I would like to address the issue of the proverbial SuperMom.  

It always seems like every other mom, except yourself, is a SuperMom.  Every other mom juggles work, kids, house and tonnes of extracurriculum activities, is a good cook, cooks every meal, make everything from scratch including bread and yogurt and probably makes her own butter and cheese, sews all her children’s clothes, capable of earning a good living, contantly engages her children in stimulating and educational activities, breastfeeds, cloth-diapers, or practises Elimination Communication (or Infant Potty Training), co-sleeps, constantly ‘wearing’ her babies, homeschools, active in church or and in the community, bring her children to all sorts of enrichment classes and field trips, make scrapbooks for all her children, does all the housework without any form of hired help, keeps the house spotlessly clean at all times, good at all sorts of things including music, arts, craft, and sports, always cheerful, always patient, always loving towards her family, never cross, never rude, never loses control, wakes up before the family in the wee hours of the morning and never goes to sleep until past midnight, chauffer the family everywhere, a good hostess, plans parties that everyone talks about for a month after, ......

A exemplary figure of a Stepford wife.  Or a clone of Martha Stewart.

Every mom feels as if every other mom is so much more accomplished than herself and every mom strives (or secretly hopes) to be a SuperMom, able to juggle 20 plates with 2 bare hands.  When we feel as if we have been particularly accomplished, we consciously/subconsciouly set the expectation for other mothers by nonchalantly mentioning all the things we do, and how ‘easy’ it is to do this and that all at once, and so on and so forth.  But when we feel that we fall short of the mark, we feel extra guilty and condemned and feel as if we are not fit to be mothers.

Let me set the record straight : There is no such thing as a SuperMom (based on the do-everything-under-the-sun definition).  No such person.  Nada.  Well, at least I don’t believe that such a person exists. Ok, you may disagree with me and point out So-and -so mom you know who does this and that, or Mrs So-and-so who seems particularly accomplished compared to her peers.  If you have been feeling particularly small and inferior when you compare yourself to other moms, you may be happy and relieved to hear what I have to say.

1. The idea of a SuperMom is merely our perception.  She exists only in our minds.

Chances are, what we have been doing in is to put Mrs A (who juggles 3 plates) and Mrs B (who juggles another 2) and Mrs C .....and all the mothers we know, combine them into one single figure, and created a SuperMom figure in our minds.  This SuperMom figure seems like Mrs A, B, C....but in reality, none of the mothers fits the bill.  SuperMom juggles 20 plates in a humanly impossible manner but in reality, each individual mother juggles less at a more humanly possible level.  Sure, each of these mothers could be particularly accomplished at certain things.  One could be a really good cook, another a fantastic teacher.  But only the imaginary SuperMom is excellent in every single thing.