Daughters of Working Moms – Did You Resent Your Parents? Struggling with Guilt.

I’m a working mom with a demanding, high-stress job. I’m also a slightly older mom compared to most around me. My daughter is 4, and she spends over 9 hours away from us due to daycare and school. By the time we’re together in the evening, both of us are drained. Some nights, my work stretches till 9 PM, and I feel like she already hates this routine.

I try everything—quality time, bedtime stories—but the guilt is crushing. Some days, I have to choose between a client call and reading her a bedtime story, and it breaks me. There are moments when I just cry.

When she’s sick, school asks us to keep her home, but we can’t take endless leaves. So we end up sending her to daycare, where they keep her separated from other kids. I know she just wants to rest at home, and my heart shatters. I can take a couple of days off, but kids fall sick so often, and I just can’t be there as much as I want to. Even when I work from home, I’m stuck in meetings, barely able to care for her.

She rejects all nannies. Daycare is fine for her, but having a nanny at home? Absolutely not. That leaves me with very few options.

I don’t even know what I’m looking for here—maybe just some reassurance? If you were raised by working parents, did you resent them for it? Does it get better? How do you deal with this kind of guilt? I feel like I’m at the brink.