Raising children is a hard job, and many parents can vouch for that. Parents must be loving, make sure their children grow up to be successful, and provide an equal balance of discipline. Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, follows her from childhood to adulthood as she grows up in an unstable environment but eventually becomes successful in New York City. Jeannette’s parents, Rosemary and Rex Walls, continually make Jeannette’s and her siblings’ – Lori, Brian, and Maureen – childhoods stranger than most. The neglect Jeannette’s parents inflict on her causes her to become stronger and more independent. At the start of the novel, Jeannette’s maltreatment helps her stay a step ahead of other children her age. When Jeannette is only three years old, she cooks hot dogs for herself while her mother paints in a different room. As a result, she receives burns across her body once catching on fire, resulting in her hospitalization. At the hospital, Jeannette explains to the doctors and nurses, “‘Mom says I’m mature for my age … and she lets me cook for myself a lot’” (Walls, 11). Clearly, Jeannette’s mother neglects her daughter by not providing any food for her. Instead, Jeannette’s mother should be making meals for her daughter and watching her. Having to cook for herself helps Jeannette develop independence for the ability to cook among other skills. At only three years old, Jeannette has a skill most children do not learn until they are ten years old, putting her ahead