Supermom

Since having my fourth child, I have had some very interesting reactions. In the honeymoon stage of friendship with a fellow mom, you start to exchange information about your kids. Sometimes it's an outright "how many children do you have?" and other times you can literally watch them try and calculate in their heads as you give little tidbits of info. I have boys and girls–well, my older two are girls and then there are the boys, etc. So far, I have met a fellow mom of four only once. She was pleasantly surprised to have found a fellow "unicorn" mom. But I have to say that, overwhelmingly, the response is "WOW", "You have your hands FULL", "You must be SUPERMOM!".

I always felt quite unworthy of this title. I mean I didn't have all four at once! I gradually built up to this amount of work and responsibility. On a daily basis it's just my norm... it's my life, I am used to it. It doesn't feel "super" to me.

Today, however, I had a revelation. I am SUPER. Not because I have four kids, not because they only eat organic, always brush their teeth and never forget their pleases and thank yous... (hahaha) but because my own life scares me some days and yet we always seem to make it through.

Today, I was alone with all four of my kiddos (aged 9,7,4 and 4.5 months) AND we had a picnic play date with yet another child who would be in my care for about 3 hours. At the time this seemed like a brilliant plan... when I woke up this morning, I was terrified. What was I thinking? Trying to manage all those kids, in the park, with a meal.... ALONE? Had I fallen and hit my head hard? Had someone spiked my coffee before I made this plans?

Think of all the things that could go wrong: my 4 year old could pee his pants, the baby could start crying and not stop, my wild 7 year old could suddenly disappear, the "extra" kid could turn out to be a nightmare and not listen at ALL. Someone could get hurt, stung by a bee, accidentally exposed to peanuts... wait is that kid allergic to peanuts?! This, and so much more, went flying through my brain as I made my morning coffee and kissed my husband goodbye. He spent the day studying, in a quiet library. Lucky him.

I put my big girl panties on and prepared for the worst. Packed lunch, band-aids, Benadryl bug bite stick, extra panties and pants for the four year old and just crossed my fingers it was all going to be ok.

Today, 9 years into my journey of parenthood, I learned what it means to be a SUPERMOM. You are scared, just like everyone else, but you prepare the best you can and hold on for the ride.

The stars aligned for me today and everything went smoothly. It was a beautiful fall day, warm enough to not need coats but cool enough to sit comfortably outside, even while wearing baby. The kids played beautifully together, not one argument or issue. There were more kids at the park and they all got together to play a hearty game of tag. Even the little girl my 4 year old son has a major crush on made an appearance and they ended up chasing each other around the play area.

Seemed too good to be true! I thought for sure, someone is going to melt down when I announce it's time to go home. I mentally prepared myself, gave them a two minute warning.... still nothing. Everyone cooperated!

Here is when I had my revelation: after all that trepidation, I tackled it anyway. My kids and their friends had a great time.

I thought back to earlier challenges- the first time I had to take my baby for a vaccine. The day their goldfish died. The Christmas I smiled through although I had just begun miscarrying the day before. The week BOTH girls had pneumonia and so did mom. There have been challenges big and little, and if you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have told you I would never be able to handle ALL that. But I have. I have tackled them all. One at a time, some days more gracefully than others - but we are all still here.

In my book - that is SUPER, and you are too.