When you were a kid, did you think that if you jumped up in the air when you were flying in an airplane that you would be thrown backward and hit the back of the plane? That’s what I wondered, as a child. After all, my youthful logic seemed sound: if the plane was moving approximately 900 km/hr, and I was standing still (travelling at 0 km/hr), if I jumped up in the air, the speedy plane would travel under my feet and I would be thrown to the back of the aircraft.

Clearly, a future career in aviation or science was not looking promising for me at a very young age. Of course, what I learned was that both the plane and I would be travelling at 900 km/hr.

But let me pose another scientific phenomenon to you. Are you aware that any person (including your child!) standing on the Earth’s surface is spinning at approximately 450 metres per second or 1,600 kilometres per hour? (This is due to the fact that the Earth rotates roughly once every 24 hours and its circumference is roughly 40,000 kilometres.)

How is it that we are not all flying out of control, spinning off the Earth’s crust and sent flailing into space?! Ah, yes, we have gravity to thank. But, the fact remains, even when we’re standing still, we are travelling at an intense level of speed. These types of speeds are almost too much to comprehend, verging on the unfathomable or impossible.

But what is my point?

I believe that there are times when we challenge, learn and, then, accept the facts and the truth. Or, we do not. At stake, in most cases, is our own anxiety.

As a child, in learning the scientific facts regarding plane travel or the Earth’s rotation, I would have two choices: to accept and trust the facts or worry about what might happen!

As parents, we tend to worry about the quality of “job” we are doing in raising our kids. There is so much science to worry about. And social science. And friends. And competition. And…

The reality is that if you are doing the best you possibly can as a caring parent, and you are providing opportunities for your kids to learn and grow as people, then you are likely doing all that you can do!

You can worry about them every day, pondering whether they will succeed in life. Or you can have confidence that the sun will rise again tomorrow and that, with each passing day, your kids will be that much more equipped to deal with whatever challenges and opportunities that may come their way.

Rest assured, they will not go spinning off the Earth’s surface. So slow down the worrying.