And The Winners Are…

Posted: July 7, 2010

One week ago, we closed entries for the Mommy Guilt contest. Women’s Web is just a little over 2 months old now. Given how new we are, I was amazed at the fantastic response the contest received.

So, first – a big THANK YOU to every person who contributed (and to all those bloggers who supported us by putting the word out on their blogs). Like I said, we’d love to give every one of you a prize, if we could 🙂

The responses were varied – some were anguished, some humorous; some were objective (especially with the benefit of hindsight), some focused on helping other moms by sharing their own experiences while others derived satisfaction and relief by sharing. We (i.e. Nita Deb, who wrote the original piece here on Mommy Guilt and me) loved reading all of them.

As Nita tells me, "I was really moved by some, inspired by others. So much writing talent, so much wonderful sharing." Ok, now I’m going to stop and go on to what I’m sure all of you are waiting for – who won the contest?

So here are our 3 winners (in no particular order).

1. Starry, for her fantastic and useful post on Mommy guilt as a tool for change. "Much mommy guilt is caused by our unfulfilled need to invest in ourselves, whether for work, volunteering, personal friendships or our health and happiness. We often confuse ‘mother’ with martyr", says Starry.

2. The prolific Mad Momma who talks about how she deals with Mommy guilt. "… the moment I get the niggling feeling that I am doing something I might regret (with regard to the children) I rush to make amends …In short, if its something within my control, I don’t waste time feeling guilty, I do something about it," says the Mad Momma. There is a touching story too there, but I’m not going to say any more – go read it if you haven’t already!

3. Shruthi, with a point-by-point post on Towards a guilt-free mommyhood. Among the many points she makes, there is a rather unusual and intriguing one – "I feel guilty about putting Puttachi first all the time. I know it is natural, and I know that nobody carries any grudge against me for that. But yet, I feel guilty…I feel rather like a traitor to my other loved ones for feeling this way."

Starry, Mad Momma and Shruthi – Congratulations! We’ll be getting in touch with you soon for passing on the prizes.

Other notable entries included JLT’s Thou shall feel guilty, Cee Kay’s Pleading Not Guilty, Arundhati’s Mommy guilt or lack thereof, Simran’s Guilty or not, Namratha Prabhu’s Mommy guilt and Shankari’s A mother’s guilt gauntlet.

Like I said though, every entry was worth reading in it’s own way and offered a fresh perspective. (You can read many of them by going to the comments section here).

So, thank you all for participating and thank you to the many readers who didn’t send in entries, but nevertheless, cheered on the participants with their comments – you were the lovely, encouraging audience every writer needs, and I hope we’ll have you all with us for the many interesting such events we plan to keep having.