Your brain wasn't built to process 10 future tragedies before breakfast, but that's what it's doing.

One study found seven in ten parents now live in a state of chronic fear over their child safety.

That's not sustainable.

You're not overthinking.

Your nervous system is trapped in a loop it never learned

how to exit. What if vigilance isn't love? What if it's just fear with a better brand?

You can stop rehearsing disaster and start parenting from the moment you're actually in. The one shift

that rewires all of this is. You check your child's location three times before noon, not because anything's wrong,

but because something could be. Your heart skips when they don't reply to a text. You start

Googling. You think about the latest climate headlines, the shooting you just saw on the news, the online

challenge you heard about in a parenting group, you keep playing it out, running worst-case

futures like a looping reel. And the worst part, you're doing this while packing lunches,

driving carpool, smiling at the school drop-off line like everything's fine. Parenting today means living with a mind that never really closes its tabs.

And it's not your fault.

The world feels like a minefield.

But living in a constant state of projected fear does something to your brain.

It doesn't just change how you parent.

It changes what you expect from the world.

One study found that 70% of parents reported increased anxiety over their children's safety due to news and technology exposure.

That kind of chronic future fear gets stored in your non-conscious as a kind of mental template.

So your brain keeps scanning, predicting and preparing for disasters

that haven't happened yet. When this becomes chronic, even ordinary moments like letting

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