We all have some. Anxiety is the low-level, background tension that interrupts sleep at the smell of smoke or the sound of a baby crying. It’s the almost-unnoticed pressure that sparks a yelp! when something startles you.

Everyone has anxiety. It’s the pressure that fills the balloon. It’s the tension that keeps us alert and reactive, aware and engaged. But like the air that fills that balloon, anxiety can become too much, the pressure too high, to the point that all it takes is a pin-prick to explode. Here are three rules to help let the air out of the balloon.

I’d be glad to fill your head with silver-lining ideas about how a virus spreading across the globe is killing hundreds of thousands, destroying economies, forcing incalculable debt upon our children and their children, fueling racism, and locking down borders is a good opportunity for family time. But let’s not talk about those things. Let’s talk about your kids.

Yes, it’s that time again. We’re quickly reaching the end of what seemed last May like an infinitely long tunnel called summer. Whether you’ve vacationed and tanned and exercised, read that book or weeded that garden or accomplished any of the million or so chores you had planned for the season, it’s almost too late now. It’s time to stop procrastinating about what could have been and what should have happened. It’s time to start thinking about school.

I’m told that one Chinese character communicates both “crisis” and “opportunity.” Its meaning—like so much in this life—is what you make of it, and what you make of it will trickle down to your kids.

If YOU don’t advocate for your child, no one will. There, I’ve said it. — Did you hear the bubble bursting? That was your idealism being shattered, and not a bit too soon. Parenting in the naïve belief that the world will automatically and spontaneously serve your children’s needs.

More than nurturing, more than safety, more than education and socialization and even more than food, clothing, shelter and a new cell phone every couple of years, parenting is about letting go.

Sometimes it takes dramatic extremes to wake us up. By definition, republicans and democrats serve as foils to one another. Early in any campaign, candidates try to distinguish themselves by taking polarized positions. Pro-this and anti-that.