The Glass Castle portrays poor parenting throughout the text. Although Jeanette and her siblings had to deal with their parents' selfishness, inability to provide stability for their children, and the lack of supervision to their children, the walls children were able to go against their odds and break away from what could have turned into a cycle of poverty.
To start off with Rose Mary, the mother, and Rex, the father, both exhibits selfishness. One prime example of Rose Mary's selfishness would be her hiding food from her children while they basically starving. "We had nothing to eat we were trying not to think of food, mom kept disappearing under the blanket. Brian yanked the covers back next to mom was one of those huge family-sized Hersey chocolate bars. She'd already eaten half it" (174). Rose Mary is able to feed herself while her children are hungry and not feel any type of guilt about this action. Another example that brings Rose Mary's selfishness to light would be the time when Jeanette find a ring outside of their home and offers to sell it in order to improve the families well-being but her mother refuses and keeps the ring for herself. "But mom that ring could get us a lot of food" (186). Her mother replies by saying "That's true but it could also improve my self-esteem, self-esteem is even more vital than food" (186). Clearly, Rose Mary does not care that she is in a place where she could do better for her family, if this kind of opportunity comes up again, she will likely respond in the same way which benefits herself. However Rose Mary is not in this alone. Her husband, Rex, also puts himself over his children in various situations. One of the major situations where this occurred would be the time where he took his daughters' saving and most likely spent it on alcohol. His daughters Lori and Jeanette had been saving up to leave the family ant travel to New York.