Degree Guilt

Definition: The feeling you get when someone asks you what you do and you say, "I'm a Stay-at-Home-Mom" and yet you know you have a college degree and maybe a masters degree that you used to do something with, but not anymore, and maybe you should be doing something with it, because, after all, that degree was really expensive and time-consuming and difficult to earn, and maybe you have an obligation to use it for the betterment of society, especially if your degree was in social work, like mine, I mean, what about all the poor and mentally ill and orphaned people that you thought you'd be helping, but instead it's just this one little baby, and will I ever be able to go back to my career or will I lose my edge, and am I doing the right thing, and what will other people think about the fact that I was blessed with all this education that many people don't get to have, and here I'm using it to change diapers and feed this child mashed peas, and I really didn't need to get a degree for that, and I'm not making any money, so does that mean I'm not contributing to society in a way other people will think is meaningful, I mean, I'm not really contributing to this recessional economy, but I do clip coupons, so maybe I'm a recessionista after all, because even if I'm not making money, at least I'm saving money, and I'm leaving a job open for some other person to get, and I'm sure their kids will appreciate that, and does this little baby really know what I've sacrificed to stay home with her, a job with a salary and benefits, no she doesn't, she just cries anyway, so maybe I'll go back to work, because, after all, there's nothing wrong with daycare, because kids learn to socialize with other children, and even though they are more likely to get ear aches, at least they learn their colors and learn how to share, something my baby definitely doesn't know how to do, no, I'd miss her too much, and I might miss her first word and her first crawl and her first step and her first temper tantrum over that sippy cup she hates and I might not know she hates that sippy cup, because I wouldn't be here, I'd be helping vulnerable populations instead of one little baby, and I might be too tired to rock her to sleep like I really mean it and teach her that sheep really say baaah, and dogs say "buff buff" in that Swedish children's book, and that would be really sad, because then she'd never know, she'd never really know, she'd never really know that I was the one who taught her that, and I don't want to miss her babyhood, because it will go so fast.