You spend all day worrying about word choice and how your actions at any given moment are going to affect them years down the road. How by giving in to them, or not, might turn them into horrible members of society and unproductive adults. And then there's the guilt.
My God the guilt is enough to drive any sane person crazy. The guilt that you said no to TV, or sweets, or playing outside because they haven't listened, won't clean their room, back talked or you just don't want the noise, hyperness, or worry. And that comes around to worrying about whether or not saying no to those things is going to cause emotional trauma later in life. Or if getting angry at them for said reasons is going to leave them full of pent up resentment, leading to aggression in their adult years.
Oh and the anger is very real, and almost constant. But not angry at them, per say, but at what it might mean when they grow up. That by them being disobedient little twits now and you're not able to nip it in the butt, could lead them to jail time when they are older, because you failed them. So, actually, the anger is more at yourself because every day feels like you failed them.
A mom is supposed to keep them safe, happy, and healthy while ensuring they grow up to be productive members of the community. And every day, you will fail, in some form or another. You work your butt off and it's never enough, never good enough, and you feel that since you failed anyway, you might as well give up and let them do whatever. And maybe you do.
But the next morning, you're back at it, hopeful that today will bring better results, that today you won't fail your children. That this time you'll get it right, that maybe the love you feel for them will be enough to get them to where they need to be.
Being a mom has nothing to do with what you feed them, how you play with them, where you take them, what you give them. That stuff's easy and open to interpretation. Being a mom means doing everything you can to make sure they grow up to be good people, but knowing you're going to fail, no matter what you do. They are going to be traumatized, spoiled, rude, hurtful, broken, fearful, and hateful, because, believe it or not, that's normal. Those traits are what make people, people.
So yes, being a mom sucks, because no matter what you do, no matter how much you love them, or how hard you work, you are going to fail your children and there is nothing you can do about it. But you still have to keep trying, because you love them. It's when you stop loving them, that you truly fail them.