It struck me how easily an infant could become a prop in an argument about obedience.

My daughter could not tell Brandon that she needed formula.

She could not ask why her father’s pride had made a grocery purchase impossible.

That responsibility belonged to me.

At home I photographed the new allowance rules before folding the paper and placing it in a folder.

Brandon’s handwriting circled the phrase subject to approval three times.

He had included doctor’s visits, groceries, and transportation under the same heading as entertainment.

There was not even a separate allowance for Hazel’s medicine.