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We were at Sesame Place, sitting in the theater, watching the Mr. Noodle/Elmo show. My daughter was six, shy, soft-cheeked, and uncertain about things that involved bright lights and an audience. When Mr. Noodle scanned the crowd for a helper and pointed at her, she immediately buried her head in my armpit. He paused. The moment hung there, an invitation slowly slipping away as his hand drifted toward another child. Something in me knew: this was one of those moments. The kin

My daughter was auditioning for the Spring High School Musical. The schedule was clear: acting and singing one afternoon, the dance audition two days later. Easy enough to remember. The morning of the dance audition, I casually reminded her. She rolled her eyes with a very teenage, “I KNOWWWWW.” (Translation: Mom, please, I am fully competent and also deeply annoyed you believe otherwise.) That afternoon, my phone rang at work. Hysterical sobbing. She had gotten on the bus on