Supermom

If life were a summer blockbuster, Mom would star as the superhero

With "Fantastic Four" and "Batman Begins" in theaters this summer, I yearn for a movie about my favorite super hero -- mom.

In my mind's eye, motherhood has all the makings of a blockbuster film. The lead character, the heroine, also known to script writers as "the protagonist," would be a mom. This universal character would embody every woman and would not be outfitted in a 1970s circa gilded corset like Wonder Woman, but more likely in a pair of sweats, a T-shirt and running shoes. She would wear any color except white which attracts stains like a Venus flytrap attracts, well, flies. Her hair would be cropped short, pulled back in a scrunchie or hidden underneath a baseball cap depending on whether she caught a shower that morning between the feeding and dressing her offspring.

In the mom-as-super-heroine movie, the villains would not be her children even though it might feel that way some days. Seemingly mundane things would challenge our leading lady. She would constantly battle the limits of getting everything done within a 24-hour day and seven-day week. There would be skirmishes with Murphy's Laws about clean outfits, getting to places on time, and colds. She would be called on to heal everything from small hurts requiring only a Band Aid to more mysterious ailments prompting frantic, midnight trips to the pediatrician's office.

As with any good movie story line, the film I envision would need a crisis and let me tell you, motherhood is fraught with them. Our super heroine could be seen staying up all night rocking a colicky baby or serial dialing a telephone during precious nap time in search of the perfect preschool program. There would also be enough material for a series of sequels: potty training, the first day of kindergarten, puberty...

Like any heroine, the mom's super powers would be called on for solving all these problems and more. And they would be abundant: invisible eyes in the back of her head, a keen sense of hearing and smell, incredible mind-reading abilities, not to mention the skill to navigate a grocery store with two children in tow as well as fold laundry, clean toilets, and pick up toys at incredible speeds. At the very least, she would get as much done as possible in the few minutes during the day allotted to these daily tasks.

Just like any good film, the conflicts and crises our heroine faces would be resolved with a happy ending by the movie's end. Ideally, the mom would see her well-groomed, well-mannered 18-year-old being packed off on his or her way to a fine college thanks to a full academic scholarship. But unlike the movies, mom's job will not done when the closing credits roll onto the silver screen.

A few years ago, when my daughter was about nine months old, I ran into a former colleague and her baby at a butterfly park in Pacific Grove. She admitted motherhood was the toughest job she'd ever had. Both of us -- she a former TV reporter and myself a former newspaper reporter -- agreed that breaking news, deadlines, and editors paled in comparison to our new bosses, two little cherubs riding strollers.

Three years later, now the mother of a preschooler as well as a toddler, there are some days when I do feel like a hero in one of those summer blockbusters, a woman whose powers know no bounds and I am able to accomplish amazing feats. But still, there are other days when I am nurturing and teaching my children, when I realize being their mom every day is a wonderful blessing, an achievement in itself, and indeed super.

Mommy Time Column ~ August 2005