The First Call

The first phone call of the day usually sets the tone. When the phone rang early in the morning and informed me my daughter, who is several states away, would be undergoing surgery, I could tell it was not going to be a highly productive days. She was in the hospital but several of her friends, coaches, and teammates were with her.

Three hours later, I was called again and told everything was okay. Normally I think a vivid imagination is a good thing but not when my kids are having trouble. My imagination had a lot of things happening in those three, long, hours. Fortunately, everything went better than I had envisioned. Even though she did have some good friends with her, as a parent you worry – a lot. Long distant parenting is hard.

No matter how old your kids are, parenting has its rewards. No matter how old your kids are it also has difficult, anxious moments . . . whether it’s the first phone call of the day or not.