Wonder Woman Is a State of Mind

I somehow now have four kids. Yes, I know how that happens, and yes, we’ve done something about it. Four kids. Four mouths to feed. Four competing Netflix preferences, ranging from The Office to Sesame Street. Four schedules and routines. Teenagers to toddlers. Do you know how strikingly similar the terrible twos are to hormonal teen years? Pull up a seat and I’ll tell you all about it, friend. 

Survival mode. Every single day. Which then shifts into every single night. Repeat tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day. 

When people discover I am still working full time while managing four kids, a traveling husband, and two dogs, I often hear, “Wow! You are like Wonder Woman!” 

Some days I do feel like Wonder Woman—I’ve got it all together, I haven’t dropped any balls, everyone is still breathing. These days I feel like I’ve kicked booty and taken names. When 11:00 P.M. rolls around and the last child has finally been fed and put to bed (the baby or the teen, it depends on the day), I am doing victory laps around my dining room while watching my FitBit inch closer to that step goal. Oh yeah, I’ve got this. Bills are paid, lunches are packed, and I gave the name “Diaper Genie” a whole new meaning. 

But, oh, how the mighty will fall. Every high must have its low. There are also days when multiple balls are dropped, a fish or two turn up dead, the dogs are eating out of the dog food bag because no one remembered to feed them. Mama, teenagers, and toddlers are all crying. On any given day you can find multiple dirty diapers scattered throughout my house (two babies in diapers, in my defense). I love snapping the chaos to throw up on my Insta Stories, because if you don’t laugh at yourself, you will cry until you are dehydrated. 

Seriously, though, Wonder Woman is just an illusion. It’s a state of mind. It’s taking everything you see on social media with a giant boulder of salt. It’s reminding yourself that not only are you doing it right, but you and only you are meant to mother these kids (and possibly screw them up a bit). It’s taking your victory laps around that dining room table when you have earned them—either with blood, sweat, and tears on the rough days or with a breeze blowing through your cape on the strange days when everyone is cooperating and you are a rock star. 

Wonder Woman isn’t a myth or a bunch of hype. It’s just you living and breathing and mothering. Every. Single. Day. She’s there when you managed to assemble the most epic of coordinating fall family picture outfits. She’s also there when you’ve left the house and actually forgot to pack diapers and bottles for two babies. Or when you totally forgot about one child and what to feed them for dinner when you were leaving for a rare girls’ night out. 

Wonder Woman is a filter on your life, no different than Snapchat or Instagram. Embrace these days of social media envy, and please know with certainty that every mom out there appearing to have it all together is also most certainly swimming in poop diapers or forgetting children. It happens to the best of us. Some days you have to look a little harder in the mirror to see your Wonder Woman, but conjure up your best selfie fish lips face and you’ll find her.