I am not a superwoman.

Please stop calling me a superwoman. I'm not. I'm not a superwoman or a supermom. I have no superhuman qualities of any kind.
The first posts in the online classroom forums are inevitably the "introduce yourself" posts. This last week I posted my 'about me' in the appropriate place for each of my three classes. I got my bachelor's mostly online from CSU, Chico. I am, and always have been, a history geek. I go to school online mainly so I can continue to care for my five kids. I'm taking 3 classes this semester, the same as I took last semester. And so the inevitable responses came as well. How do you do it? How can you take that many classes? Do you ever sleep? And the usual: FIVE? Wowsers. Wow. Amazing. That's a lot.
    So, first I wonder how many of those wows actually mean "holy crap?! what can they be thinking having that many kids?" I'm pretty sure that the one asking if my four year old was a 'surprise' because of the large gap in ages wasn't thinking all five were a good idea. Keep in mind that I've never actually met any of these people. Anyway, I'll get to the point. I respond with polite answers. Yes, I'm busy. No, I don't sleep enough. For those who are starting out in the online learning environment I offer help if they need any. For the one that just got engaged and the one that is about to have a baby-congratulations.
     Here are the questions that I don't know how to answer. "How are you able to take three classes? I'm still trying to finish the two that I took!" and "How to you juggle all of the kids, household stuff and classes? I only have one kid & one class and can barely do it!" Now, I'm flattered. But human, not superhuman as implied. Should I have said "I can do everything better than you - clearly - since you didn't even finish two of the same three that I finished last semester. Or maybe "You know, it's easy. I'm brilliant." It's just a weird feeling. So I'm here to set the record straight.
I make trade-offs. I don't go to sleep when I should. I missed most of Christmas - either because I was working on school or because I was in a fog from working on school. My house went to hell several times. I screamed at people a couple of times when I shouldn't have. And a couple of times when they totally deserved it. The kids ate more cereal than ever for dinner during the last month or so. Unlike other "good" moms that I know, my poor neglected kids had to make their own lunches for school and tend their little brother.
Most importantly, I had some other grown ups who knew that I was going to loose my mind step in and deal with things that I couldn't do. I know a Mom who has a lot of kids who gets up at 4am every day and makes seven lunches for her kids. I know a Mom who homeschools 5 kids and has been homeschooling for 13 years. I know a Mom who does everything with her kids because her husband works a million hours a week. I know PTC presidents, soccer team managers, working moms, stay at home moms, divorced moms, single moms. Every single one of us does something that the rest of us look at as a WOW. And every single one of us has something that we just CAN'T handle. The cool thing is that we don't all have the same WOW abilities or the same CAN'Ts. We get to have a circle of friends and family to fill in the gaps. And it's a darn good thing because I'm really not a superwoman- no matter what the rumors say.