“
As for Charlie—God, to look at him. The billow of his hair, the sheen on his skin, the ear-to-ear grin. There is a loose joy on that handsome face that I haven’t seen in years, nothing like the controlled, competitive intensity he gets on the lacrosse pitch, or the mask of social ease he dons to act the alpha male around his friends. With a keen pang I suddenly understand what this sense of abandon must mean to him, and how rare such moments have been in Charlie’s safe, predictable, overscheduled existence, all managed and regimented by his hovering parents. It’s not only that Lorelei is a fearful mother, dedicated to warding off accidents and danger at all costs. I know it’s also me, the combination of avoidant and overinvested I bring to the parenting table, always compensating for my own insecurities of various sorts.
”
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