Superwoman Syndrome

Your alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m., your eyes are barely open when you manage to get enough  strength to walk downstairs and run on the treadmill.  While you're sweating off last night's dessert you're thinking about what to make for dinner that day - did I take that chicken out of the freezer last night?  You hear your children wake up so you start getting their breakfast ready, they want bacon and eggs today. 

Your husband wakes up, "honey, did you iron my shirt?"  He eats his breakfast, kisses the kids and leaves for work.  Kids are still eating when you manage to steal 5 minutes to throw on your clothes and put your make-up on.  Wait, did I eat any breakfast?  Time to get the 6 yr. old dressed and ready for school while the 2 yr. old jumps up and down on the bed, "you are going to break your head open", I say! 

Phone rings - it's your mother-in-law, she says, "you never call me anymore?"  Time to leave for school and work, don't forget the lunches today.  Where are my car keys?  Yikes - that's just the morning.  Do you ever feel like nowadays a woman has to do it all?  Do you feel like you have to be Superwoman completing a multitude of tasks in a single bound?

Between volunteering at our children's schools, working at our "real" jobs, being mom 24/7, a good wife, a super friend, a nice neighbor, a sweet daughter, a loyal sister, business owner, did I forget something?  I'm sure I did.  Woman have to be superwoman today in order to manage our daily lives which have become overwhelming, chaotic and hectic in this day and age.  Whether it's being nurse, chef, coach, bookkeeper, maid, taxi or a myriad of other professions that we never actually went to school for, it never ends. 

There's just one problem with that scenario.  If we don't have time for ourselves, to fill up our own tanks, how can we possibly give anything to anybody else?

When I was overweight and eating unhealthy foods I didn't have the energy to even get up in the morning.   I was lazy, unmotivated and unwilling to do pretty much anything anyone asked me to do.  Superwoman, I was not.  Fast forward to now, 50 lbs. lighter and creating my own business.  I feel like I have the most energy I've ever had in my life.  People notice and I like that.  They also notice that they could use my energy to their advantage by getting me do to various tasks for them.  Not that I mind, I enjoy playing the part of superwoman but ALL the time - it gets a bit old if not tiresome.  Can't I just be fat and lazy again?  That way I would have an excuse.  Wouldn't that be easier?

Of course I wouldn't want that!  Eating right and exercising has helped me become the woman I always wanted to be.  I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, blah, blah, blah.  We're the glue that holds our families together.  We wipe the snotty noses and hold the puke buckets.  We hug our children while they cry or get hurt.  We cheer our spouses on and never let them forget that we're on their side.  We watch our parents get old and unable to care for themselves and think of fonder times when they use to care for us.  Where does it end? Oh I hope it never ends.

Sometimes even Superwoman needs a break.  I'm sure there were days when she took a bubble bath and got a massage.  Someone had to give her a manicure those nails looked too perfect.  All I'm saying is be good to yourself.  The women I choose to surround myself with and consider my friends at this stage of my life are brave, strong and beautiful inside and out.  I learn a lot from all of you and I'm proud to call myself your friend.  Take care of yourselves.  Eat well and get plenty of exercise because I want you around a long time.  Without you there would be no clean clothes or clean children.  Well dressed husbands and dinner on the table would be obsolete.  Your boss would keep calling asking where that file is and the school will call wondering why you're not room mother that day.  Take a day to do something for yourself, to recharge your battery.   Besides, isn't it hard to squeeze into that costume everyday anyway?