Summary

Mary is concerned with the safety of her son who is now sixteen. Worried about him as a child, she drew her attention "to problems [she] could solve with things [she] could buy" (243). Now that he is older, she is employing the same method when searching for a car. This is how, she reasons, "those of us with the best intentions...end up overprotecting and overindulging our children" (245). This worrying about every decision often ends up putting people into a downward spiral of choices. She concludes with hoping, "I wonder if I can trade away something so small as money in exchange for something so big as his life" (248).

Mary landed a job at Us Weekly writing funny captions for the Fashion police spread. At first, they did not run her captions, and she felt bad...