As grandmothers and mothers-in-law, we often find ourselves in a tizzy.

Oh no! The kids did this…

Oh my goodness – what are they thinking?

It’s really not okay that they did this, that or the other thing.

I myself have been known to create drama out of simple innocent acts of those around me. Usually it takes a few hours or maybe a good night’s sleep for me to realize that I really need to chill out. Or, in other cases, we “work it out,” and all is well.

I was reminded of this tendency for my own mild hysteria to escalate, because a friend of mine told me about how she became really hurt when over at her children’s house for a lovely dinner.

What happened? you ask.

Well here’s what happened: she and her husband were looking at photo albums of her children and grandchildren and noticed that there were NO pictures of my friend, her husband or any of her own other children.

My friend was upset and hurt but decided to keep her feeling to herself. Well, that did not work for too long and she spilled out,

“Hey, Janet (name changed to protect the innocent or guilty – depending how you perceive it), why do you not have any pictures of our family, and only of your own family of origin? Do you not care about us? Do you not realize that your children will grow up and have no memories of time spent with our side of the family?”

To which her lovely daughter-in-law responded, “Oh I’m so sorry – I didn’t realize. Our side of the family takes a lot of pictures and yours doesn’t….”

And then a few minutes later, Janet came running, “Look, look, here is a picture of you, Mom from three years ago!!”

But the damage was done. Alas, some mending was needed here.

And mending they did. They spent the rest of the day taking and posing for lots of pictures.

Because a picture may be worth 1,000 words, but if there aren’t any pictures, you can expect a million words about that error!

Have a great week, and stay calm, cool and collected. No need to sweat the small stuff.