Parenting has a sneaky way of holding up a mirror to your own upbringing. One minute you’re cutting grapes in half, the next you’re realizing you never once had anyone cut grapes for you—or ask if you were scared at bedtime, or even if you were okay. Watching your children move through the world, their innocence and openness on full display, can force some long-buried memories to surface. The uncomfortable truths about my own childhood didn’t come rushing back all at once. They arrived in small, quiet moments when my kids expected care, comfort, and compassion—and I realized just how unfamiliar those things once felt to me.
