How I Became Supermom

My day was amazing. Up before dawn, took a 20-minute run, did some ab work, then moved into the kitchen. Had a moment of quiet and wrote out my list. Short today, really — after all, yesterday I accomplished so much. Then I started prepping that homemade oatmeal recipe I found on Pinterest, with organic berries and cream. Got coffee brewing, took a shower, did my hair perfectly, put my makeup on, and dressed like I was the makeover version of the person on What Not to Wear. Just then, right on the dot, the little ones let out a lovely “Morning, Momma” cry of joy, and I skipped to their room, ready and polished for my day.

I’m supermom. In my dreams.

In reality? A good day, with those toddlers around, would be getting one, maybe even two or three, of all those things on the list accomplished, and that’s working hard all day long. I’ve come to realize that this supermom thing is just a fallacy that so many of us chase day after day after day.

Let’s stop trying to be supermom!

Parenting takes work. Parenting little ones takes a tremendous amount of work. There are no breaks in the mothering day when you have an always-busy 2-year-old wandering around. There are no awards for “Best Mothering Save” in the afternoon when you grab that marker from the 3-year-old’s hand just as he’s about to add a mustache to the baby. You work and work and work. But you live in a world where motherhood has this amazingly glamorous image.

We’re supposed to have parties with children in white dresses and red fruit punch and twinkling lights and an amazing cake that looks like it was made by Duff from Ace of Cakes. What happened to the days of cupcakes from a box and Pin the Tail on the Donkey and water fights with the hose? They’re still there. We just have to let go of the supermom ideal.

What you do as a mother day in and day out is amazing. Wiping noses, changing diapers, cooking dinners for people who don’t like what you make, reading books — often the same one, again and again, cleaning floors, folding laundry, driving to and fro, chasing after toddlers at the park, blowing bubbles on the deck, and going without sleep. All of that stuff is amazing. It matters. That’s a real supermom.

So these days, these ultrabusy days with those toddlers hanging around, you just remember that those Pinterest images, magazine articles, blog posts and such, they’re just a snippet of someone’s day. Who knows? It might have taken hours of prep and a great deal of mess to get that one picture perfectly pinned.

Do you want to know what really matters? Truly? It’s being there for your kids.

Being the one who they come running to after they wipe out on their bike. Being the one that they want to sit and snuggle with in the morning. Being the mom who doesn’t cry over spilled milk. Or over cereal on her freshly cleaned floors. Being the mom who just keeps trying. Day after day after day.

They want you.

Not supermom.

She’s a fallacy anyways.