Helplessness: This episode is a spoken essay titled Helplessness, from Ghosts of Parenting, exploring helplessness as one of the quiet, enduring conditions of raising children. Not helplessness as failure, but as a lived reality that appears when care meets the limits of control. Across early infancy, growing independence, and the long arc of watching another life unfold, this reflection names how parents carry responsibility without authority, love without certainty, and presence without power to fix. It looks at how helplessness becomes heavy when unrecognised, how it turns into vigilance or self blame, and how it softens when clearly seen. This is not advice or reassurance, but a careful naming of something many parents already live every day, the ache of standing close to what matters most, while knowing you cannot choose the outcome.