“My 8-Year-Old Kept Complaining About Her Bed at Night — What the Security Footage Showed Broke Me”

But more than material things, I wanted to teach her something that couldn’t be bought: independence. I wanted her to grow up confident, capable, self-reliant—the kind of woman who wouldn’t need to cling to others for validation or security.

That’s why, when Emily was still in preschool, I taught her to sleep in her own room. Not because I didn’t love her—God knows I loved her with an intensity that sometimes frightened me—but because I understood that a child can’t truly grow if she always clings to an adult’s arms.