The Dysfunctional Parents of the Glass Castle

       It is obvious that the parents in The Glass Castle are not exactly are out of the ordinary. They have a very interesting way of parenting that was somewhat successful. Rex Walls rates about a 3 in the realm of parenting. He has a few good qualities about him, but there are more things wrong with his way of parenting than good things. He allows for his children to be independent beings and find their own ways to entertain themselves. His children were very self-sufficient and learned how to survive on their own at a very young age. At times Rex was also very loving and affectionate towards his kids, especially Jeannette. Even though he could not provide for his family consistently he made up for it in other ways, he took the time to teach the kids about the world and gave them special things, like stars as birthday presents. However, Rex was not the best provider financially, he also drank and was drunk in front of his kids and acted very inappropriately in front of them. Rex and Rose Mary also fought with each other in front of the kids, and that did not exactly give them the best example of being a responsible parent. They should have dealt with their problems in private.
       Rosemary taught the children very well, and gave them the education that they needed to be successful. She also tried to make sure that the children were fed when they had food, and she did the regular things that other mothers do: cleaning, and making sure the children had some sort of clothing on their backs. Rose Mary was also very tolerant. She always supported Rex and his endeavors, even when it was not out of the best interest of their family. She also supported Rex when he said that they had to "skedaddle" and she would pack up the children and made sure that they had the basic necessities to live. However, Rose Mary also neglected her children when she was painting and she was not very good about managing her problems. She depended on the children to help her when she was in need of help. In a way her kids were parenting her instead of her parenting them. The children helped her grade assignments, she slept in and left it up to the kids to get ready to go, and she would escape into her own world to paint pictures. Rose Mary and Rex raised 3 successful children and one "failure" so they were 75% successful in raising their children, so I guess you could say that they ironically did something right.