Like many mothers, I worry about everything. I am smart enough to know how little I really know and the consequence is that I silently question every decision I make and every word I speak. I want my children to be happy now and grow up to be happy, healthy adults. I also expect them to be good people. When holidays are near, I expect them to acknowledge them and express their love for human beings other than themselves. No, I don’t take them gift shopping like my mother did with me when I was young. We do very little shopping in our family. I do encourage them to make homemade cards and draw pictures for others. At Christmas, they spent several days carefully painting pictures to give their grandparents. I know it’s wrong to expect gifts, but every year that my birthday and Mother’s Day are missing homemade cards, hand drawn pictures and original poetry, I worry about the kind of adults my children will become. Will they be able to show others how they love and appreciate them? I mourn for the adults I see who are incapable of caring about others more than they worship themselves. Do my children feel how very much I love them? I think I need to do better.