SuperMom is Dead.

SuperMom is dead. Or at least, she is at my house.

It seems that all Mom’s possess a deep desire for perfection. True, it lays dormant for years. Any teenaged girls bedroom is a prime example of how the need for perfection doesn’t hit until later. All it takes is hearing the first cry of your newborn, and instantly, a switch is flipped. 

Nobody can deny that becoming a Mother is the beginning of the "look how much better I am than you" parade. It begins with pregnancy (well, I only gained 4 pounds my entire pregnancy!), has an encore for the arrival of your bundle of joy (an epidural? Really? Psh. Labor wasn't painful for me at all, no drugs here!) and it seems to continue on endlessly as your child develops. Develops much more slowly than his peers, evidently. Here's the thing, though. We are ALL responsible for it. Some are worse offenders than others, but at some point or another, we all glean a little bit of satisfaction in thinking we are a better mother than the one across the street, or in play group. 

The SuperMom ideal is so ridiculous. I blame the era of the perfect television mother and wife. Damn you, June Cleaver! NOBODY vacuums in heels and pearls. NOBODY is perfectly coiffed every day, with a freshly starched apron and steaming hot meals. Sure, we all know it was made for television, but everybody has had some sort of daydream about being the ideal Mom. And in today's world, it's even worse! Not only do we strive for that perfect house, and perfect meal, but we add in doing perfectly at our job, making sure our perfect offspring look and act perfect. We need to throw the perfect birthday party, make the best cookies for the bake sale, have ground breaking ideas for the PTA, get the laundry done in perfect time for crazy shirt day at school, host the perfect dinner party and never forget to upload perfect looking pictures and updates on Facebook and Twitter! 

Look, I'm exhausted from just thinking of a day like that. Actually attempting to live it? Forget about it! I want to introduce you all to a new Mom. She's called RealisticMom. Here is what I love about RealisticMom. She is brazen enough to do school drop off in her slippers. She also knows that sometimes, it's ok to have a frozen pizza for dinner. RealisticMom doesn't always have the dishes finished or the floor vacuumed. RealisticMom even has the gall to bring store bought cookies to the bake sale, because last night? She was busy. Or tired. Or both! Who cares what the reasoning, RealisticMom just knows when to draw the line and say enough is enough. 

We have all had those occasions when company shows up unexpectedly, and we scurry around shoving things in closets, drawers and laundry baskets that get hurriedly shoved in our bedroom. But WHY? Why do we care if there is a pile of laundry that needs folding sitting out? Does it matter that there are eleventy seven legos scattered on the floor? It doesn’t! If you ask me, those are probably signs that instead of spending your day cleaning and organizing, you spent time with your kiddo. And I’m willing to bet a years worth of laundry that 20 years down the line, your child will remember that afternoon building a space ship out of legos, and NOT that you brought in the biggest donation with your cookies at the bake sale.

Come on, admit it. It's freeing. Join me in shouting from the rooftops. Your house is a mess and you just don’t care that much! That sure, it would be ideal to have everybody’s clothes and backpacks laid out neatly before you go to bed, but what REALLY happens is that the alarm didn’t go off, you didn’t have time to shower, and just touched up yesterday’s hair. And that the kids ate pop tarts in the car, meaning there are now crumbs in the car. It happens!! And frankly, if it never happens to you, I don’t think we’d be very good friends. SuperMom is dead at my house, but RealisticMom is alive and kicking. I may not be the neatest or most organized, but I sure have fun along the way.