The Glass Castle is a stirring account of Walls’s childhood, her relationships with her family, and her ability to overcome all the hardships she was faced with. While Walls was a child, she wasn’t totally aware of how negatively most people would view her environment. Even as a young child, however, she could sense how unstable her home was; as she states, “…what I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes” (page 34). Her parents were children themselves, in many ways: they could not stick to a budget, keep a job or stay in one place for long, and even though they inherited a large house and land worth up to a million dollars, along with, among other things, “…a hand-carved upright piano, sideboards with antique silver serving sets, and glass-fronted cabinets filled with Grandma’s bone china…” (page 94), they could not even provide their children with two square meals a day.
Struggles of Being a Teen Mom Being a single parent at any age is a difficult task, but being a single mother while still being considered a baby yourself is one of the most difficult things a person can go through. Many people say that when young teens have a baby is that they are “babies having babies” because they themselves are still a child. Not only is it difficult to be a teen parent, but most teen parents end up being single parents. For many teenage girls, the day they tell their loved ones, such as their parents and boyfriend or father of the child, that they are pregnant can be a scary thing because they do not know for sure if they will remain in the picture and help her. Also, the father of the child may not stick around because he too is scared of the responsibility of raising a child, and his whole life is going to change if he decides to stay around.
What if my dad didn’t stick with her? What if he left her? She didn’t want me growing up without both her parents. As time went by, her pregnancy was more noticeable. She ended up telling my grandma she was pregnant, who was very upset about it, and eventually my grandpa found out.
A common stereotype is that the poor, uneducated parent isn’t going to be involved with their child’s progress and school activities. This is based on the assumption that these families are uneducated, and therefore will not be interested in their child’s education. However, other factors are not thought of. Some of these immigrant families cannot participate in PTO meetings because they are working long hours in our agriculture fields, getting home late and having to still help with homework, cook dinner and get their children to bed. These families do not work a typical 9-5, this does not mean that they are not involved with their children’s school.
The article is also based on an observation by journalist Harriet Sergeant, who spent 1 year discussing with gang members and found out that those who lack a male figure in the family whilst growing up had more conflicts and chaos at home meaning that most of them were misled and not warned about consequences of any actions. This again links to explaining why the summer riots has occurred: the fact the main members who were part of the chaos were the ones who lacked being led by a father figure, helping them to grow up “to do better”, being told what is acceptable in society and what to avoid doing. This is why they are less aware of the consequences and the effects of their actions, leading them to be part of events such as the riots of 2011, causing harm to the
Community Service Communities are as strong as the people who make them up. Without members of a community pitching in to make it a better place, it will come crashing down to the ground. For some reason most kids of today are not interested in volunteer work. They’d rather play video games or update their Facebook status all day instead of picking up trash at a park or spending time with elders at the local nursing home. Have they all just become dangerously lazy?
Older children were also in day care or on their own. Children were suddenly responsible for things far beyond their knowledge, like cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, and caring for their brothers and sisters, as well asthemselves. The kids had no warning of this, except for overhearing their parents' arguments about the mother working outside of the home. Before the 1960s, parents were in charge of households, not the children. Excepting parents with mental illness, alcoholism, or other problem behavior, when parents abused or neglected their children, they were the ones who maintained homes and enforced rules for the family.
Some people tend to look at me funny for raising a child alone, yet others give me credit. I lost a lot of my ‘friends’ after having a child, because I was not able to go out and do a lot of social activities anymore. At least I now know who my true friends are. It also seems harder to form a relationship with a guy. They tend to say the same thing, that they aren’t ready for this kind of life and to take on the responsibility of a child.
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.
Each girl that was interviewed was pregnant, and every one of those girls had different opinions as to how they responded to the act and or thought of abortion. Barbara was one of the girls that were being interviewed in this documentary. In the documentary, she was a 17 year old mother with a 2 year old son. The father of her child was a violent man, which eventually led to them breaking up. When Barbara found out she was pregnant another time, she felt an abortion would be the best decision because she had little money to support her and her son already, and her mom said that she would not help her daughter with to have another baby.