Pete Earley had no idea. He'd been a journalist for over thirty years, and the author of several award-winning-even bestselling-nonfiction books about crime and punishment and society. Yet he'd always been on the outside looking in. He had no idea what it was like to be on the inside looking out until his son, Mike, was declared mentally ill, and Earley was thrown headlong into the maze of contradictions, disparities, and catch-22s that is America's...

Offers advice for parents who have been waiting on the inevitable crisis-the no show babysitter, the sick baby, the impassioned conflict between office pressures and the yearning to be there for the first step, first word, and first tooth.