High fit

Emotional Availability measures whether a caregiver can show up and be reached without shutting down or deflecting. Juliet Holmes's mother, faced with a six-year-old who had no framework for segregation and was about to drink excitedly from a 'colored' fountain, did not look away, change the subject, or offer false comfort. She walked both daughters directly to the fountains, let them taste for themselves, and answered each question plainly — including the ones she could not fully answer. She stayed present through an experience that could have gotten her arrested, and did not spare her daughters the truth.