Parents elevated to super status!!!

Supermum runs her own business, raises six young children, supports her husband and in her spare time collects endangered species while trekking through the Amazon!!!

Oh please, if I hear another stereotypical story of yet another person performing superhuman feats to achieve the unattainable work, family, life balance all with social and political correctness I think I will vomit!!!

Have we in fact gone too far? Life was certainly a lot simpler when women were at home bringing up the children, supporting their spouse and keeping everything going on the home front. Food was simple fare, meat and three veg. Often veges were home grown in the back garden. There was no fast food, kids walked to and from school and playing games meant throwing a ball outside or having a game of footy with your mates or riding bikes or scooters around the neighbourhood. Men went out to work, came home to an adoring spouse and children warmly greeting him as he walked through the door and sat down to a beautiful home cooked meal.

We now find ourselves in a time warp, trapped between two eras and societal expectations. As children, we were brought up with the traditional way of life of the 60’s and 70’s. Our parents and others equally ingrained with this traditional way of life have the expectation that we will also follow their example of bringing up children and keeping house as they did. These days it has almost become a necessity for both parents to be in the paid workforce. With this change in work dynamics there has also been a shift in roles and responsibilities on the home front. While many couples are now sharing domestic duties, teenager taxi service, bill paying etc., on top of their work commitments there are those who are very quick to judge if all is not perfect and organized on the home front.

Media has a great deal to answer to for their portrayal of women somehow achieving what seems to be the unachievable, holding up examples of women achieving great success in every aspect in their lives supposedly with no outside assistance. I personally struggle to manage a household, be there for my teenagers and my spouse and try to develop my career before anyone notices the greying hair and skin threatening to wrinkle at any moment and decides to put me out to pasture. Meals at our house, are generally on the run fitting in with sporting, social and work commitments of teenagers. Both my spouse and I are clutterholics, a legacy of that traditional era where you did not throw out anything as it may come in handy someday. When I made a concerted effort recently, to have nutritious home cooked meals on the table and insisted that we all sit down together to eat, my 15 year old daughter told me to stop being that type of mum that she preferred me the way I was despite the fact that the house was not perfectly tidy and the meals weren’t meticulously prepared and served. I guess your teenagers will let you know that they love you for who you really are and not for what society expects you to be.