Humor

20 Signs You May Be Worrying Too Much About Your Child with Special Needs

"Stop worrying!" These are words I hear from my kids with annoying regularity. Considering that they're the ones I'm worrying myself sick about, it seems uncharitable. If I don't worry about them, who's going to? And it's not like this worrying thing has an off switch. I try to explain that worrying comes with the Mom job, and I'll never shirk my duty. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only parent of kids with special needs who has made worrying into a fine art. As long as we're stuck with worrying about every. single. thing, we might as well go all-in and worry excellently. Still, it's good to have a little awareness of when you may, in fact, be over the top. Like your child calling you out on it. Or maybe one of these things.

You may be worrying too much about your child if …

1. You can often be found lying in a dark room with a wet rag over your eyes.
2. You believe that if you can worry about every possible bad thing that could happen, you will prevent it.
3. You are second-guessing decisions you’ve made for your child from birth forward. Maybe pre-birth.
4. The local Starbucks has named a triple-espresso drink after you.
5. You have almost as many books on your shelf on how to relieve your stress as you do books that make you worry. Almost.
6. You think that mom on Speechless is way too laid-back.
7. You count worries the way other people count sheep.
8. If there was a Worry Olympics, you would be lighting the torch. And then worrying that somebody might get hurt with that big flame there.
9. You can think of 100,000 negative outcomes for every situation but no positive ones.
10. If there is a positive outcome, you worry that it’s just a negative one in disguise.
11. Worry is your middle name. Literally. You had it legally changed.
12. You believe that your worry is single-handedly keeping your child together.
13. You worry about the fact that you worry too much.
14. You worry that maybe you're not worrying enough.
15. Your Web browser regularly crashes under the weight of all your worried, worried searches.
16. ? The worried emoji is the only one you ever use. ?
17. You've started scheduling your worries so you make sure you don't miss anything.
18. You judge other parents whose level of worrying is not up to your specifications.
19. You've created worry playlists to accompany your fits of concern.
20. You worry that this list isn't long enough, and there should be forty signs. Sixty. Eighty, maybe. Amateurs!