I was working on my youngest daughter’s Tot to Teen photo album the other day. It’s basically a summary of the different events as she grew up. There is a double page spread for Christmases, Easters, Family outings, Sisters, and several other traditions they’ve enjoyed over their lifetimes. It starts when they are toddlers and ends when they are 18, or in my youngest daughter’s case, until she graduated from high school. She’s a fall birthday, so having missed the deadline for entry into kindergarten at 5, she started school a week before she turned 6; graduating at 19 years old. There’s a picture per year for each page theme.

I just finished 2013 for her, so I’ve got two and a half years to go. I like having her input for some of the pictures. These albums are designed for them to take with them when they move to their first apartments; something compact to remember where they came from. I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen some of the pictures my daughter chose, but it’s her book and if a certain picture brings her joy or a specific memory, it should be in her album.

There’s one picture of her crashing off the Cedar River Trail when we were riding recumbent bikes with some friends. It makes her laugh out loud, but the photo is of her back, so I wouldn’t have picked it. Though she admitted it was kind of embarrassing, it also gave her a lot of pleasure to see it.

My oldest daughter’s Tot to Teen album has been finished for a couple years now and I’ve worked on my youngest’s off and on. It seems whenever I work on it once, it’s a long time before I get back to it. It was no different this time, and I had already picked out several pictures for 2013 and just had to insert them. So I reviewed my thought process before I got to work and checked with my daughter to make sure the pictures were what she still wanted. She was enticed to look at the album over my shoulder and we went down memory lane, viewing the toddler that she was and comparing those pictures to her older self.

I was suddenly overcome with one of the biggest epiphanies I’ve ever had – what was I worried about? I remembered how concerned I had been at different phases of hers and her sister’s lives: difficult times making friends, trying to control their Halloween candy intake, troublesome grades. Did all that worry really help any of it?

Sure, some of their issues prompted me to take action to talk with teachers, or maybe other parents, but I never just let their problems drop after I took care of them. No, I fretted and fussed, if only in my own head. I’m sure I have a lot more gray hairs than I would have had if I did not constantly carry all those worries with me.

Wondering what all my fuss was about is even more apparent to me now that I’ve freed up real estate in my head with their high school schedules a thing of the past. However, rest assured, just because they won’t be living in my house doesn’t mean I won’t be worrying. I’ll always have space in my head to be their mom.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing and her blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com, on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh.”or follow her on Twitter @livewithgleigh. Her column is available every week at maplevalleyreporter.com under the Life section.