Weyburn's Robyn Vilcu is taking part in a Super Mom competition, with the proceeds for additional votes going to the Childrens' Miracle Network.

Winning the Super Mom title would mean a $20,000 prize, a trip, and her picture on the cover of a magazine.

Within her blended family, she has a total of six children, and seven grandchildren.

"Since marrying my husband two years ago, I've acquired more kids, so I'd only had the two, and two was great for me. I never really wanted any more. Then I added two more of his kids, and then I added a third one, his stepdaughter from his first marriage, and then we had one together. So we have a lot of kids, which takes up a lot of your time, as you can imagine. Even one child takes up a lot of your time, and money." 

Needless to say, life is busy for Vilcu. With her youngest child turning seven this year, and working with the family's karate club, including competing, she said she entered the contest to push herself further out of her comfort zone.

"Normally I try and stay low key," she noted. "But I've turned into a different person, and I'm out of my comfort zone now, so I figure, well, why not try in this contest? I can be a super mom. I have the chance of becoming a super mom. In my head I'm thinking probably not, it won't happen, because things like that just don't happen to me. But at the same time, it's like, you know what? There's a chance that I could actually go all the way with this, you know? So that's what I'm going for."

Vote HERE.

She said she's asking the community to help out with votes and support a Weyburn mom they may not even know personally.

"There's nothing really super and special about me. Moms are all over the place and they all have super qualities in their own lives, right? Everybody is different. Every mother is different. Every life is different. Every environment is different. Like, if I go to your house I'm going to see something totally different and a schedule totally different than my own, so you can't really judge. You can't really compare, because it's all different. So there's really nothing you can pinpoint in my life that says I'm better than another mother. I think all mothers actually deserve to be known as a super mom."

Vilcu shared that she was motivated to compete so she could also help get some funds raised for the Childrens' Miracle Network. While singular votes are free daily, the fundraiser side is for when supporters choose to pay to add more votes.

She says she can't imagine her life without all of her kids.

"Every kid is different. Every child is different. Their needs are different. You almost have to have a whole bunch of different personalities in your brain to deal with each different kid, right?"

"Being a blended family, I took it as it is. I'm not there to replace their mom. I even told them, 'I don't you don't have to call me Mom. I don't expect you to call me Mom. I'm not your Mom'. But from the beginning when I met Isaac, I did tell them, 'I am a mother figure. I'm a parental figure, and I do have to look out for you and raise you guys'. So we had to set the house rules." 

She said their home is traffic central. "So we have both families and friends that come to this house and leave and come and go, and that's my life."

Vilcu said the times have changed, and children now are generally less independent than their Gen-X parents, as well as more resourceful given the technology available to them.

"That's where the difference is. When we grew up, it was like, 'figure it out on your own', but now it's like you've literally held their hand through everything, and because of that, they've looked into more of their emotions and they've looked more into the arts, and their interests. They can speak more of who they want to be. Then there was us, like, 'you just get a job and pay for the bills'."

She said she doesn't push her kids out of the nest, rather preferring they gain stability and save money before going out on their own.

"To me, it's a blessing to be a mom. I wouldn't be able to think of my life without my kids, you know? I know sometimes it's really hard, at times where it's like you just want to rip your hair out and run away. But at the same time, it's like that's with anybody's children. That's the similarity with kids and raising them as mothers. You're going to go through hard times with your children, especially the teenage age, is it's probably the hardest because that's when they're deciding who they are, what they want to do, where they and their hormones are all over the place. So everything's very up and down, up and down. And it's really hard to kind of rein that in and let go of your duty as a mom. At the teenage age, and the young adult age, you're coming to realize that you do have to let go eventually and let them leave the nest, and hope they don't die." 

Common interests are what brought her blended family together, as Vilcu was always interested in martial arts, which she said is not just a sport to their family, but a lifestyle.

"I'm not only just a karate mom, a karate wife, my whole life is based around karate and it's not something that I'm going to grow out of eventually. Isaac teaches the class here in Weyburn and in Estevan, so it's something I can't even move from Weyburn, I'm literally stuck here forever, so I might as well make the most of it."

She said having such a big family, aside from time and money, it requires a lot of patience. However, she always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, so now she is living her dream, yet still working for herself to help out with the household finances and showing her kids that they can be anything they want to be.

"I tell them, 'you go ahead'. But you can't just say, 'I want to do this' and think it's going to happen. You actually have to set your goals and figure out what you have to do to reach them. So it takes a lot of work."

While hard work is encouraged, Vilcu strongly believes you should love what you do. 

"That's the whole point of living, right? It's not to work nine to five at a miserable job just to make ends meet. It's about doing what you love, what you're passionate about," she explained. "I'm passionate about taking care of kids right now, and someday I'm sure it will change and I'll be passionate about something else. I'm passionate about martial arts, it's always been a passion of mine. I'm with who I'm with because it just goes with what I love." 

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