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[Ms. Toad]

30. As a parent, I can tell you I'm pretty sure they would.

My daughter has two major illnesses (plus situational depression). She has now finally given up on the college she had been attending, and will be taking a year or so to figure out what she wants to do next, and is currently living at home.

She goes back and forth between sitting around watching videos and stuffing her face, and doing things to figure out how to move forward with a life she never expected to be living. Those things don't cost me any less (and some of the cost more), or make my life any easier in terms of support I'm providing. But it makes a tremendous difference in how hopeful/hopeless I feel about her life.

To watch a child you love struggling so much costs far more than the money and time involved in providing physical care. Seeing signs of reconciliation with the unfair limitations in her life and of moving forward really lighten that burden (even though there is no objective reason they should).