# Weird worries - you or someone else... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 14, 2016, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337 "2016-06-14T11:10:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337/41 "2016-07-03T16:50:47Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Ha ha! Sounds like my parents/grandparents. When I was a kid whenever my grandparents or parents would visit each other (it was an hour drive between them) they always called after returning home and would let the phone ring one time as a code to let each other know they arrived safely…not answering the phone saved the long distance charge! > > Remember when a long distance phone call was a Thing?_…“Oh my god, it’s your Aunt Harriet calling all the way from Tampa! Hurry up, say ‘hi’ and quickly hand the phone to your brother so he can say ‘hi’…”_ Back when I was in high school, I’d use that code thing to let my parents know I needed a ride home from school (I was an equipment manager of the football team, and after a game on Friday night I rarely felt like walking home). The number on the pay phone was written on whiteboard in the kitchen, and this let me avoid spending a dime. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337/42 "2016-07-03T17:29:10Z")
My wife has some legitimate anxiety issues but she worries about some crazy things and though these things do happen, the statistical likelihood of them happening to us is incredibly remote. She keeps herself up at night worrying about Islamic Terrorists, the kids being kidnapped from our fenced-in backyard, even though we live in a very crime-free area. We don’t take the kids to the lake because she worries about the brain-eating amoebas. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337/43 "2016-07-03T20:14:12Z")
Whenever she reads or hears about anything bad happening anywhere in Australia, or New Zealand for that matter, my (American) MIL emails or calls to make sure none of my friends or family were affected. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337/44 "2016-07-03T20:24:09Z")
Got a pregnant friend who doesn’t worry about rational things. Only things like the Yakuza sneaking into her house at night, alien spaceships gliding down silently, Euro soccer hooligans (coming to Wisconsin en masse, apparently), or the Taliban kidnapping the baby… … that she hasn’t given birth to yet. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337/45 "2016-07-03T22:22:32Z")
Terrorists. According to my wife’s mom, we are all going to be killed by terrorists. Probably later today, or tomorrow at the latest. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337/46 "2016-07-03T22:52:37Z")
My mother is a high-level worrier. After my recent operation, she would call me from Spain _ **every - single - day** _ (for those who don’t know it, I am a Spaniard living in the Netherlands). The calls began the moment I was out of the operating table and completely off my gourd on opiates. And every single day I just told her “everything is going well, I am feeling fine, the operation was successful.” Finally I found out why she was calling me every day. She had convinced herself that I was about to die, not long for this world, circling the drain and getting ready to kick the bucket, and that everybody telling her that I was OK, that the operation had gone well and that everything was going as it should was lying to her (me included) to hide the horrible truth from her. So she basically was calling me every day to make sure I was still alive. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337/47 "2016-07-04T01:39:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by FairyChatMom View Post > We live a bit more than an hour from Washington, DC. We’re more than 2 hours from Baltimore. But any time anything horrific happens in either of those cities, we can expect a call to make sure that the riots/fires/floods/plagues of locusts aren’t affecting us. What adds to the craziness is that my inlaws have visited us many times and we’ve driven them from our place to DC and to Baltimore, so they know how remote we are from either city. I can top that. I was living in Switzerland during the 6 day war (1967) and my mother phoned to find out if we were safe. Well Switzerland is closer to Israel than Philadelphia is, isn’t it? And this was in the days that transatlantic calls were EX-PEN-SIVE. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-worries-you-or-someone-else/757337.md?page=2)