Daily Coronavirus Check-in: There’s no such thing as superwoman

I don’t know about you but I’m totally guilty of trying to be superwoman. The best teacher, colleague, boss, partner, chef, cleaner, the list goes on and on (and we’re the only ones crossing things off it). Why are so many working mums obsessed with proving that we can do it all? We know it’s not really achievable but we still seem to hold ourselves, and others – to these incredibly high expectations.  I’m pretty sure if I served the kids vegemite on toast or weetbix for dinner, they’d be okay. If the house wasn’t perfectly tidied at the end of each day, the walls wouldn’t fall down. If we skip homework one night, it won’t stop them from getting into university. But the guilt stops me from doing any of those things. And as I sit here with my shoulders and back aching, tired from another night of stressing about ‘what ifs’, I wonder when on earth I unwittingly joined ‘the cult of intensive motherhood’ as author Felicity Harley calls it. Her new book ‘Balance & other BS’ landed on my kitchen table back in April and it perfectly sums up the past few months for many working mums. So I reached out to the mum-of-three, to find out why we do this to ourselves…  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.