What is your thing?

I was trying to think of something to blog about today.

The cold and cabin fever have sucked all original thoughts out of my head. I was going to post about which toys from the recent birthday and Christmas are most loved at this point (which I will still do, because maybe you are looking for ideas), then I came across this post on Clover Lane. It really resonated with me, as I find that I am probably the Mom who has not one 'thing', but many 'things'.

I've come to the conclusion about mothers and safety issues.

Every mother has their 'thing'.

What I mean is that every mother has their one thing that they are incredibly cautious, anxiety-ridden and guideline consulting, rule-book-following-to-a-tee about.

(My safety issue? I cannot for the life of me relax around water. I hate pools and oceans and lakes. I love them really, but I hate them if I have a kid who cannot swim like a fish. When I leave a body of water after an hour or two, I am completely wasted and drained of the mental (and sometimes physical) energy it takes to make sure everyone stays afloat.)

For some mom's it's choking. They cut all food into miniscule pieces for years.

For other's it's carseats. These mother's can recite the ever-changing guidelines verbatim.

For other's it's the whole stranger-danger thing. No monogrammed backpacks for their kids.

If I told a carseat mom that I have taken screaming infants out of carseats to breastfeed in the backseat on a long trip, I'd be in for it.

But if I heard that mom talk about her sitter took the kids to the pool, I'd be thinking the same thoughts in my head she just thought about me.

Remember when we were young and we ran around the neighborhood all day, ice skated on untested waters, learned to swim with no lessons, bounced around in the backseat like fools? I can attest that my mother NEVER cut a grape into quarters.

What did they worry about back then? I'll have to ask.
(original post here)

How do you get over that? Should you get over that? This TIME article on Overparenting has also got me thinking .... I don't want to be a 'helicopter' parent, and I hope that I choose sanity and sense over hysteria. (The fact that I have a mom-blog probably speaks to the contrary). Regardless, I feel like there are things I did as a child that I would never let my child(ren) do. I grew up, and still live, in one of the wealthiest counties in America with some of the best public schools.

What am I so scared about?