Many of us assume, when we're young, that our parents know what they're doing. Only when we're older do we realize that they were making it up as they went; that they were scared; that they were tasked with something-protecting us-that was never fully possible.
In 'Night Terrors,' Shapiro describes that fear of inadequacy. Even as the speaker calms his frightened child in the night, he feels like an imposter-like he was taken over by a spirit that could summon the perfect gentle authority.
But that might be why they respond so viscerally to their child's vulnerability-why they rush to the bed so quickly, ready to soothe. They remember what it's like to need a voice in the dark. They never stopped needing it.
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