I was in a workshop today where we were defining personas. Those are kind of amalgamated descriptions of the person you develop products or campaigns for. One of our personas was "Sara Supermom." I helped develop her. It was interesting. She had a tiara and a cape and soccer mom hair. Other than the cape and the 2x4 hairdo, she was frighteningly like me...and pretty much every mom - working or otherwise - that I know.
She's 30-40, married with kids (maybe married more than once, in which case you double the trouble), probably a professional of some sort who is also the head of household, family business manager; employer of nannies, cleaning people, lawn boys, doctors, dentists, etc; list-maker; delegator; schedule master; micro-manager; tutor; relay racer (have you tried passing the kid baton back and forth between parents?); super-wife; mega-mom; sex bomb; craft-do-er; home-schooler; house-keeper; fitness buff; family historian and documentarian; super-model-wannabe; aspirational organic chef; not to mention someone's daughter, niece, sister, friend. Remember, that's all in addition to a full- or part-time job.
Good hell, ladies! How on earth do we keep it all together?!
I know I'm not alone here. I've seen the mommy blogs, the Parents magazine articles, heard the cafe conversations. Being a mom is some tough shit. The most rewarding thing ever, hands down. There's no argument or question there. Sure, I may be a little biased here based on the fact that I'm just lucky, lucky, super uber lucky to even be a mom at all...but still. It is, hands down, the most difficult, rewarding, special, crazy thing you'll ever do.
Frankly, being the case study for "Sara Supermom" made me a little (a lot) anxious. Based on the speed of my speech, the tenor of my voice and some stress signals in my body language, not to mention the reaction of the men in my workgroup who were all instantly stressed and anxious based on my description of poor Sara...maybe more than a little stressed. When you hear the list of things you do every day, it's nuts. Nuts! You want to celebrate all that you achieve and get a valium or something to help you deal with all the stuff you don't quite get to. Laundry? I'm talking about you.
It's a ton of pressure. Can you ever be good enough? creative enough? wonderful enough? there enough? do enough? Who knows?
Can you ever be mom enough?
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