photo credit: mahalie via flickr

Hi, my name is Buck and I don’t have parent guilt.  I probably should start from the beginning.  I travel for my work rarely.  I have started going to conferences for blogging and social media.  I want to be a better blogger.  I have attended a couple locally.  I have traveled to a couple.  In fact, I am writing this and I leave for Las Vegas in a few hours for Blog World Expo.

Moms Have It:

Having gone to a couple of these, I hear from the moms that they feel guilty leaving their kids behind.  This baffles me.  Does that make me a bad parent or an uncaring father.  Nope!  I am not trying to be sexist or paint broad strokes but I think its a woman thing.  My wife feels guilt if we leave our child with a babysitter to go see a movie.

Why I Don’t Feel It:

I am a working dad.  I get up every morning and go to a desk job.  Until recently, I would leave there and go to a retail job.  I would work a different job on the weekend.  I didn’t see our child very often.  I got used to it.

How I Deal With It:

The “You’re Home” moment.  It doesn’t matter if I go to Florida for the weekend or if I go to the grocery store when I come through the door it happens.  The sound of little feet running across the hard wood floors.  The shriek of excitement.  “YOU’RE HOME!” and the biggest hug.  This is how I am greeted by my child.  I lean down, scoop her up, and tell her I love her and missed her.  That is how I deal with it.  That moment makes me want to leave and come back more often.

Do you have guilt when you leave your child? Since I don’t does that make me a bad person?

Buck blogs almost daily at BuckDaddyBlog.com where he blogs about being a dad, sprinkled with some product reviews and giveaways, with a whole lot humor and self deprecation.