maternal instincts

I type this with bleary eyes following about 1 hours sleep last night and not with all 60 minutes in one stretch. When the kids were little I used to worry about all manner of things and my sister would say to me, make the most of the worries being little as it only gets worse when they get older.
Pah! How could that be so? Surely as they got older they would mature, be independant and cope on their own. Much more worrying to be had with temper tantrums, colic, clinginess, escaping from car seats, running off as soon as hands were no longer being held etc etc.
How she must be laughing now when I ring her with yet another anxiety ridden catastrophe to report. To be fair, she has never actually said 'I told you so' - but I know she is thinking it!
So what caused last night's wakefulness? My daughter (age 22) has been over to America to visit a friend who is out there for a year. This was her first solo travelling trip and she is not a good airplane traveller at the best of times. She needed two flights to get home, one of about an hour and then the main 8 hour one. I spoke to her as she was waiting for the flight and it was on time, she was sitting by the gate and ready to board. As the time for departure came and went, I checked on the internet that it was airbourne and to confirm her arrival time back in the UK and then went to bed.
An hour later, a phone call - which spooked me as we all know you don't use your phone on an aircraft in flight do you? 'We've had an emergency landing and the brakes don't work. I don't want to come home on this plane.' My blood pressure now soaring while reassuring her they won't let it take off again before the engineers have fixed it. 4 hours later and several more texts 'we've got off the plane' 'we've been given meal vouchers' 'they say they've fixed it and we've got to get back on. I'm scared' By now it is 4.45am our time and I am a wreck, knowing how scared she was and wishing she wasn't on her own whilst knowing that there really is nothing I can do. The last text I had was at 5am. 'Now there are police wtih guns on board' Sleep? I don't think so!
So to anyone reading this with little children, please don't lose too much sleep over worrying about the little things - your maternal instincts are going to be put to the test for many years to come!