Parenting

Sam’s struggles with parenting define much of her character arc, as she attempts to navigate the shifts in her relationship to her daughter Ally. Specifically, as Ally approaches adulthood, Sam must reconcile her protective parental impulses with the necessity for an increasingly hands-off approach. Sam’s memories of Ally’s childhood are generally defined by a sense of mutual love and contentment. However, as Ally has begun to approach adulthood, Sam has become increasingly worried for Ally’s safety. This anxiety has led not only to resentment from Ally, but also to traumatic and harmful events: “Her mothering had really gone off the rails when she’d argued with the emergency room nurse-practitioner and wouldn’t back off. Which led to the Child Protective Services debacle” (209). In this way, the novel examines how, when a child begins to examine coming-of-age challenges, there are related challenges...