not. super. mom.

What is a super mom?  Is it she who revels in every little detail of baby/child rearing?  Is it she who has the patience of a saint?  Is it she who always has a clean house, nice bod, and perfect children?  Or maybe, is it she who never seems stressed and never yells?  Maybe it is she who has no gray hair (or covers it well), never requires more than four hours of sleep, and always makes home-cooked organic meals.

I don't know who super mom is.  But I can tell you, that it isn't me.  And if she exists, I do not want to be her friend.  Why? Because I would feel like the worst person ever every time I was in her serene, perfect presence.  And that, friends, would really make me mad.  I'm not saying that there aren't some moments (although they are few and far between) that I do have a clean house.  And I'm not saying I'm not patient.  For the most part, I am pretty patient.  But far be it for me to say that I never lose that patience.  That'd be a lie.  I also enjoy organic food as much as the next girl.  But some nights, I'm "plating up" some frozen pizza for dinner (yes, I do cook it first).  And you know what?  That just has to be okay sometimes. 

I've been called supermom, and superwoman before.  And don't get me wrong, I'll take the compliment anytime.  But the truth is, I do not know that woman.  I love my children, and most days, seriously, I could eat them because they are so sweet and cute.  But then there are other days that all I wish for is bedtime.  Is that wrong to say?  Somewhere between work, mothering, being a wife, and then throwing a doctoral student load in there (just for fun!), oh, and my husband working two jobs, I've just realized that our "normal" is somewhere in the madness.  My house can be a mess, my kids can eat pizza sometimes, and I can just leave the two feet of dirty clothes on the laundry room floor.  Because honestly, what does it matter if we aren't totally caught up all the time?  Usually, not much as long as we get to it eventually.  But sometimes it DOES matter, and gets the best of me, and those are the times that I start absolutely freaking out about everything.  But hey, I'm not supermom, so I don't really have a reputation to uphold, now do I?

So how do I take it all "in stride" you ask?  I don't, really.  I'm not supermom, remember? :)

But seriously, stay tuned for a post on the survival of the working mother... I have a few ideas, trivial as they may be.