To be a mother is to feel guilty. If it's not for the big things, it's for the small things. If it's not others making you feel guilty, you do it to yourself. All mothers know this, which is probably why our article 'Fight that Mommy Guilt' got such a tremendous response from readers.

Which is why, we've decided to go ahead and use it as the theme for our first contest on Women's Web.

(UPDATED on 24/06/10: It's not just the Flipkart voucher now! Devra Renner and Aviva Pflock, co-authors of the very relevant book, Mommy Guilt: Learn to Worry Less, Focus on What Matters Most & Raise Happier Kids, have very graciously offered to give away a copy of the book to each of the 3 winners. More reason to participate!) 

The rules are simple 1-2-3:

1. Write your own post on 'Mommy Guilt' - it can be funny, sad, touching, angry, thoughtful - anything you choose. And you don't HAVE to be a parent - anyone with a story to share can participate.

2. Make sure you include a link to our feature, 'Fight that Mommy Guilt' somewhere in your post.

3. Let us know of your entry - on the comments section of this post itself, on the Women's Web Facebook group, at our twitter ID, or by emailing us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the words 'Mommy Guilt' in your subject line.

(If you don't have a blog but really want to participate, you can send it to us as an attached document at the e-mail ID mentioned above, and if it wins, we'll publish it here. For these entries, obviously, step 2 doesn't apply).

And the Prizes?

The 3 best entries EACH get a Rs. 500 voucher that you can use to shop for books, music or other goodies at Flipkart. (Anyone in the world with a valid e-mail address can receive these vouchers, but Flipkart currently ships only to addresses in India).

This contest kicks off  NOW - which means entries dated from 17th June to 28th June will be valid, when we close for entries and start judging.

The Judges? Yours truly, and Nita Deb, the writer of the original piece that started it all.

Go ahead and give it a shot! 

Update (28/06/2010): A big Thank You to everyone who participated in the contest - if we could, we'd give away prizes to all of you :) As we can't, we'll spend the next few days going through all the entries to identify the winners. We'll be notifying the winners by email, besides announcing them on the blog. Entries for this Contest are now closed.