Why is it so terribly difficult to feel good enough as a parent? We often feel like the worst mother in the world... It's so incredibly difficult to balance parenting with mental illness. It's hard to be a parent normally, but it often feels impossible when you're also sick... Then it feels like it becomes extra vulnerable because my son doesn't live with me. He's fantastic and extremely independent, which is good in many ways, but we struggle with the feeling of being inadequate and superfluous. I'm sure all mothers feel that way at some point... It's hard to be a teenage mother... Then it's hard because we haven't really gotten to be a mother for social services, with too short contact times, etc. Now it's better, but otherwise we've had to be a mother more in the background and children don't understand that. We've had to sign papers and stuff, but meeting our child enough to build a really good relationship has been worse. Meeting for 3-4 hours every three weeks is contrived and far from natural and that's what we got while he was growing up. Now he's so big that he wants to fend for himself (which is fantastic) but then I feel completely redundant. Although now we get to hang out more naturally but it's only on his terms and never on mine. God how whiny it sounds but the feeling of inadequacy is eating away at me and with it the longing for my son. Don't get me wrong, we have a great relationship based on the circumstances. I just want him to be happy and that he (despite his messy upbringing) wants his mother in the picture...