I came home from a work trip two days early and found my 9-year-old daughter alone on her knees, scrubbing the kitchen floor until her hands were bleeding—as punishment. My in-laws had taken what they openly called “their real grandchild” to an amusement park instead.
The rain had already cleared when Lauren Whitaker stepped out of the cab in front of her house in Maple Grove, a quiet suburban neighborhood where every lawn looked trimmed by the …