I worry. I’m a worrier. I used to worry about my children. I still do but not as much.
They’re all almost grown and I don’t see them much. Their careers have taken them far and wide. My youngest is 18 and ready to fly the coop in a couple of weeks – off to Wyoming. I still worry about him but it’s becoming less and less.

Now I worry about my littles.
Over this past, horrible week, I’ve felt some relief knowing that my youngest child will soon be exiting the walls of high school, forever. He’s done. That chapter is finished. No more worries about sending him off to high school and then seeing a news flash that there’s a shooter there. I won’t have to worry about that anymore.

Wait a minute. My oldest little is turning 3 in a few weeks. That means that within a two years, he’ll enter public school. I’m sure his parents are already worrying about that.

But grandmas REALLY worry. Maybe it’s because we have less control over situations with our grandchildren. We can’t rescue them like we could our own children. We can’t make important decisions for them.
Grandmas just watch from the sidelines – and hope and pray that they will be safe. That’s all we’ve got.

My littles are going to grow up in a world much crazier than the world this momma is about to leave behind. That makes me worry.
I don’t have answers to the world’s problems. I don’t hate guns. Some of my children are very responsible gun owners. They are good people who have learned about guns, know how to use them and keep their guns safely secured with a number of systems I don’t understand. If they want guns, they should have guns.

My diet of donuts and chocolate and french fries is more likely to kill me than a gun will.

Still, I worry. I worry about crazy people who go into schools, or malls, or stadiums, or hotel rooms – that want to hurt my littles. Maybe I worry because I was involved in a terrorist event a while back – The Boston Marathon Bombing. I’ve seen what evil can do. I was there. I was running. Oh – and there were NO guns.
I’m tired of hearing the fighting and bickering – with no solution. “It’s Trumps fault”. “It’s the NRA’s fault”. “It’s the FBI’s fault”.
Whatever, people. I don’t care whose “fault” it is. Unless you have a real solution – keep your DAMN mouth shut and quit pointing fingers.

I don’t know the answer. I don’t have a solution. This is not an easy problem to solve. Parents and siblings and friends are grieving. Grandparents are grieving. The blaming and pointing fingers aren’t helping them in their grief.
Can’t we all just get along and quit being so nasty? No wonder people are crazy enough to shoot children. We have such great role models of decency and respect – in our faces – everyday (that was sarcasm). Try a little kindness. Be a little more thoughtful.
This country needs a momma-grandma-bear to put everyone in time-out. Then maybe she can stop worrying.
Life is one worry after another. We just need to try to handle them better and never stop living… Loved your post! x
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Truth. Life is too good to let evil win.
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Love your post! Your articulated my worries so well. Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you and you’re welcome.
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Love your post. I worry too, but that doesn’t do anything. I had a discussion this week with my teens about the events in Florida and we just talked about what the issues are. And it’s more complicated than guns and violence we decided. I have one teen almost done with high school and one more in 9th grade and sending him off to school gets harder to do. I can barely imagine what my grandkids will experience in the years ahead. Prayers go out everyday to keep my kids and grandkids safe until they are back at Grandma’s house.
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You’re right – worrying accomplishes nothing. Being aware and having open/civil conversations is so important.
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Worrying just seems to go hand-in-hand with being a mom and a grandma. As much as we tell ourselves worry does no good, we still worry. I pray a lot. And I’m also there to support and encourage. I can’t make choices for my grown children and it’s difficult to watch them struggle sometimes and face difficult challenges. But they know I am always here for them and that I love them. And now I’m sharing that love with my sweet granddaughter.
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I love this. You are a good mom and grandma.
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