Our Parents Didn’t Worry This Much

A couple of days ago I was on the phone with my best friend. Let’s just call her Gwen because that’s her name.

Gwen has 6-year-old triplets while I just have the one 6-year-old (who feels like triplets) so naturally, the conversation turned to our kids. We talked about the funny/cute things our kids were doing, moved on to the ridiculous and annoying, and ended up where we always do: in the land of worry. It’s is here that each of us takes turns detailing the questionable child behaviors and parenting challenges that keep us up at night. As we pound out each worry of our super-secret mental list, we pause in the hope of a reassuring answer on the other end of the phone.

“Why do we worry so much about everything?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I know my mom didn’t worry like this!” she said.

“Pfft. Mine either. She worked full-time and never obsessed about every little thing I was doing. She was a great mom, but she didn’t stay up nights worrying about my math grade.”

When we got off the phone I let that thought sink in a while longer. [read more…]