Like mother, like daughter...

My daughter worries. As for me, I have to admit I am exactly the same. I have just learned to control it. People who know me well say I am not happy unless I have something to worry about. In fact it's true that after something big has passed that I have invested time worrying about, I do feel almost bereft afterwards, a little lost. Relieved yes, but (this sounds completely bizarre) a bit lonesome once my worry has left me.

Back to my daughter; a few years ago when she was about seven, my stepmother died suddenly of bowel cancer. This was the first time that my daughter had really ever entertained the prospect that people die. As in people we knew; people we loved. It sent her into a complete spin and for a few months that summer, I had a dose of proper parental worry. Not the kind where you think you know a way to fix it, but the kind where you really have no clue how to fix it. How do you give your seven year old their peace of mind back? Over time of course, she got better, she learned to deal with the prospect of loosing people and the rawness of that particular loss faded; for her atleast.

Now she and I, we rub along in the same way. Worrying day to day about some little things and some big. But this week we both have some bigger worries. She has a residential school trip where she will spend two nights away. I have finally (I think) got to the bottom of the tooth ache problem; it's my wisdom tooth and it has got to come out, err as in be forcibly removed from my mouth - ouch. Now, I am an adult, I understand that worrying about these two eventualities is futile. It won't make my bad tooth heal and it won't lessen the trauma of that first time away from home for an home-loving child. But still.

The thing to do is to think: this time next week it will all be done. So we shall be counting down til then...when we might be worry-free again...