with the help of an inheritance and social security, eggers and toph rent apartments in neighborhoods where toph can go to private schools and eggers can work on his magazine venture. eggers is occasionally self-conscious about the cleanliness of their various homes and worries that other people will mistakenly find him unfit to parent toph, but counterbalances these images with recollections of including toph in fun activities (frisbee, for example) and cooking, laundering, and driving for toph.