I used to feel this "parent pressure" from a different perspective, the one of visiting our parents.

My husband and I come from different cities, and we live in a third one. The holidays were always an attempt of spreading ourselves thin, trying to make it to both cities just so we can visit all the parents.

It wasn't that we didn't like being with them, but it felt more of an effort to go from one place to another.

And then, it was the guilt we'd had to deal with if we weren't making it to one place... Things have changed, life happened, and we no longer have to do this these days, but that was a stress too.