Hi there Hello Bee community. It's been a very long time since I've been active on this site. But I'm really struggling and I hoped maybe someone here would have some kind of insight to help. My daughter is 4.5 years old and I have worked outside the home since she was one year old. I have to work to some degree for financial reasons. My heart still breaks on a regular basis when I have to leave her at Day Care. It's been 3.5 years. Her day care is wonderful and she is happy there. But I miss her all the time and it brings me such sadness. I have requested to shorten my work hours to 3 days per week, but was denied because I supervise people. Finding part-time work in my field is challenging. I feel trapped and sad missing my daughter and I feel like there is such a short time left now that she will still be so little. She will start kindergarten in September 2018. I'm scared that I will have missed so much of her young childhood. This isn't a debate about whether or not parents should/should not stay home with their kids. It's just that it hurts me to miss her so much through the day. Does anyone else feel like this? How do you cope? What do you do?