Personal story to ask a question.

So my oldest son came home from the gym last night complaining of a pain in his right side. He told me how he was doing some ego lifting with his friend and I told him that he likely pulled or strained something. I told him to check his self for a hernia and let me know if he felt anything. To which he never got back with me so I assumed that he didn’t. However, within the hour, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that he was crawling across the hallway floor trying to get to the bathroom. I called out to him to see if he was just being dramatic or if he was actually in that much pain. He said he was in that much pain and that it was just getting worse so my wife took him to the ER while I stayed home with the other kids. It took hours of tests but they diagnosed him with appendicitis and removed his appendix this morning when the surgeon arrived.

I tell this story to ask a question. I have 3 boys and this certainly isn’t the first time that I have had to rush one of them to the ER. When something happens to them or my wife, and it’s something that I know it’s out of my control, I still feel like I let them down, like I somehow failed to protect them, and then I go through months afterwards where I’m a helicopter parent/spouse, just to make sure they are ok. I don’t really know why I feel like that or do that.

Does anyone else go through that same thing? Get that same feeling?

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