Quote: He eventually starts to think of cookies as both tokens of his Mother's love and a reward he earns for asserting his ego strength. He feels neglected when he looks into his neighbor's window and sees Hank and his Mom enjoying a snack together. He tells himself he must be a very bad boy and begins to cry, but some little rational voice within him tells him that he deserves cookies as much as the next kid. Hank is just as naughty as him. Why does he get cookies?
Or, Harry's mother can take him to a really good shrink, who can teach him that he is in fact lovable, normal, healthy, and that his expectations for cookies as proof of his mother's love is only his reality, not that what is truth.
Harry's shrink can also teach the mother that baking cookies is something Harry would very much like to do with her, because he loves cookies and wants to share that love with his mother. Harry's mother can learn to expand her expression of love by learning to bake cookies, simply because she loves Harry -- not because she has to prove anything, or fix anything, or meet any kind of minimum requirement set forth by Harry.
Harry and his mother, working together, can find equalibrium. Working against one another, they will both be miserable -- and it has nothing to do whatsoever with the family next door.
