Parenting In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

People who become parents, generally understand that they have to raise their children in a certain way so that they will become healthy and functional members of society. Most of these parents also understand that if they do not give their children proper care and attention, their child may not have a successful future. Often times, parents would argue which method is the best to raise their child and which way is wrong. Everyone seems to have their own definition of parenting. Most people however, would disagree with the way Rex and Rose Mary Walls in The Glass Castle raised their children. Some believe that the Walls’ children would have been better off in foster care, others do not. I believe that the Walls’ children would not have been

She realizes what it could mean if he had found out that the Walls’ children were being neglected. “But if the child-welfare man got it into his head that we were an unfit family, we’d have no way to drive him off. He’d launch an investigation and end up sending me and Brian and Lori and Maureen off to live with different families” (Walls 194). Siblings are very commonly separated when put into the foster care system and Jeannette was scared that she would be separated from her family. Jeannette and her family would all be separated from each other and would lose family relationships which they had. Their family staying together is what kept them going “But we always fought back, usually as a team” (165) and no matter what problems they faced, at the end of the day, they had each other “‘we may not have insulation,’ Mom said as we all gathered around the stove, ‘but we have each other’”(176). It should come to no surprise that researchers found that “Children usually do better psychologically and that the placement is commonly more stable when they are put into the same foster care home with each other, especially when the children are familiar with each other and have a pre-established positive relationship” (Smith). This type of transition would disrupt what normal family life the children had before foster

Depending on the child’s age, they could feel out of place and not fit in with their new family. Furthermore there are laws and regulations in place to keep the children in foster care safe and well accounted for, but sometimes, these laws get in the way of regular family life. Since there are rules for foster parents or caregivers, some foster families cannot engage in particular activities. As a foster parent, Shannon Hernandez found that “even a camping trip for one night as little as 30 miles away or a weekend trip to a different city, both routine things for families to do and positive experiences for children. The rules governing this type of activity by caregivers may require the approvals of the social worker, the biological parents, the parents' attorneys, and the child's attorney” (Hernández). These type of rules although they were written to make sure that foster children do not get neglected and abused, highly restrict what activities a foster family can engage