To Mom...

" '...I wonder if there's a difference between being a dutiful mother and being a good mother.'

'There is,' I said, and Charlotte looked up at me, expectant. Even if I couldn't articulate the difference as an adult, as I child, I had felt it. I thought for a moment.

'A dutiful mother is someone who follows every step her child makes,' I said.

'And a good mother?'

I lifted my gaze to Charlotte's. 'Is someone whose child wants to follow her.'

-From Handle with Care by Jodi Piccoult