Consent

by Carol Fletcher

Originally published on February 9, 2009

I go home. I go to see my other kids, because they need me, but really, because I need them. I take them to dentist appointments and birthday parties. On a play date, a mom confides to me that her son won’t stop hitting in nursery school. What should she do, she wonders. I’m stunned by the question. Why ask me? I can hardly keep my kid alive.