Hey, it's Nikki Young, and if you fall asleep to true crime, welcome home. This is Serial

napper, the bedtime storybook you definitely shouldn't read to kids. Tuck yourself in, press play,

and let me walk you through the story the way it actually happened. Find Serialnapper

wherever you get your podcasts, and maybe keep the nightlight on.

There's nothing better than the moment you gain that tiny bit of independence.

You know the moment.

The first time your parents let you stay home alone while they run to the store.

The first time you were told that you could go to another store inside the mall while your mom was shopping at J.C. Penny.

The first time you got to walk across the street to the library while your mom was at the post office.

The realization that you finally reached the precipice of adulthood is unmatched when you're 12.

For me, I remember thinking I had made it to the big time when my mom finally agreed to let me stay at the public library while she went

grocery shopping. I felt like such a grown-up. I was free to roam the rows of books, play on the

computer, do puzzles, or whatever else I wanted for that sweet 30 minutes that my mom was in the

local shop-wise. For me, I knew how I had officially become a grown-up. For my mom, I'm sure she worried herself

sick in those 30 minutes, but that summer, my stays at the library became the norm while my mom

ran her local errands. There's something bittersweet about growing up. For the child, they step into new

roles with new responsibilities. They learn to earn trust from the adults in their lives,

and in return, the adults have to let go just a little bit of the baby they've raised. They watch with

tears in their eyes as some of the innocence of their child slips away into a teen and one day an adult.

It's hard, but it's life. With that newfound freedom and that little bit of grace to walk next door while

mom looks at shoes in the mall comes risks, we never think it'll be my child. But when a child

disappears, it is someone's child, and that realization changes them completely. This is the story

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