She is here to remind us of how far we've fallen. This woman does it all on the home front, comes back for more, and remains insistently cheerful. The Supermother is often a woman who once worked, and, because of a potent cocktail of guilt and overachievement, has turned mothering into a task so daunting the International Olympics Committee is mulling its inclusion at Salt Lake City. Supermothers are famous for this, as well as for home schooling, an activity I'm convinced will lead to years in a therapist's office in the child's later life. In her spare time, my friend lost 20 pounds and joined a book club that appears to read only Russian novels.
Most people have two children.
Supermothers commonly have three, four or five in rapid succession. They look great pregnant. They've quit their jobs, only to turn mothering into a more high-powered one. And, unlike working mothers, they never complain. Which makes the rest of us complain even more.