Last night my ten year old asked me what is my biggest worry and I had to think for a minute before responding. Hmmm, how could I choose from the never-ending anxiety list that keeps me up at night? Do I select a general everyday worry, an overarching life worry, or the future worry like my 11 year old being 17 and driving? As a professional worrier, the possibilities were endless, but I finally decided the most PC answer was, “You kids or daddy getting hurt” to which he replied, “Mine is broccoli.”

Wow, to have broccoli as your biggest fear. Can we just sit on that for a moment? At first I inwardly giggled, but after thinking about it further I was #1 envious of him, and #2 happy that after the bizarre life we have been living since March broccoli still made it to the top of the worry list.

During the past few months we could have instilled fear about Covid, dying, germs, or a litany of other stressors that we have faced like our jobs, money, making sure we had enough food, and having products that make our home run as normal. As we were scrambling behind the scenes to make sure life was running “per usual” for the Volpe clan we have tried to keep worrying out of the equation for them. They know things aren’t great, but in general they are blissfully unaware, which makes them more lucky than they will ever know, as there are many children in very different circumstances who know each and every worry listed above.

I feel like life has been a roller coaster these past 4 months, and not the good kind…more like the kind you get off of and your head is spinning and you need a soda to regroup (yes I know planner for vacations that include amusement parks and gets sick on rides, the irony is not lost on me). Anyway, back to the issue at hand… the stress of having our lives disrupted in such a unprecedented way has left me feeling totally disjointed. I’m up, I’m down, I’m happy, I’m sad, I’m grateful, I’m frustrated…. the list goes on and on.

As the future of just about everything is totally uncertain I am trying to live in the moment and be happy for our health and time spent together. I have daily guilt about not working enough, not being present enough, not taking advantage of this time enough, not being “enough.” It’s hard to slow it down when your usual speed is 100 miles an hour and you thrive on being busy and chaotic.

My hope is that we can continue to stay the winding course and when I doubt my parenting skills, as we all do, I’ll think about this conversation and be hopeful that “broccoli” continues to be the biggest worry.

by Ellen Volpe – Co-Owner of ET Family Travel