Parenting

What is considered an “unfit parent”? In our society we cannot really explain who is a good parent and who is a bad one because each parent has their own ways and techniques to parent their children. There is a range of parenting that goes from being too strict to being too free, and there are also many other factors to look at which all can affect the way the child grows, like education, financial stability, health, and many others, but people still have not found out which is the best way to parent kids.  Ultimately it all depends on the parents and the child. So considering, Rose Marry and Rex Wall were good parents to some extent. They did not provide their children with financial support, healthy conditions or safety, but they did provide them with love, education and independence which in the end, caused three of the four children to became successful people.

            Jeannette’s parents weren’t the greatest parents but they provided their children with the tools needed and mentality to become successful people. We all know that the Walls lived in great poverty and in harsh living conditions, but that did not stop them from succeeding in life. It also did not help that both parents had a mentality that made it harder to live. For example, in one of Jeannette’s experiences when her dad was teaching her how to swim, she states, “Dad kept telling me that he loved me, that he never would have let me drown, but you can’t cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is ‘If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim’” (Walls 66). Here we see that the Walls have a mentality that if you do not learn at a young age how to do things, you will have trouble later in life. They do have a point not withstanding that the Walls went to extreme measures which sometimes put the life of their children in danger.  In addition, we find out about Jeannette’s mom’s mentality when Jeannette states, “She thought rules and discipline held people back and felt that the best way to let children fulfill their potential was by providing freedom” (Walls 73). Here we see that Rose Mary Walls believes that the best ways for a child to learn from their mistakes was by letting them do whatever they wanted.  This mentality helped the Walls children learn how to become independent and learn from their mistakes.

Furthermore, in the article, “What Makes a Good Parent?” the author  Robert Epstein states, “Parents who focus too much on keeping their children safe may see their efforts backfire, winding up with unhappy kids or a poor parent-child relationship. Kids fare better when parents encourage autonomy”. Here we see that on the contrary, parents who provide their kid’s which the safety and good living conditions will have a harder time becoming independent and will be depending on their parents. The Walls did not provide their children with the safety and the good living conditions a lot of people expect parents to provide but by the end the Walls children grow up and three of the four became successful people.

            The Walls weren’t the greatest parents but they provided their children with the love and support to help them along the way. For example, when Jeannette turned 10 and since the family lived in poverty, Rex asked her what she wanted for her present, Rex stated ,"'You know if it's humanly possible, I'll get it for you. And if it ain't humanly possible, I'll die trying'"(Walls 116). This shows that Rex loved and cared a lot about his children because even though they were poor and had nothing for Jeannette on her birthday, he said he would do anything possible to make her birthday present come true. All throughout the memoir we find that even though Rex Walls was a person that liked to gamble, drink a lot, and keep on moving around, and the mother Rose Mary Wall was a person that liked to paint and did not like to follow rules, they loved and supported their children. In addition, Jeannette states, "Mom and Dad liked to make a big point about never surrendering to fear or to prejudice or to the narrow-minded conformist sticks-in-the-mud who tried to tell everyone else what was proper" (Walls 103). This shows that the parents encouraged their children to never let anyone bring them down. This helped support the children through their lives because many times they were made fun of for being poor but that did stop them from giving up.

Furthermore, Rose Mary states that, "'Life's too short to worry about what other people think,' and 'Anyway, they should accept us for who we are" (Walls 157). This shows that the mom supported her by encouraging her to never let what others think of her bother her. By the end of the memoir, Jeannette states, “I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets" (Walls 270). This shows that she also believes that one should not let what others think of you bring you down, because in the end no one really has the perfect life. Jeannette’s parent’s love and support helped her become the person she is.

Many people believe that children that live in poverty are less likely to become successful according to the article “Children are hidden victims of the economic crisis”. In the article “Children are hidden victims of the economic crisis”, Patrick T. McCarthy, president and chief executive of Annie E. Casey Foundation states, “children caught up in the economic crisis are likely to exhibit behavioral problems, have difficulty in school, are less educated and earn less money, and have more health problems” (Children are). So it is reasonable to think that the Walls Parents were bad parents because they raised their children in impoverished conditions. The walls did live in poverty but they did not exhibit most of the problems that relate with poverty, mainly because the parents taught them everything they needed to know to become independent. Most of the Walls children did very well in school, and most of them grew up to become successful people. So in the end the Walls Parents were good parents to some extent because they managed to raise their children in impoverished conditions and still most of the children ended up successful people. 

The Walls did not provide their children with financial support, good health or safety but they did provide them with love, education and independence which, in the end, resulted in three of the four children to become successful people. Today people categorize good parents as one that will bring forth children that will become responsible citizens and help out in the community, not the other way around where the child is a burden in the community. That is why  Walls are good parents because most of their children became responsible citizens that helped out in the community and became successful. This is also why the Walls Children were better off with their parents than in foster care because the Walls provided them with the tools needed to become successful people. Jeannette states, “But despite all the hell-raising and destruction and chaos he had created in our lives, I could not imagine what my life would be like-what the world would be like-without him in it. As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else had” (Walls 279). Here Jeannette is talking about her dad and all the challenges the whole family had to face because of him and their mom. The Walls provided the children with love, education, support, and mentalities to survive the real world. I also believe that the challenges the children had to face provided them with the tools needed to become successful because with all the challenges and problems they learned that life is not easy and that they should appreciate it.

Works Cited

"Children Are Hidden Victims of the Economic Crisis, Report Says." - Latimes.com. 17 Aug.

2011.Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/08/new-report-spotlights-hidden-victims-of-the-economic-crisis-children-.html>.

Epstein, Robert. "What Makes a Good Parent?" What Makes a Good Parent? Scientific

American Mind, Nov.-Dec. 2010. Web.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle: A Memoir. New York: Scr