Guilt on the go: work-family conflict among long-distance commuter fathers

Existing research has indicated that working parents who experience guilt stemming from work-family conflict often engage in compensatory or corrective actions to address this tension. This study explores the nuanced ways in which working fathers manage such guilt, with a particular focus on long-distance commuter fathers, who may be especially prone to guilt due to their limited physical presence at home. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 31 white-collar, long-distance commuter Israeli fathers, the study shows how the growing prominence of therapeutic discourse in everyday life serves as a cultural tool through which these fathers make sense of, and often normalise, their feelings of guilt. Within this framework, three distinct behavioural strategies emerge: compensation, containment and rejection. Together, these strategies appear to reduce the perceived need for compensatory or corrective measures, enabling fathers to sustain a narrative of involved fatherhood despite their physical absence. In doing so, they align their paternal identity with the neoliberal ideal of career self-actualisation.