Anxiety

Being a parent comes with a long list of anxieties – we worry about our kids’ health – emotionally and physically, we worry about how they do in school, in sports, with their friends. There is no shortage of what we can worry about. Today, I will add a new worry to the list: The Siddur Party. In many schools, when a child first receives his or her Siddur, there is a party or some sort of ceremony. In my son’s first grade class, parents have been asked to decorate the cover of their child’s Siddur. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but the pressure is on.

First, let me say this: the pressure is only on me. Fathers are not decorating Siddur covers. In my informal survey, I found that 100% of Siddur covers are decorated by moms and moms alone. So, I have bought a hot glue gun, fabric markers, some stickers and I am set to go. Only, here’s the thing: I’m not great at this. I’m good at this, but I want to be great. To further complicate things my son has decided to honor his heritage as a Kohain (priest) and would like me to draw the Kohain’s Choshen (breast plate) on the front of his Siddur.

Let me tangent here for a moment: I am a good involved mom. I make cute birthday parties, I host my kids’ classes here for time to time, I even think I am the class parent for 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 of my kids (probably by not being sure I’m not winning TONS of parenting points, eh?). I went to cupcake school to learn how to decorate cupcakes for my boys’ birthday party. But this Siddur thing has me stressed out. I guess its permanence is what is getting me anxious. Until this moment, I’ve been fairly awesome in my son’s eyes. Let’s say my Choshen doesn’t live up to his wildly imaginative and mildly bizarre expectations?

I know I am crazy to be stressed out by this, but I can’t seem to shake the pressure on this one.

Fess up – what are some of your weirder parenting anxieties?