too.

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I don’t think being present for your kids’ events is the same thing as encouraging them to curate and perform their lives on TikTok. It’s almost the opposite, because it can’t be controlled in the same way.

Showing your kids you care about and are invested in their activities and success is not going to stifle their independence.

Parent how you want - I’m sure your philosophy is more complex than these posts convey but this stuff reads like you are purposefully withholding affection to achieve some sort of desired outcome.

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You gotta set boundaries with work and make sure you’re at all the stuff you feel is important (and only you can assess what those things are). It’s difficult to do but it’s worth it. Missing things should be a very rare exception. Your kids will remember you being absent and whatever small benefit you got from being available to work instead of being available to your kid will not have been worth it. If you’re at a place that won’t tolerate that, go somewhere that does

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