Parents are always supposed to look out for the best interests of their child. Anne Tyler authored the short story “Teenage Wasteland” which depicts the story of a strained mother and son relationship between the character Donny, and his mother Daisy. Donny is a teenage boy who is struggling with his grades at school and is exhibiting poor behavior. His mother, Daisy is concerned with her son’s grades and behavior, however, she fails at getting her son the help that he requires. Told through the point of view of the character Daisy, Tyler uses irony to tell the story of a teenage boy who is failed by the adults in his life who are supposed to help him flourish, including his parents, a psychologist, and his tutor. When Donny is performing poorly at school, the school contacts his parents to attend a conference to discuss Donny’s behavior. Tyler portrays irony with the character of Donny’s mother, Daisy, as Daisy herself is a former school teacher, so it is ironic that her child is failing at school as she should know better than other parents how best to help her child succeed academically. Daisy tells the principal that they are concerned about Donny, but that “he tells us he doesn’t have any homework or he did it all in study hall. How are we to know what to believe?” (3). This shows such naivety from Daisy, that a former teacher is not conscious of the things kids say to get out of doing their homework. It is ironic that as a former teacher, Daisy is failing