Have you ever looked at your phone, seen a parent’s name on the screen, and felt it less like a family connection and more like a recurring debt you never signed for?

In this entry of Chapter Twelve, Maki dissects the Parenting Subscription Fee: the invisible, lifelong emotional tax we are often expected to pay just for having been born. From the raw irony of a father who has been taking money since her ninth birthday to the inevitable call of a housing crisis, this episode explores the collision between our sophisticated adult lives and the childhood trauma we still carry inside.

Through the lens of a Mars-Saturn transit in the 12th house, Maki questions why we are still emotionally hijacked by our DNA donors long after we’ve built our own fortresses ...