Supermoms....

I never really thought I would post about something like this, but it sort of struck me and so I figured, isn't that the point of a blog? Maybe it isn't interesting to anyone but me!! But again...isn't that the point of a blog sometimes?

First, I want to say that this is NOT a commentary by me on whether any person should be a working mom or a stay at home mom. Everyone should make their own decision regarding that and I truly believe moms make the best decision they can with their circumstances and desires! When I heard of this story and read this article, it just brought a few thoughts to my mind.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/08/23/working-women-who-subscribe-to-the-supermom-myth-are-more-likely-to-be-depressed/

So, although no one asked, here are my thoughts. I obviously am not a professional researcher, so these are amateur conclusions!

Finding balance as a mother is pretty difficult. I think this applies to those mothers who are working and those mothers who stay at home full time. It is easier to understand the difficulty for those who are go to a paying job. You have to balance a job with expectations and time away from your home where you want to build a family life. I think moms who are home full time sometimes have a hard time finding balance as well - it is easy to get too involved in details of life that are possibly not important to your overall happiness. Since it is more difficult to physically be away from home, you can fall into a habit of losing focus on the reasons you actually decided to stay home.

Sorry guys, but I really think the following is true in most cases. No matter working or not working mom...women bear the brunt of "expectations" in home life. This can be a great thing for women and also a burden. I say it can be great because when things seem to be in order (no matter who did the work) I think women usually get the credit! It can also be a burden because is things are out of order, women tend to feel like people will think less of them, not the husband.

I think moms often put unrealistic expectations on themselves (working or stay at home moms.) We look at the best aspects of other moms (their cooking, their outside the home career, their decorating skills or their volunteering efforts) and we expect to be able to do all of those.

So, I guess my point from all of this (if any of you are still reading) is that in order to be happy as a mom, we should really reflect on the reasons we are doing certain things. We should examine who we really are and what our gifts are for our families, homes and communities. If we all focus on our own best aspects I think it will be easier to avoid feelings of inadequacy.

What do you think?