Worry Wart

I don't think there's enough Compound W in the world to get rid of the worry warts in my family. I blame myself (in part) for Carter being a class A worry wart. But I only go with what I know and that's what I saw when I was growing up, too!

Unfortunately, it did not skip a generation.

It would be nice if I would have found a happy medium between my dad, who still doesn't worry much about anything (a.k.a. Ignore it and it will go away), and my mom, who tended to worry about everything under the sun even though most of it was beyond her control. But no, I found no happy medium. Instead, I fret about things I can't control and apologize for them, too, if they make someone unhappy or somehow disappointed.

Not good.

And yet I register a bit of surprise occasionally when Carter is worrying about something completely unnecessary to give a second thought. (I'm not very bright sometimes.)

So Carter has been a bit nervous about the return to school and going to Mass there each week. Based on his faint history, er history of fainting, last year, I can't blame him. But really, there were only a few incidents and the rest of the school year was fine.

Still, he was talking about it last night... and the night before ... and the night before. I'm not kidding. He's been building up this major fret, leading up to the first Mass of the school year today.

You can't imagine how relieved I was at work each time I answered the phone today and it wasn't him or a school official saying he'd passed out on the bleachers or something. When school officially let out, I was relieved he'd survived.

And frankly, he was, too. And a big embarrassed that he even gave it a second thought -- let alone third and fourth thoughts.

I'm glad he had nothing to worry about. But I know this won't stop him the next time.

I wish I did, but I haven't found a way to break the cycle. Maybe I'll give that Compound W a try after all...