Writing and Mommydom~the Guilt Factor

So...I joined Twitter.

Hi, Twitter people, nice to meet you. I'm Kara. I'm kinda new around here...

Still trying to figure out my place in that enormous universe. Seriously, if I'm being honest, Twitter kind of reminds me of when I had to change schools my junior year in high school. Um...yeah. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and instead of cool clothes and cheerleader outfits, everyone has all these brilliant, witty, fantastic things to say, amazing websites, fabulous posts, shiny new book deals...it's daunting, people!

But enough of letting you all into my own squishy sense of self-confidence. What I keep noticing, time and time again, is that a lot of y'all are...moms. And here is where I am fascinated, and where I have tons and tons of questions. How do you balance it all? I have a full life. I work in adoptions part-time. And I have a husband and kids ranging in age from 14 to 4. So that means I occasionally have to do laundry. And go to games. And ballet.

But writing is an integral part of who I am. And every time I pay attention to one area of my life, I still feel that good ol' Irish-Catholic guilt flaring up. (...Playing with the kids? Grreeeatt...but you didn't get to your word count for the day. ...You wrote ten chapters? Sure, but your youngest just asked you why you love the computer so much.)

Arrgh I am so neurotic!

I guess what I really want to know, is how other moms, dads out there balance their writing life with their personal life.

Do you limit how much time you spend each day writing? Do you have a daily word count. Do you ever feel . . . !!GUILTY!! for neglecting the little things that other, more perfect moms do: aka cooking homemade cookies, being on the PTA (yuck!), or handsewing every Halloween costume? (Please don't tell me that you can do all of the above and write. I can't handle hearing that. )

Seriously, I have been impressed, since lurking around the writing universe of Twitter, by how many of you have incredible websites, amazing books, great self-promotional tools, and are young moms. To oftentimes little kids. I would love to know how you do it!