Family structure was destroyed because parent had separated and she had a single parenting style from the age of 16. This caused a role strain on her mum financially since she had to provide for her college daughter. This made her mum hypercritical for the things she did. She had friends in college whom she was close to. Her boyfriend who introduced her to drugs such as cocaine caused her to become an addict.
Even though the narrator admits to partial responsibility for her part in Emily’s unhappy childhood, at the same time she excuses herself of full responsibility because of environmental and social circumstances. She looks at her daughter's future, fearful that it will be a desolate, miserable existence resulting from a childhood where there was not sufficient money or time for emotional nourishment. Tillie Olsen’s “I Stand Here Ironing” introduces a mother-daughter relationship where the mother faces internal conflict regarding her daughter Emily as she narrates her neglect for her daughter, the lack of love the child experiences during her life, and ability to discover comedy during tragic situations, and the cruelty of being a dark little girl in a world that appreciates beauty. Several times throughout Emily’s life she experiences separation from those she cares about. The narrator confesses how she was absent from her daughter’s life during most of Emily’s development.
As a sympathetic person and as a parent I can only imagine the sadness, guilt and helplessness these parents had to go through. Being addicted to drugs is not like a light switch that you can turn on and off. After the parents lost their daughter the situation gave them the motivation and strength to change their lives and try and get their daughter back. It may have taken them many years to recover from their dependency and even more years to go through the legal system to get their daughter back. However, on a Care-based point of view, the Judge’s decision was unethical in regards to the foster parents and the nine year old girl.
In Alldredge’s criticism of Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying one of the prominent things she discusses and give a valid, and strong point on is Addie Bundren’s favoritism to her illegitimate son Jewel and how it made Darl become bitter and eventually undoes him. When Alldredge states that Addie’s “relationships, or lack of them, with [her]… family is essential to any understanding of the inner conflicts in her children” (Alldredge) this is especially true with Darl. She hardly paid attention to her other children besides Jewel and it really struck home with Darl. Darl is so bitter by his mother and Jewel’s relationship that he keeps him from her death bed and his excuse is that “[He] wants [Jewel] to help [him] load” (Faulkner 7.6-10) knowing full well that his mother would want Jewel there more than anything. Does Darl care?
Even though she tried fighting till the end, she had to finally give up. O’Keefe, too, did not like her job and compared herself to the minimum wage employees. When she got unemployed from the perfect job, it changed her life and she started sympathize with people who were in same position as she was (O’Keefe 206). In contrast to her situation, O’Keefe’s step father found two good jobs and was successful at both. He sold bras and slips to stores and with the money he was able to support his family and their wants and needs (O’Keefe 208) When Wal-Mart became his competitor; he had to stop selling undergarments and had to come up with a new plan.
‘“You can’t just live like this”, I said. “Why not?” Mom said. “Being homeless is an adventure”.’ Even though Walls knows her parents made the decisions that led them to where they are today, she feels unhappy for them. Walls began to realize that her parent’s decisions weren’t the best for her family, and she began to have mixed feelings for what she needed to do. ‘“Mom, you have to leave Dad”, I said’.
Although all families that are poor are not guilty of maltreatment, it is still a huge risk factor. In the case of Ruth Ann Boatwright, her family is so poor that her mother is desperate enough to prostitute herself for money to feed her family. Poverty can put a lot of stress on a family and put the parents on edge. Unemployment is closely linked to poverty. Daddy Glenn was constantly out of a job, which forced the family into having one income that was consider low
John, the father of the mentally challenged boy, is a perfect example of this. One point that this film made loud and clear was the fact that even with a good education there is no guarantee or even a really good chance for success. Take the woman who studied medicine in college for example. She paid a lot of money for a good education and now she only makes minimum wage as a medical assistant? And now she’s flooded with college debt and has to spend a good chunk of her time “scrapping” appliances just to support herself.
Chinese Cinderella, from the moment she was born, she was hated because her mum died giving birth to her. Her dad didnt know her Chinese name, her sibling called her a murder and said she had bad luck. But she loved her school, because no matter how much pain her home caused her, the kids at school treated her equally. When she came home with a badge of good school work, her dad praised her, for the first time since she was born. This caused her to try harder because she longed for her dads love, her siblings hated her though because she took away their shine.
American families would view single parenting as a threat to a family structure. Doing everything by themselves with no one else to blame but themselves is one of the most difficult things a single mother can struggle with. As time progresses a single mother discovers she is capable of doing so much not just for their well being but for her children. They quickly learn how to adapt and over come. While many single mothers worry too much or regret decisions during their children childhood they are satisfied with the result and the out come of there children by the actions their children make after they grown out of their childhood In “I stand here ironing” a mother depicts her first child to have a bad early childhood by making the wrong decision not by choice but simply what got handed to them in a urban world.