On being Supermom

See that woman in the mirror? Is it a girl, is it a woman – no its SUPERMOM! I could not resist that.

Last night I was feeding the little one, doing none of the productive ideas I wrote about in my last post, and I started thinking about the whole concept of supermoms. Why we make such a big deal about it, how we got ourselves into it and such intellectual questions that in reality need no answers. And I realized suddenly that we or at least I had been missing something in the quest for supermom.

To understand lets step back and think of Superman, the original superhero. During the day he was Clark Kent, a ‘mild mannered reporter’ who had the same travails and troubles as the regular office goer. Its only when confronted by evil or serious trouble that he donned the cape and became Superman. And this storyline of a seemingly ordinary person in the face of circumstance invoking his superpowers are pretty much the theme behind many a superhero.

So in effect, Superman is not someone who is ‘Super’ all the time – only when time really demands it and its against his moral compass. Given that we women and moms have such high expectations of ourselves, its no wonder that we have expanded that to believe that to be Supermom, we need to be Super ALL THE TIME.

But there is some beauty to the original story. And I believe in that pattern lies the key to being supermom. Now I am sure all of us can think of some instances when we have been supermoms – changed diapers in the middle of a poop and pee spray with one hand while fending off a toddler with another, or managing to grocery shop with two kids pulling you in two directions. Or coming back from work and putting cranky kids to bed with no help from cranky husband. Or conjuring up dinner from seemingly empty pantry shelves.

The thing is, driven to it by need, we all can do it. We all have been supermom at some point or the other.

So lets go back to the classic story and cut ourselves some slack. Even Superman wasnt super all the time. And know that when the situation demands, and the kids need it, you are SUPERMOM!

Last 5 posts by Khushi

• The Slight Edge - Is It Working For You? - November 11th, 2011
• Break it down - October 23rd, 2011
• Diwali Celebrations - Ideas for Children - October 23rd, 2011
• Office Diwali Party and Celebrating Diwali at work - October 22nd, 2011
• Sara and Tacy's Summer Reset Challenge - some additional information - May 28th, 2011