Mommy guilt.

So, as much as I want to think I do not buy into the whole idea that as a working mother I need to feel guilty for doing so; I am finding myself freaking out over the prospect of going to a week long training in a few weeks. I was asked a month or so ago if I wanted to attend a training for "co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders in adolescence" and I am excited to go. However, I will have to me away from Mr. too cute for words for 5 nights! I feel like a bad mommy. Even though I know that my child will be wonderfully taken care of by dear hubby, and both of our mothers would only be a phone call away, it really bugs me that I am going to be gone. He is 2 now and will remember mommy being gone for awhile. Although he is 2 now and this is probably the best time for me to go on a week long training, as we plan to have another child in the next year, and leaving 2 would pretty much do me in.
Seriously though, I generally do not feel like a bad mommy because I work outside the home. We are fortunate to have really great care providers and Jude is around other kids, which is great for him. He is a happy child, and he has a happy mommy. Plus he has a great daddy who is a huge part of the success of our being able to juggle being a 2 income family. I want to be a good role model for my child, not to mention be able to afford to help him go to college, med school, etc. And, for the first time ever, I feel challenges and fulfilled by the work I do, although if I won the lottery, I would work less hours.
Which leads me to a soap box issue for me; if we are really a nation that the GOP would like to say emphasizes "family values" then we would move toward a system like much of Europe has; which provides generous, paid family leave for parents, and where women do not have to stall their career aspirations in order to stay home and raise children. With the state of our precarious economy, it is a pretty risky proposition for a family to depend on one income earner to provide all current and future (i.e. retirement) financial needs. My mother raised me to be an independent woman, to be able to take care of myself and my family should the need arise, and I proudly say I could do so.