I Stand Here Ironing

The guilt the narrator is expressing is in part deserved for the choices made by herself in an uncertain time of her young life.
The argument here is if she has been a good mother or not. All indications would point no as in the case of Emily. She seems to have gotten her act together when the other children where born but there are references to the mother leaving Emily alone when she was not old enough so she could go out and come home late in the night.
She also seemed to fixated on the appearance of her daughter, her love did not seem unconditional. As she said she had lost all of her cuteness by the time she was two.
Again we see signs of bad parenting when the story is riddled with times the mother had to move Emily out of the house for whatever reason and left her there with in-laws or at the convalescent home.
Emily seemed to be begging her mom throughout the story to just spend some time with her but she seemed to always have something more important to do.