A lesson from a full-time mother, a full-time employee, and a student by night.
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When I see my mother hustling around the house, I remember watching Superman. Aside from having the privilege to born in Krypton, to become both a reporter and a part-time hero is not an usual background you see on LinkedIn. But the part of having super power such as flying, eye-lasers, etc. are not the things that makes him a hero. His capability does.
Sure, he is superb as in fights the law of gravity. No natural-earthlings could strangle a monster with bare hands, not me. But when I looked around me, I can always find that hero who still cares enough for others whilst having enough on their plates. Even better, I met lots of them my entire life! One is lucky enough for me to call mother.
Becoming A Supermom
My mother got married at 22 and bore her first child at the age of 23. Now I’m 21 and I’m nowhere near the idea of getting married, let alone to have a child. Though it’s not so young to get married at her age, most people spent their early 20s in getting to know themselves and build their lives upon it. But my mother couldn’t, she got responsibilities for her new-family, and it was the main priority over her dreams at the time.
When she arrived in her mid 30s, my mother had her bad days and not often these caused her to reminisce about her young days. The things she regretted doing and not doing, as if those were “errors”.
To say it’s a sacrifice for her family might fit as a ‘mother’, but it felt wrong for her. With the time loss of all those years was a worth to give in rather to take back. She never considered the things she chose on her life as a sacrifice.
She said that I’ll be on the same page as hers one day, if I ever become a mom. To have the role of a parent is something she would never trade on anything. I still cherish my dreams over anything else, thus not being able to fully understand her words at this point.
I do realize from the way she explained things and reminiscences, that when one regrets an “error”, one can be thankful for the “error”.
Supermom ‘Saves’ The Day
Saves Time Right
Now, Clark Kent got paper deadlines at the Daily Planet. On the other hand, Superman has only little time to save his victims before the villains take an action, and he’s aware of this. But superman knows his purpose on doing things. He knows the output of his doing, his responsibilities, and chose to prioritize the ones he thinks urgent.
Mother saves her 24 hours in the right amount. She made plans either it’s for short term or long term. For example, short term such as things-to-do for tomorrow or few hours from now, long term such as plans to buy a house or build businesses.
Mother did all that since she become the president of her class and as the top grader in her class, she knows her responsibility as a student. My mother got praised by her boss in office because of her initiative doings, she knows her responsibility as a secretary. My mother makes sure her kids’ stomachs are filled by her cooking every day and night, she knows her responsibility as a mother. Foremost, she knows the outputs of her daily responsibilities. The reasons she did it, because it is her role and she chose that role. And she embraces every part of it because that’s what made her proud of herself, a student, a secretary, and a mother.
Just like Clark Kent who needs to go back and forth maintaining his relationship with Lois Lane, his job at Daily Planet, and last but not least, as a superman, he saved everyone’s day.
Supermom Mindset: Delay Not Stopped
Mother’s responsibilities for her family stopped her chasing her dreams at the time, but that doesn’t stopped her to chase them now.
Anyway…
No, my mother wasn’t born in any other planet but earth. My mother doesn’t have any mutant powers, nor she is able to strangled humongous evil creatures. But to me, and everyone around her, she got a power. A power to manage time, a power to help others in need, a power to control her surroundings despite the pressure she was in, a power upon herself.
A power upon self is a capability that everyone should have, yet, not a few failed to do so.
You don’t need to be a super human to save the day. You don’t need your own trilogy divided into three parts when you can done it all in one movie to tell the audience that you saved the day. You can save the day by being responsible, you can save the day by being thoughtful for your colleagues, you can even save the day with just a smile.
This is a trilogy that gives a part of when you can be a college student, be a mother of two kids, and be a reliable colleague in a team. Because you can do it all when you save your time right.
