Neurotic Mom

First let me start out by saying that I looked up the word neurotic in my Thesaurus just to make sure I'm using it properly. Emotionally disturbed, irrational, paranoid, anxious, obsessive, compulsive.....Yep, that about covers it.

My daughter is 17 and has had her driver's license for 4 months. I make her call me from her cell phone every morning to let me know she got to school OK. Well, this morning, she didn't call. I tried to call her, but her phone was off. I called one of her friends and left a voice mail for her to call me. I called another of her friends, and asked him to have her call me. A couple of hours went by, and in that time I imagined that she had run out of gas, and was abducted while walking to the gas station. Isn't this why I gave her a cell phone, so she could call me if she needed help? What if something happened to her and she can't get to her phone? What if the abductor had taken it from her? What if she was in an accident and the police didn't find her emergency contact information? What if she decided to run away? Why would she run away- don't we have a good relationship? It isn't about some boy, is it? Shouldn't she have gotten the message to call me by now?

Finally, I called the school attendance office. She was marked down as present and on time for home room. Whew!

Neurotic? I totally cop to that. The by-product of my incredibly fertile imagination? Possibly. The result of me being totally in love with my kids? Definitely.

When my kids were little I used to think that when they were older I could stop worrying so much. Now I just worry about different stuff. But I love that saying, Parents give their kids roots and wings. I know their roots are strong. I know their wings will be strong. Maybe that is my biggest fear, knowing that in the not so distant future, they will fly. I will be happy, and I will be sad. But I will have done my job.

As for today, I am glad my daughter is safely at school. And she has a totally neurotic mom to come home to.