I feel guilty for how resentful I sometimes become about ordinary caring

Dear Delyara, This is not the kind of truth mothers say out loud easily. I love my children. I love my family. I understand care is part of love. And still, some evenings, ordinary caring makes me feel resentful. One more question. One more meal. One more “Mum.” One more task hidden inside tenderness. One more small practical need arriving through someone else’s dependence on me. Then guilt comes immediately. How can love and resentment sit in the same body? How can I need so much time away from the very people I would do almost anything for? What kind of mother, wife, woman feels this split so often? An exhausted one, probably. Still, exhaustion doesn’t remove the guilt. It only explains it. And explanation is not always enough to stop shame entering the room.