She's got a tough job that no one-size-fits-all approach can handle. In fact, individual technique can say a lot about you and your "mothering" style. Want to see how you stack up against other mothers?  Take the test below and then check your score.   

1. It's 3 a.m. and you awake in a panic. You've just remembered your daughter volunteered to bring food to her school party that morning. A quick check turns up toothpicks, ketchup, maraschino cherries, pickles, lettuce, beets and a couple of half-empty boxes of cereal. You :

 a) Would never have this problem because you've already made a healthy fruit and yogurt pizza to take to the party

 b) Get up early enough to make a bakery run and buy $30 worth of cupcakes

 c) Stick the toothpicks in the cherries and pickles, put them on a bed of lettuce and call it hors d'oeuvres.

2. You find your four-year-old's missing peanut butter sandwich and by the time you change, you're late for his preschool interview. On the road you notice he's beginning to look a lot like Groucho Marx. Closer investigation reveals a chocolate milk mustache. There's no time to return home. You:

 a) Whip out one of those little wet towelettes you carry just for moments like this

 b) Go through the drive-through of the closest hamburger stand, order a clear   beverage and ask for a napkin, dip the napkin in the drink and clean your son's   face

 c) Lick your finger and use it to delete the mustache

3. At 7 p.m. your fourth grader announces she has a science project due tomorrow. This is the first you've heard of it. You:

 a)  Aren't worried because she's incredibly mature and has quietly been building a working laser in your basement for the past two months 

 b) Run to an all-night discount store, buy a book called "101 E-Z Science Projects",   find one that requires only four items to construct and sit up all night trying to make it work

 c) Fill a shoebox with dirt and earthworms from your backyard, chunk in one of your son's sneakers, and call it composting

4. Your pre-teen decides to have his eyebrows pierced. You

 a) Calmly remind him no president of the United States or astronaut has sported metal eyebrows and he sensibly changes his mind

 b) Take away his allowance and lock him in his bedroom until he safely passes through this phase

 c) Grab the hole punch and tell him it's OK, but only if you can do it yourself

5. Your teenager's room was last cleaned when the Borgia family was in business. You

 a) Put "War and Peace" back on the bookshelf, dust and plump up his pillows -- he's such a neatnik, it barely needs touching

 b) Crawl under the bed to retrieve the petrified French fires, fill a gigantic trash bag   with old school papers, socks with no mates and candy bar wrappers, and empty the vacuum cleaner bag twice before you finish

 c) Don gas mask, hip waders and rubber apron, open the door and throw in a SWAT team -- ignore their cries for help

 6. After spending enough on a dress and shoes to finance Spielberg's latest movie, your daughter has a fight with her date and refuses to go to the prom with him. You:

 a) Allow her to invite her former boyfriend, who's home visiting during a break in his classes at Harvard Medical School

 b) Put the tags back on the dress and try to make it back to the mall for a refund   before closing time

 c) Order a pizza and persuade the delivery guy to trade cars  with you and take her to the prom while you finish his route

7. Your children are rolling around on the floor, locked in mortal combat. You:

 a) Do nothing since they're practicing for the state Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships

 b) Wade in, pull them apart and hysterically announce that you can't take another minute of their quarreling and if mothers could run away from home, you'd be history

 c) Consider it an excellent opportunity to take a nap and do precisely that

8. Your kids want a new breakfast cereal they've seen advertised on their favorite cartoon show. You buy it and they love it. When it goes on sale, you stock up. You now have enough cereal to last until they graduate from high school. One week later they make gagging sounds when you serve it and tell you they "hate that stuff". You

 a) Are thrilled they've realized it's not very nutritional and donate the rest to a local charity

 b) Give them the "people are starving all over the world" speech and make them eat it anyway

 c) Find new and inventive ways to use it, such as in salads in place of croutons or    mixed with celery and onions and stuffed inside a turkey, as replacement pieces   for board games, bagged and given away as party favors and glued into the shape of  famous statuary -- the granola version of The Thinker is particularly attractive.

 SCORING: For each (a) answer give yourself  0 points. For each (b) answer score one point. Each (c) counts as five points.

Score of 0-5:   Your children will grow up to appear on the covers of magazines.   You are much too good to be true. Go away. Or at least promise you'll never move next door to the rest of us.

Score  of 6-20: Your hair is prematurely gray . You haven't read       a good book (unless you count Dr. Seuss) in years. Take heart: you     are the average mom. Your numbers are legion.

Score higher than 20: Other mothers are slightly afraid of you, but live in awe of your gift for removing ketchup stains and tattoos; however, not many would ask you to babysit for them. Your children will also grace the covers of  national magazines, but for entirely different reasons.