THE BED THAT FELT TOO SMALL AT 2 A.M.
My name is Laura Mitchell.
My family lives in a quiet, two-story home in the suburbs of San Jose, California—a place filled with sunlight during the day, but so still at night you can hear the living-room clock ticking through the halls.
My husband and I have one daughter, Emily. She’s eight years old.
From the start, we decided we would have only one child.
Not out of selfishness.
Not from fear of responsibility.
But because we wanted to give her everything we possibly could.
We bought our house—worth nearly $780,000—after more than ten years of saving. We opened Emily’s education fund when she was still a baby. I had mapped out her college future before she could even read.
More than anything, I wanted to raise her to be independent.
