What comes to your mind when you hear the word “Super Mom”?
Maybe you think of the mom who always has a clean house and enjoys having people over.
Perhaps it’s the mother who volunteers for every available opportunity at school.
Or you could be picturing the mom in the pickup line who looks like she just stepped out of the pages of a magazine.
If these are the moms you had in mind, you’d be right. They are all Super Moms.
In fact, all moms are Super Moms.
Society (and our own inner voice) had us believing that everything should be put together and perfect at all times to be a “Super Mom.”
We must juggle all our responsibilities with a full face of makeup, a clean house, and impeccably behaved kids.
Well, I’ve got news for society: Life isn’t always Instagram-perfect. It just can’t be. I know mine isn’t, and if you follow me on my blog, you’ve seen firsthand my imperfections in all their glory.
Even the mothers you look up to have something in their lives that isn’t perfect.
That’s right, guys. We all have something that keeps us up at night.
It’s time we realize that being a Super Mom doesn’t mean having kids who are dressed to the nines, looking like they stepped out of a magazine or a catalog.
It doesn’t mean having a house that always looks like it’s about to be photographed for Southern Living magazine.
and it sure doesn’t mean looking beautiful 100% of the time, and definitely not for school drop off at 8am.
So what is a Super Mom?
The essence of a Super Mom lies in all the little things that no one notices. It’s the things they do day in and day out to keep their families afloat.
Maybe it’s remembering to pick up your kids for early dismissal, even if you have to set 6 alarms.
Sometimes it’s as simple as putting a snack in your child’s backpack, even if it’s not the healthiest option in the pantry.
Maybe if you’re like me, it’s stumbling out of bed at 5:30 a.m. everyday to help your kid prepare for school (thank heavens for coffee, right?).
Most days, being a Super Mom entails small everyday stuff: Things like getting up for the umpteenth time to look again at what they made in the sandbox, even if it’s the first time you’ve sat down all day.
Super Moms are the ones who, despite clinging to their last threads of sanity, still show up for their kids.
Being a Super Mom entails embracing the not-so-picture-perfect reality of motherhood in every season, especially the hard ones.
All these seemingly insignificant things make us Super Moms. And these means all the mothers in our lives deserve to be called a Super Mom.
I have been blessed to have so many Super Moms in my life.
Moms whom I look up to.
Moms whom I text in the middle of the night when my kids have a weird sickness.
Moms who let me vent to them at the end of a long day and never judge me.
I am lucky to have a fantastic mom who worked so hard to provide for herself and her three girls, despite so many obstacles. She always went without so that we could have what we needed. Was she perfect? Nope. But she definitely is a Super Mom.
I have a wonderful stepmom who welcomed her new husband’s three girls, loved them like her own, and never made them feel unwanted. I think of how old she was when she became an instant mom, and I don’t know if I could have done the same thing. Was she perfect? Again, no. But she is also a SuperMom.
My two sisters, both Super Moms, have a lot on their plates but still manage to be amazing mothers.
I am surrounded by a small but mighty tribe of friends with different parenting styles, whom I turn to whenever I need someone who understands why I can barely form a sentence at the end of the day.
They listen. They empathize. They know what it’s like. And supporting your fellow moms makes you a Super Mom.
You know what else makes one a Super Mom?
Admitting that sometimes, you just can’t have it all together.
It’s important for mothers to share their real, unvarnished experiences as much as they share the perfect moments. My blog was conceived upon this thought. I love my life and every moment is worth sharing, even when things aren’t the best.
Your mom friends, especially, need to know that things will not always be sunshine and roses. Being open with the truths of motherhood makes you a Super Mom, and it helps us all to know that we are not alone in our struggles.
On more days than I care to admit, I go to bed thinking that I have been the worst mother. I lay in bed and list all the ways that I have failed my children in just one day. Can you believe that? All it takes is just one day for me to screw up the future generation.
This is how my brain works. And I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I get so many messages expressing these same doubts and insecurities. You all know it fills the pages of most mom-centered books.
During these moments of uncertainty and doubt, I take a minute to look through the pictures on my phone. I see my kids’ smiling faces, and I know that they are okay. That I am doing okay. And that things will be okay.
My calm-down ritual is even better now thanks to my Nixplay frame, which lets me take this moment one step further. As I’m going through the days’ pictures to remind myself that I’m not as terrible as I think, I move them to the Nixplay app. While I’m getting some much-needed sleep, the pictures are uploading to my frame.
In the morning, while stumbling bleary-eyed to the coffee pot, the first thing I see when the sleepiness fades away is a beautiful reminder that, on my worst days, my kids still think I’m awesome. How could I believe otherwise when I see their big smiles flit across my Nixplay frame’s screen?
Having my phone pictures on display is an effective reminder that my kids are loved, happy, and thriving. It’s such a simple thing, but it brings me so much joy.
I am doing the very best I can, and this is what makes me a Super Mom.
You may have no makeup on, a messy house, and the same black yoga pants as yesterday. But if, at the end of the day, your kids go to bed knowing that they are loved, cherished, and that you would do anything for them, guess what? You are still, and will always be, a Super Mom.