WORRY....Something all parents know about !

 

Is there a magic cutoff period when   Offspring become  accountable for their own actions?  Is there a  wonderful moment when parents can become detached spectators in The lives of their children and shrug, 'It's their life,' and feel nothing?    When  I was in my twenties, I stood in  a hospital corridor waiting for doctors to put a few Stitches in my daughter's  head.  I asked, 'When do you stop worrying?'  The nurse said, 'When they get out of the accident stage.'  My Dad just smiled faintly and said nothing.   When I was in my thirties, I sat on a  little chair in a classroom and  heard how one of my children talked  incessantly, disrupted the class, and was headed for a  career making license plates.   As if to read my mind, a teacher said, 'Don't worry, they  all go through this stage and then you can  sit back, relax and enjoy them.'  My dad  just smiled faintly and said  nothing.   When I was in my forties, I spent a  lifetime waiting for the phone to ring, the cars to come home, the front door to open.  A friend said, 'they're trying to find  themselves.  Don't worry, in a few years, you can  stop worrying.  They'll be adults.'  My dad just smiled faintly and said nothing.   By the time I was 50, I was sick &  tired of being vulnerable.  I was still worrying over my children, but there was a new wrinkle.  There was nothing I could do about it.  My Dad just smiled faintly  and said nothing.  I continued to anguish over their failures, be tormented by their frustrations and absorbed in their  disappointments.   My friends said that when my kids got married I could  stop worrying and lead my own life.  I wanted to  believe that, but I was haunted by my dad's warm  smile and his occasional, 'You look  pale.  Are you all right?   Call me the minute you get  home.  Are You depressed about something?'    Can it be that parents are sentenced to a   lifetime of worry?   Is concern for one another handed down like a torch to blaze the trail of human frailties and the fears of the unknown?  Is concern a curse or is it a virtue that elevates us to the highest form of life?    One of my children became quite irritable   recently, saying to me,  'Where were you?  I've been calling for 3 days, and no one answered I was worried.' I smiled a warm smile.    The torch has been  passed.   PASS IT ON  TO OTHER WONDERFUL  PARENTS (And also to your children.   That's the fun) .

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