Every once in a while, I get an epiphany like when I watched the “Mom’s Night Out” comedy. At the time I saw it, I was feeling like the jack of all trades, master of none, especially in my parenting. You know the feeling, catching yourself coming and going, scatterbrained as a 9-year-old boy with ADD? Full disclosure here, I was running myself ragged trying to be supermom by excelling at a full-time job, running a university outreach program, homeschooling, and serving my family as a wife and mom. The mom in the movie (Sarah Drew) had planned a mom’s night out that ended her up in jail, confessing to a biker (Trace Adkins) that she felt like a failure. He looked her in the eye and told her she was not a failure to anyone, but to the standard she had set for herself. The clincher that got me though was at the end when Dad (Sean Astin) tells the mom this:
“Your job...”
“it’s hard, I know,” she interjected.
“...important,” he replied, “that’s what I was going to say.”
This amazing, challenging, impossible job of parenting is important.
For student achievement.
For safety.
For happy, healthy kids.
It’s not about what we can’t do, but what we can do. So, hike up your skirts, Mom, breathe, smile, and love on those kiddos. As for the supermom persona, there ain’t no such animal.
Mom’s Night Out trailer: