Lesson 14: Mom Jeans

I love kids. And I love good moms who are all about raising their kids well. At work we recently hosted a weeklong event that kids from ages 3-9 participated in with youth from 11-18 playing support roles. Today we had a meeting with some of our adult volunteers to review what went well and what could have been done better. One of the first things my boss said was "I wish I had a camera on that first day so I could get a picture of all the minivans lined up on the street dropping their kids off."

I had to chuckle because I've heard all the stereotypes of soccer moms with their big vans filled with cleats, games and food wrappers. At least I wasn't the only one thinking it. While we didn't discuss it today, my mind wandered a bit to the mothers I interacted with last week; the ones driving minivans with 5 kids in tow, a Starbucks cup and in some cases, yes, mom jeans. Meeting with our adult volunteers today really made me think, too, about the women who are willing to hold a full-time job on top of being a full-time mom and volunteer for their kids' projects on top of that. I really appreciate those kinds of women because they're candidly real about their mistakes and their experiences in motherhood.

A few other things I learned about and from superstar moms:

1.) The definition of "gap moms."-Gap moms are moms who are willing to volunteer for everything and do a great job at it. They have one kid that was born several years apart from their other children, so once they're done volunteering for the older kids' programs, they get a break before they get calls asking them to volunteer for the younger ones, too. That break is the "gap" but no worries. They always come back.

2.) Moms who have children of elementary school to high school age go to bed at 9PM...this is because they wake up at 5AM to work out and make their kids' (and in some cases, their husbands' breakfast and lunches). By 7PM, you're not supposed to talk to them because they're tired.

3.) Moms are not afraid of creepy bugs, snotty noses, grubby hands or smelly kids. In fact, they love them.

4.) Anytime your elementary school aged kid asks you how much longer until they can leave something, tell them ten minutes. If you tell them anything less than that, they get antsy. If you tell them 10 minutes, they forget about leaving in 5.

5.) Their tote bags carry the whole world in them. No lie, I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled a minivan out of one of those things. It's like Mary Poppins!

6.) They don't sweat the small stuff, and they realize that 70% of it is small stuff.

7.) Their kids are superstars because they've grown up with two great parents. Yes, supermoms marry superdads. It's in the superparent rulebook.

So I'm sure that this mom thing is a lot more complicated than it looks, but I consider myself lucky to be able to work with women who make it look easy...and are willing to share their secrets with people like me who hope to one day be one of them.