Do Parents Make A Difference In The Life Of A Child Analysis

The debates surrounding parenting is like attempting to avoid stepping on a land mine in a field riddled with such explosives. There is no definite right way to parent, even though there are plenty of wrong ways. This begs questions surrounding the topic of parents’ and caregivers’ rights to make informed decisions about a child. Do parents have the right to make informed decisions pertaining to the child’s life? When should the parents’ desires be limited to protect the wellbeing of the child? And do parents really make a difference in the life of a child? For a child abandoned at an early age, Victor has brought insight into each of these questions and can relate to many people two hundred years after his existence. Although Victor’s biological parents are never introduced in the novel, they are mentioned when Victor is first found and again when he is in Dr. Itard’s care. The doctor concluded that Victor’s parents slit their child’s throat and left him in the woods to die. This brings up an important question dealing with parents’ or caretakers rights about making decisions …show more content…
If the mother continues her frequent tendencies of drinking, the result could be disastrous. In both cases of alcoholism and experimenting, moderation is the key. While a sip or two of wine is not going to harm the child, having too much can cause Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, giving the child birth defects and learning disabilities explains Phyllida Brown (76). As for the science experiment, we see Dr. Itard regretting the extent he pushed Victor. “Itard did everything he could think of to make Victor understand it had been an experiment…that he himself had been wrong, and was truly sorry and would never test him like that again” (Gerstein, 243). In both cases, moderation would have been alright for both the child and the parent figure, a compromise per se. It was the excessiveness that causes problems and is the reason behind such a hot