Different kinds of mothers

I read a great quote one time. "There are kissing mothers and there are yelling mothers, but they really all mean the same thing." I don't remember who said it, but I remember thinking that it was quite true.

Confession: I am not the kind of mom who writes about her children much. I wish I did! I read my friends' blogs and I love how much they write about what they do with their children. I kind of thought I would do that too, but for some reason the inspiration isn't there. Sigh. How embarrassing is that? My childhood ambition was to be a mom!

So, let's see . . . so far we have kissing mothers, yelling mothers, and blogging mothers. Sometimes I look around me and I see another kind -- SUPER mothers. You all know at least one. She has at least six children, all of whom are snappily dressed at all times. They never raise their voice in the house and by the time they're 16 they've homeschooled their way through college and have earned enough money to buy their future spouses a house. Oh. And they wear denim. A lot of denim.

I wanted to be a supermom. I really, really wanted to be a supermom. Some of my best friends were supermoms. I wore the denim. I had five children (not six) and even had four of them at home. With no drugs. For 13 years I was either pregnant or nursing (or both) and I homeschooled. I tried so hard to be supermom but just couldn't quite get there.

Then, I had an epiphany. I was watching a movie that will forever stay at the top of my list of inspiring movies. It was packed with truth about human nature and working together. It spoke to the very soul of family relationships and how crucial it is for each person to fill their God-given role. It forced me to deal with my desire to do it all on my own. It encouraged me to step down from being Supermom and just be mom.

The movie? The Incredibles. Laugh if you want to, but there's a lot of truth packed into that gem from Pixar. The part that hit me the hardest was when Edna Mode made the point that superheroes with capes always died. The cape would somehow get in the way and bring them to an untimely demise.

I decided then and there to take off my cape. I would no longer try to be all things to all people. I would get up every day, do what needed to be done, and -- praise GOD! -- let him handle the rest.

Today, people frequently say to me, "I don't know how you do it. You have a big family, you work, and you're in grad school. I could never do all that." My answer? "I'm a mom. There may be different kinds of mom, but really, we all do the same thing. We get up every day and do what needs to be done for our families. We may be doing different things, but really? We're all doing the same thing."