Moms Will Always Worry About Their Kids

Hi! I hope you all had a fun Labor Day Weekend. JD and I sure did. We headed down to Bradley Beach, NJ and spent time with family. It was sunny and windy—the tide was rough, but we still had a blast walking on the beach in search of treasures and building drip-drop sand castles. And getting sand in our lunch (not!)

On Saturday night we had dinner at Klein’s in Belmar. JD loves this place, because there’s a patio with a view of the bay and boats. After dinner we headed to Jenkinson's Boardwalk in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ. It was very crowded and this made me a little nervous, since JD is so fast, despite my handholding policy. I bought tickets and started strapping JD into rides he could go on alone (sob). Uncle Carlo took JD on bigger rides that spun around super-fast and I watched from behind the gate with my Mom. “Carlo better be holding on to him,” she said. “He’s too small for that ride! You two are nuts!” LOL, MOMS!!!

After the rides we went for Kohr's Frozen Custard on the boardwalk -- YUM-O. JD spent the entire day asking for vanilla and banana ice cream. We sat on a bench that overlooked the beach and JD dug in—and promptly got vanilla and banana ice cream all over his hoody (kind of like the moment when my salmon arrived at Klein’s and JD announced: “I have to poo!” Ah, timing!) I forgot to grab napkins, so I said to my Mom: “Watch him for a sec—gonna go grab napkins—be right back.”

Famous last words. Famous.Last.Words.

As I walked towards Kohr's, I suddenly got a craving for fresh-squeezed lemonade and joined a line at Chippy’s Fresh French Fries. The guy in front of me was a Jersey Shore juicehead-type (no offense) and was placing an order for seven cups of large fries, fours cups of ketchup and three cups of salt and vinegar, all to go (REALLY!? REALLY, DUDE!?). I waited and waited—and the time moved pretty quickly, because it was the first time in a long time where I wasn’t on JD duty. I people-watched, put my hoody on, checked Facebook and about twenty-minutes later casually walked back to my Mom, Uncle Carlo and JD with my lemonade. And no napkins. D’oh!

“Where were you!?” my Mom asked, standing up. JD was still digging into his ice cream and now had a napkin on his lap. Nice. I am mother of the year, for sure.

“I was getting lemonade,” I said.

“CHRISTINE. YOU SAID YOU’D BE BACK IN ‘A SEC’—I THOUGHT YOU GOT KIDNAPPED!” my Mom said. I almost spit out my lemonade.

“MAAAAA!”

“Really, Christine, what were you thinking disappearing for twenty-minutes?” Uncle Carlo said. “And did you think to purchase me a refreshing lemonade?”

“You guys, I was right there,” I whirled around and pointed to Chippy’s. I was really RIGHT THERE.

Uncle Carlo wiped JD’s mouth and my Mom looked at me like she was relieved I was OK. Eeeeps!

“Mom," I said calmly, "I’m 30. I lived in Philly, New York, traveled the world—I have a kid. I just went for lemonade. I wasn’t doing shots at Tiki Bar (thinking, WISH I WAS!)—or fending off a psycho (maybe just a juicehead who liked fries!),” I said. “And, you could have called me.”

“I did! And texted!” she said. Ah, no, I thought as I checked my phone and, uh, yeah she did. Eeeeps. But I was too busy on Facebook and my ringer was off from JD’s earlier post-beach snooze-fest.

My Mom looked at me shaking her head. And I realized in that moment, I will never, ever, ever, ever stop worrying about MY JD. Ever. A mother’s love…

How was your weekend? Do your parents still worry about you? My Dad showed up to our condo with condensed milk the morning before Hurricane Irene threatened to take out NJ. Yeah, he did. And it's still in my pantry. A father's love...

Friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @JDSMOM2007, check out ChristineCoppa.net and order a copy of my single mom memoir, Rattled! 

Full disclosure: Klein's and Kohr's didn't give us free eats. I was not asked or paid to write about these places or Jenk's.