Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake: A Memoir of a Woman's Life

by Anna Quindlen

Moderation and I have always had an uneasy relationship.

There comes that moment when we give our children custody of their own selves or blight their lives forever, when we understand that being a parent is not transactional, that we do not get what we give. It is the ultimate pay-it-forward endeavor: we are good parents not so they will be loving enough to stay with us but so they will be strong enough to leave us.