Out of sight out of mind?

Our son recently came home for the holiday weekend and after being at school for a couple months on his own. He’s definitely matured and become a young man, but as he walked in the front door it didn’t matter- my boy was home.
I was amazed myself at how quickly I fell back into the “mommy mode”. Now, I know when he’s a college that he’s safe; there are campus security and curfews. He doesn’t have a car to drive around, and he is supposed to be busy studying. Anything else happens; I don’t really want to know about. But with four days at home, I find myself worrying. If he is out late at night is he safe driving his car? Is he looking out for the other drivers? Has he forgotten everything he learned about safety? Is he eating properly when he’s not home to get meals with us? The list goes on and gets longer the later he stays out past midnight. The worrying has started.

“For goodness sake’s “, I tell myself, ” he’s an adult, there’s no reason to worry about him.” But no matter what my head says, my heart says another thing and I begin to worry about all those little things that mommies worry about, no matter how old your children are. His father just laughed at me, and my son shook his head. But I think secretly he smiled and was pleased to know that somebody was worried about him. The weekend is over, and it’s time to go back. As we load the car with a case of neatly folded clean clothes and a box of extra food to get them through the next couple weeks, I sigh with relief. He’s now somebody else’s worry. Mainly himself, but like I said out of sight out of mind. If he needs me, he only has to call.

I keep telling myself that, and it gets easier each time he heads back to his life of a college student.