Agree. I like the perspective that comes with age. I can pretty much guarantee, based on past results, that whatever I am worrying about today will be better in 6 months.
I think the brain needs problems to solve. I find that my mind can be filled with little worries, and then when a big one comes around, it pushes all those little ones aside. When the big one goes away, smaller ones come back again. Perhaps it’s that there are always plenty of things to worry about, and our brain needs to be filled with them, no matter what we do. It’s the people that manage to not let those worries stress them to death that survive the longest.
Sometimes I’m thinking about something really trivial, hear about what someone else is dealing with—and wonder why I’m bothering to worry about something that is minor, and that I really can’t do anything about, anyways!
I hope your son gets the job he wants very soon, rockvillemom. However, as the sequence of things seem to go, does that mean you will then be laid off?? 
One of the rare examples of an old thread being resurrected and it’s OK.
Glad to hear things worked out for you personally, @rockvillemom and best wishes for your son. I know what you mean for sure. It took a little while for my son to find the right thing after law school, what with this terrible market for lawyers. But in the end my hopes that his combination of Russian expertise and the law degree would help him turned out to be correct, as he is now doing law in immigration issues.
Now if the Feds would only hurry up and complete their security clearance for my D so she could finalize her plans to be with the Department of State in Taipei this summer. One would have thought it would have been so fast since she was cleared last summer when she worked for them in DC and has only attended Stanford in the interim. But no, it still takes forever. Oh well, maybe she will tell me it is done when I talk to her this afternoon. As you say, it is always something, especially when we are still concerned about our kids. People that have 4+ kids must have to adopt a different attitude just out of survival necessity!
Always a possibility, lol.
And you are so right busdriver11 about hearing what someone else is dealing with. boysx3 commented on this thread 2 years ago. She has had a very difficult time with a life changing medical situation since last September. Anything I am worrying about pales beside her challenges and reminds me to count my blessings.
“Oh well, maybe she will tell me it is done when I talk to her this afternoon. As you say, it is always something, especially when we are still concerned about our kids. People that have 4+ kids must have to adopt a different attitude just out of survival necessity!”
I hope it’s done soon. But hoping the Feds hurry up and get something done sounds like a futile hope!
I often wonder how people with so many kids manage. Just having a few is worry enough, and if you have more, there are so many more potential problems to worry about. If you also have many siblings, how do you cope? I only have one, and I’m always thinking about her problems and trying to help. But I think with elderly parents, you just can’t spend too much time worrying. They are going to get sick, memory problems, and then they are going to die. That seems to always be the sequence of things, so when it starts happening, you just have to brace yourself for it. I think you would go nuts if you worried about every little thing with them, because that is the natural course of life.
Sorry to hear about the job loss rvm.
Very recently I told a good friend that when my kids were younger and it was a lot of physical care involved I thought that once I got to this stage life would be easy! Ha!
Sounds like you rebounded pretty quickly with a new job @rockvillemom. Glad to hear it.
The college process during the last year took so much out of me that even minor annoyances seem to get under my skin. Thought I would feel relief once D was settled, but I am now scheduling college visits for my S this summer. The whole merry-go-round is back in action and it exhausts me. Feel like finding a desert island somewhere and reclining for the summer with a stack of books and a lot of cocktails!
I am always referring to my job as whack-a-mole! Although as an attorney I guess I should be glad they keep popping up, else I wouldn’t HAVE a job. But when 2 or 3 pop up at once, it’s just like the game, it’s hard to get them all in time. (I love the game, by the way - it’s my favorite carnival game!)
I know I’m goi g to jinx something, but right now, things outside of work are actually fairly calm. DS is doing fine, things are set for the summer, family is fine, money is ok, getting ready to go back to an old hobby (playing the bass) and take up a new one (diving).
Of course, there are SO many things that could go wrong, it’s only a matter of time.
Although I am not glad to hear that so many of you are going through one thing after another, I am so glad to hear that I am not alone. I feel like, although I am blessed, the last 7 1/2 years have been one very difficult thing after another. There have been mental and emotional breakdowns, arrests, sickness and death, dealing with very difficult executrix issues, divorce after 30 years with financial devastation and loss of jobs. This is just within my immediate family. Three children, a husband and one sister.
Every time in feel no anxiety, another mole rises!
Wack-a-mole is my job. It was my job plus my homelife when the boy were little.
I’m sorry about your lay off. Awful. It’s certainly worrisome when one is of a “certain age”.
@VaBluebird - my layoff was 2 years ago - when I started this thread. I’m happily employed, at the moment. It is my 24-year-old son who recently lost his job. And frankly, job loss/change is not the end of the world and I know it. When I see what other families are contending with - my worries seem trivial.
Wow Morrismm, sending you extra whack a mole hammers …lots of them.
Wow, morrismm needs more than just a few mallets… She needs:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CgztUzqaL3E
In 2012, I felt like I really needed one!
^^morrismm: My life is just like yours but worse, if you can imagine that. I come on cc just to escape my everyday problems and it’s my time to relax and not worry for those few moments I’m looking or responding to different threads. I realize that there is much that is not in my control, but gheez, can’t I have a break at all? Going on 13 years of extremely stressful times, did I mention stressful?! I feel like I’m on a roller coaster ride that won’t slow down, and worse, I don’t see the top anywhere soon. It is a domino effect, and by opening up one can of worms, it becomes unmanageable. Whack-a-mole is a perfect description. I’m waiting for the proverbial ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’ to appear.
Oh yes, Bunsen, the Rodenator!! That would do the job. I’d like to send Arnold over to chocchipcookie’s house to take care of those moles. I hope that morrismm and chocchipcookie are finding things to do for themselves that help relieve the stress and keep them healthy. I’ve seen too many people get sucked up into the stress of the things that are happening to them and their loved ones, and develop serious health issues. Their families end up just fine, but they end up having a heart attack.
Sometimes you just can’t do anything to help someone. But you have to keep yourself healthy. Stress is deadly. So please find ways to enjoy your life and lower your stress level, no matter what happens!
I agree with post #55, I have stressful things happened in my life in the last 10 years and I get regular massage to reduce stress. That plus gardening makes life seem so rosy. When I got sick, that was not caused by stress, my kids were worried. I had a motivational speaker came to my work place and he said problems always find you.
^^Thanks, guys. I definitely need to find a way to channel that stress. Unfortunately it’s permeated my body in the form of breast cancer (6 years ago), heart palpitations, anxiety, depression, body aches, back, neck, shoulder aches, etc. I don’t do enough exercise to relieve some of the stress. morrismm: any advice to reduce stress? Didn’t mean to high jack the thread, I just know what it’s like to live with ridiculous amounts of stress…wish we could see the upside of the roller coaster for awhile! BB: The Rodenator needs to circulate to each of us and then we can pass it along…!
No help from chocolate chip cookies? Just kidding. I tend to eat my way through stress.
I find having someone to listen to you - allow you to voice your worries - without trying to minimize them or solve them is helpful. Sometimes just venting is what you need most.
I was also advised once to let the worry scenario play out in my head - what if the worst case happened? What would you do then? How would you cope? All the while realizing that it is unlikely that the worst case scenario will actually materialize.
And I still really like this comment from @Classof2015 from 2 years ago:
It’s probably unrealistic to expect simultaneous perfection in all of these different spheres of life. I’m thinking it is healthier mentally to accept and expect some spheres to be off kilter at any given time.