Mom Worry!

Ugh. I fell into the trap again tonight. I haven't done the mom worry since the last hospital visit Ian had to make. (That is one heck of a story I will tell sometime, but not today. P. S.: He is fine). Nope, this particular mom worry was over my daughter's little mouse. You see, Dorito—yes that's his name—has never been an active little fellow, but I love him all the same. He is a sweet boy with a good disposition. He spends most of his time sleeping, or hanging out on Emmy. But tonight when she got him out of the cage, she commented that his tiny ears were cold. Yup. Cold ears. folks, that was enough to pet him, worry, add more bedding, worry, check his food and water, worry. Google mouse colds! The mom worry went on for a solid twenty minutes.

I realized that after the "great mouse worry of 2018" that mom worry is a real and distracting experience. It starts that first full day you have kids. You checked breathing patterns. Up, down, up down, and heaven forbid they do that little "shudder" sigh, forget it. Then you do a little jiggle to make sure they are okay and they get annoyed. After the first day, it escalates quickly. "Are they eating enough?" "Hitting developmental milestones?" "Dressed warmly?" "Have they pooped lately?" Pooping is a big mom thing. If you have a young kid with a stomach ache, the first words out of your mouth are, "When's the last time you pooped?" Men, don't question it. Just roll with it if you hear a mom say it to their kid. Your life will be easier.

Then there's the stupid worry stuff. "Did they put socks on?" "Their feet will get cold. Then they will have to go all day with cold feet." "Did they brush their teeth?" "Crap, they didn't!" "Okay, make double sure they get brushed tonight." It goes on, and on, and on. As they grow, you still have the mom worry. It just changes its spots. Subjects that receive your worry change. And it may not be as often the older your kids get. But then, you freak over mouse ears. Okay, so now what? I mean the worrying does no good. Plus, with some things, it's not our job to worry over them. Trust me. When your kid looks at you like you have two heads because you are Inspector Clouseau listing off mouse symptoms, step away from Google!!

Kids need to grow up eventually. And part of that growing up experience is learning to handle their share of worrying over stuff that is their responsibility. I'm not saying that if Em needed me, I wouldn't help. I'm saying that it's her pet, in this instance, and she needs to watch him and let us know if we need to do anything further. It will build the trust that all relationships need to thrive. Plus, mom worry is tiring!!! And unproductive! It gets you nowhere, except spinning your wheels. Oh, and just to let you know, the normal, everyday worrying never stops, but it's usually white noise in the base of my skull, easily ignored until it becomes an actual worry or an over blown mom worry that must include when I hear about cold mouse ears apparently.

So good luck, ladies! Be it new, experienced, or expecting moms. I hope that the mom worry doesn't get you down, because the truth is: we can't control everything and worry makes that blatantly obvious! Your kids will be fine, even if they get cold feet or a cavity. Those are called good learning lessons, for mom and kid.