I know I’m not speaking just for myself when I say that Millennial parenting, being a mom especially, comes with a lot of guilt. Guilt about the method through which you’re feeding your newborn, that you work a full-time job, that your kid’s dinner tonight is coming from the freezer (or even worse…the drive-through). But now, there’s a newish name for an old feeling we all have as spring rolls around that can be added to the repertoire of things to feel badly about: sunshine guilt.

You know the feeling. It’s a gorgeous day outside, perhaps the first of the season, and you have grandiose plans to take the kids on a walk to the park, ride the swings, maybe visit a nursery to pick out some planters and then enjoy a BBQ on your patio with friends. Or even just one of the above! But instead, you’re tiiiiiired, so you veg out on the couch and the only glow you’re basking in is the blue light emanating from your phone. You may or may not end your day with a slight case of FOMO, especially once you log into Instagram and find all your people were out living their best lives in nature. Been there, done that, huh?

The term “sunshine guilt” is hardly new—in countries like Ireland, for example, where it’s seldom a sunny day, the term is used commonly to refer to the idea of feeling guilty when you’re inside but feel like you should be making the most of the day. But its current context for mamas originated on TikTok, of course, in a video shared last month by a comedian mom named @thereneereina. “I am experiencing sunshine guilt right now,” she says. “It’s an abnormally beautiful day outside, but I’m tired…..I can’t enjoy myself indoors now because the whole time I’m thinking that I should be outside. So now my day is ruined.”

You can call it “sun guilt” for short, which is what the youngin’s are using to refer to this phenomenon on the official TiKTok #sunguilt hashtag. We love a good abbreviation.

Not to get all psychological or anything, but sunshine guilt is clearly another result of us getting in our heads and worrying that we’re not meeting societal expectations as parents. Honestly, it’s probably going to become a chronic condition as we head into spring and summer. Still, I don’t plan on doing all the things with my son every single sunny day. In fact, when I ask him what he wants to do on a typical weekend with not much planned, he says he just wants to stay home and hang.. I won’t lie—I’ll take a few days of rain or overcast this season so we all have an excuse to chill and be cozy.

Do you suffer from sunshine guilt? How do you plan to ‘cure’ it this spring and summer? Share your thoughts with Starglow!

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