I’ve finally realized that worrying about our children is just something we parents do.

When they’re still in the womb, we worry about them.

When they’re newborns, we worry about them.

When they start to school, we worry.

When they start going out in cars, we worry even more.

And when they go off to college, as our only child did this year in a city 500 miles away, the worries get even bigger.

When she flies home we worry. When she flies back to school we worry.

When she rides the subway we worry.

When she comes home and drives to a city 70 miles away, after having not driven for a few weeks, we worry.

We worry about her first serious relationship with a member of the opposite sex. We like him a lot. But we worry about her heart being broken or the concept that he could be “The One!”

If and when she ever gets married or has children, we’ll worry about her pregnancy.

And then, when babies are born, the worry cycle starts all over again.

But then she will begin the parental worry cycle, too.

I guess our parents and grandparents went through the same thing. Didn’t they?