
FOMO is the acronym for Fear Of Missing Out, a “disease” that has plagued me my whole life. I blame my FOMO on the fact that I am the firstborn in my original family, the reigning queen of the world until my parents, over the years following my birth, added three more pretenders to the throne. Imagine—all that time on the sidelines watching them ooh and ah over the latest newborn as if I no longer mattered. FOMO times three. (No one in my family accepts this explanation.)”3
This week we are on vacation with our three adult “kids,” their spouses and their children. One would think FOMO would not be an issue and it isn’t when it comes to the babies. But with their parents, the FOMO is acute: what are the “girls” talking about? What did Ben say that they thought was so funny? It’s a state of feeling left out by the cool kids.
I don’t have a solution to this problem other than to tell myself to “get a grip.” If you have FOMO, what do you do?