When my daughter was a preschooler, I remember joking about her future: “If she’s got a 13-year-old’s attitude now, how am I going to handle her when she’s actually a teenager?” Her emotions seemed bigger than she was, far too big for her tiny body. Surely she would...

In theory—you know, before I actually had kids—I was an amazing mom. I would play dress-up and make crafts and always have patience for the messes and mistakes, and my house would always be clean because I would teach my sweet little ones to help me get our work done before we did...