What's resentment all about?

I'm not really even clear on what fits into the category of resentment. Is it an emotion or is it something else?

I know jealousy is different than resentment and jealousy seems pretty straight forward to me. Maybe the cause isn't always clear, the what are you jealous of, but the actual feeling of jealousy seems pretty obvious. I wish I had that.

Blame seems to be a factor in resentment. I don't like this thing and it's a result of this other thing. That's pretty fuzzy. I can't think of a universal example of resentment. Is there an historical figure who is famous for resentment. Has there ever been an international incident that centered around one world leader resenting another? I'm guessing that resentment is one ingredient in an emotional cocktail always rather than being something that stands alone.

I think resentment is on my mind often, it impacts my decision. I'm not operating resentfully. What I do is worry about any choice or action I take leading to resentment.

That was my biggest concern in deciding to make a little person. I didn't want to become a parent and have my life change and develop new limits that I would some day view as having prevented me from something. I see now that those things you worry about before the person arrives and changes everything absolutely do happen and somehow thing are alright anyway because she doesn't care about my problems. At least not yet.

How is that different than an excuse, resentment? There's no way to say I won't resent my child on some level. I'm selfish like that. I hope, though, that I'll recognize it and have some understanding of what it's about.

LW