I’ve been asked the same question over and over again. Why did you title your book Chasing Superwoman?
Here’s the short answer.
.
The Superwoman complex runs deep. As a wife, lawyer, and mother of three young children, I’ve wrestled deeply with the tension between my career, my family, and my faith. Yes, I’ve been accused of trying to do it all. Like most mothers, I can’t say no, so I’m known to over commit in just about every area of my life, running around in circles trying to achieve some unattainable level of perfection. Sometimes, I even get in a groove and tell myself, I can do this. Like Superwoman, I don’t need anybody’s help.
But just when I think I have everything under control, I inadvertently skip carpool duty, miss a deadline, or forget my sister’s birthday. And I’m lucky if I get up early enough to get everyone breakfast and out the door on time. While I have every intention of making healthy dinners and packing sugar-free lunches, I always seem to cut corners on nutrition. I’m known to get really annoyed with my kids when they don’t listen, and I often complain to my husband, “You just don’t understand what it’s like to be me.”
Most days I fall far short of being Superwoman. Yet I keep chasing her! And I don’t think I’m alone.
Do you ever find yourself chasing Superwoman? If so, join me for the Superwoman Series - we'll be returning to this topic in future blogs.
6 comments:
I bet you can guess my answer. I think she's carrying the baton I want.
~ Wendy
I try so hard to NOT chase her, but find myself lapsing back into old habits of trying to be everything to everyone. Why do we do that?? I'll be tuning in-- especially with school and my teaching job getting ready to fire up again!
Don't we all -- even as we tell ourselves we're not? I thought I was done with peer pressure once I hit 20, but that "being what other people expect me to be" just hangs on.
My "chasing" manifests in the form of choosing the wonderful qualities of my friends and trying to attain them, without regard to how different their situations, personalities, families, or homes are from mine. I try to keep the perfect house of my self-diagnosed OCD SAHM friend, I try to cook the perfectly healthy all-natural dinners of my childless friend, I try to supplement public school with cool homeschool-type stuff like my homeschooling mom friends, I try to read to my kids as much as my reading-obsessed friend, and the list goes on and on. All of these qualities are in different women, and I know no one who does it all, and yet for some reason I try! It's insanity!!
Superwoman? Yes, yes, but I tell myself no, no, you don't have to be her. Then before I know it, I'm back at it again. Working hard to do...everything!
Ok, your comments are comforting. I'm not the only one!
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