In this episode of Voy a la Psico we keep digging into guilt, this time focusing on maternal guilt. The kind that comes less from having done something “wrong” and more from the clash between what we feel and what we think we should feel as mothers, grandmothers or women who mother.
We talk about the impossible ideal of the perfect mother: available, patient, productive, empathetic, fit, a brilliant professional and everyone’s emotional support. A catch-22 that always leaves us falling short. We also explore the “maternal shadow”, that tired, ambivalent, angry or overwhelmed part that has no social permission, but is deeply human.
We reflect on how motherhood awakens our own unresolved childhood, how guilt is triggered at each stage (early childhood, boundaries, adolescence) and how we often carry an extreme locus of control: if something goes wrong, it is my fault; if it goes well, it is thanks to others.
We share keys to start letting go of that guilt: telling facts from interpretations, reviewing the inner ideal, practising repair instead of perfection and embracing the idea of the “good-enough mother”. Because it is not about doing it perfectly, but about doing it humanly.
An episode to look at ourselves with more compassion, trust our children more… and remind ourselves that we do not have to mother alone.
