Comparison Of Regan And Liam's Parents Struggle With Gender Roles

Regan and Liam’s parents are struggling with their gender roles and what society expects from them. Society expects a father to show love, compassion, patience for their family. Not only they need to be dedicated and take responsibility for the family. Regan’s dad, Mr. O’Neill, wants to be the traditional “normal” family where the wife doesn’t work (stay at home mom), the son is bonding with the dad and doing “manly” things, and the daughter doing house work such as cooking and cleaning. Her dad failing to realize the option to have a normal family is not available because there are so many problems that are being untended. He doesn’t want his family his family to be different. He wants his family to be perfect as the way that has been painted in his head. Because of these problems, he is struggling with his role and what society expects from him. …show more content…
O’Neil, is on the same path as her husband, but she is not helping because she is ignoring all family matters. She is so caught up with her work that she is ignoring anything family related. Her family isn’t her priority. Her job is her priority. Her role as a mother is nowhere to be found. A mother is supposed to be caring and honest with their loved ones, but she fails to do both. Because of this, it harms the family to be in the state that they are. She wants stay out of trouble, so she ignores all family matters. In the story it said the mother knew all along that Liam was transgender. The book even said she was helping Liam, but in reality she made the situation go worse. She needed to speak up, explain the situation to the dad, and resolve the problem. I’d go so far to say she has failed as a