Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Parenting Worry Then and Now
I worried about a lot of things when my kids were little but I never worried about them getting shot at school.
I worried they wouldn’t learn to read quick enough. I worried they might act nutty in class. I worried about them not having friends, about having too many friends. In our unique family’s case, I worried about three of them being Nicaraguan people raised in a white Anglo family.
My days were dawn to dusk worrying about one thing or another. Oh, there was a lot of joy thrown in but the overarching theme of my time as a mother of young children was worry.
What a delicate little flower I was.
If I was a mother of young children now, I’d crack.
So, I am in awe of mothers (and fathers) who soldier on, pack their kids’ lunches with the 1200th peanut butter and jelly sandwich, drive to CVS at 9 o’clock to get poster board for their science project due the next day, pick them up from after-school sports after the coach chewed them out for not trying hard enough, eat a late scrambled eggs dinner around the dining room table, and tuck them into bed, talking about the day’s victories and plans for the weekend all while an undetonated nuclear bomb is hidden in the bushes across the street. What you are doing is a whole new stratosphere of parenting and role modeling.
Resilience. Your kids probably have no idea what a load you’re carrying around. But I do. And it’s incredible.
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Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash
8 Comments on “Parenting Worry Then and Now”
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Can’t send PB&J any more. And hot lunches include only 3 chicken nuggets. I don’t know how moms manage,
Well said, Jan. It’s sure a different world and not great in way too many respects. So much to worry about!
I live in a dangerous country, with hair raising crime stats. But the scourge of school shootings has not hit our shores. May it never do so. Sympathy for all concerned in the US.
I applaud them all. it is very hard on every one in the equation, and as a teacher of young children all of this is on my mind each and every day. keeping them safe is always in my thoughts and it makes me sad, that this is even something always with me
I remember as a child being taught to look for houses, or even small businesses that had a bright hand in the window- the Helping Hand. We knew if we were in trouble those were safe places and people, at least that is what we were told. My kids, who are now in their thirties experienced admonitions like “Stranger Danger”. It seems that now, no matter how much a parent wants to keep a child safe, or even if there are those willing to help, there is no safety, no place or person to run to, no guarantee that when you kiss your kid goodbye at drop off that they won’t end up dead at school breakfast.
I truly can’t imagine the stress level.
I would seriously consider homeschooling as an option if it was at all feasible.
Amen