Women often feel guilty about… well, everything. From the moment we’re born, we learn how to feel guilty—not good enough. We’re guilty if anyone else is not happy, which means we’ve failed at our primary job—making other people happy. As mothers, we’re guilty... just because. The list of what we’ve done wrong, how we've failed our children, is endless. And if we can’t figure out why we’re guilty, then we’re guilty for not looking hard enough.

I recently had an experience that was shocking—because I didn’t feel guilty. Guilt was absent in a situation that in the past would have left me ruminating over my "crimes" for days. Even though everyone around me played their usual parts in the bad mom movie, I didn’t accept the role of the guilty character. I didn’t play that part in everyone else’s drama.

The situation centered around a multi-location sporting event that my daughter was participating in. The event demanded tremendous effort from her, and also from me. As her emotional support system, president of her fan club, and of course, biggest funder and fundraiser, she and I had both been working for months to make her endeavor a success. On a practical level, I'd attended parties to celebrate the event, bought her inspirational gifts, champagne, and cards that spoke of how proud I was, We'd gone out to her favorite restaurants to celebrate her commitment and I'd even surprised her with customized t-shirts for all of her friends and our dog. I thought I'd made a really big deal out of her accomplishment.

The day of the event was cold and windy. Together with her sister and best friend, we shuttled around the city to multiple locations to........

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