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CHAPTER 1
Snowflakes andDisney World
Out of the World of Parent FantasyComes the Scary Reality
W
hen does it happen? Tat precise moment when you realizethat despite your best-laid plans, you’ve completely and utterly lost control o your lie? It’s a question we oen pose to each other,though in a more direct and simple way.“Hey Pat, when did our lives take that le turn into Crazyville?”“Oh that’s easy, Gene; when we had kids.”It’s not like we made plans to go there, or ever, in our wildestdreams, imagined our lives would head in that direction. Like a loto prospective parents, we had plans—dreams and expectations orour uture children’s lives. We wanted them to enjoy the same happy,relatively normal childhoods we had. For us, being challenged meantnding a way not to upset our loving, generous, and sometimes orce-ul Italian grandmother.“Gina, come here and nish your drink.”“But Nana, I don’t like highballs. And besides, I’m only six.”Yes, easy, careree childhoods. Tat was the plan, until that painulmoment when we realized our children’s lives—and the lives o ourentire amily—would never be “normal.”
Gina’s “Chilling” Dose of Reality
Some things just aren’t unny.Te snowake essay Gina uncovered in her then ten-year-old-daughter Katie’s backpack sure wasn’t. Gina had always thought o
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