While there are many court definitions of what makes a parent “unfit,” for the purpose of this essay, the definition that will be used is from uslegal.com. It defines an unfit parent as one who "substantially and continuously or repeatedly refused or failed to give the child proper parental care and protection." The list of offenses against the Walls parents is numerous. A brief glance at their “greatest hits” includes the rented U-Haul the children rode in on their way to Battle Mountain. The Walls siblings were at the start of their fourteen hour long journey to their next temporary home when the doors to the van flew open. Brian was nearly jerked out, but he managed to jump back in time. Another incident arose when Rex let Jeannette over
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It’s a good thing my mom is the strongest woman I know. In fact, the entire reason I nutshelled my parents’ childhood was so that I could explain why they raised my sisters and I the way they did. Dad made sure we knew how to love learning. He could turn anything into a story, and that’s how he taught us. He made sure we knew the woods as well as the back of our hand. I freely admit I took to Dad’s lifestyle better than my sisters did. They could never really stand to get dirty, which meant I had Dad all to myself. Both he and Mom taught their daughters how to be independent. They never wanted us to be at the mercy of any man, woman, or stranger. While Dad did this by practical skills (house and car repairs, budgeting, shooting, etc), Mom made sure we knew how to fight for ourselves. She would never get mad at us if we had a justified reason for arguing or fighting other kids. We were expected to stand up for one another and for the weaker kids. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t fighting just for the sake of fighting, and it wasn’t even that frequent. As a matter of fact, my big sister was a cheerleader and a certified shopaholic. My baby sister was a dancer. She was all the time putting on shows for the family. Meanwhile, I was my mom with my dad’s face. I played any sport that had a ball, arm wrestled the boys, and played every sport my school offered. All in all, my sisters and I had a great childhood. We were home-schooled, private-schooled, and attended public school, too. My parents always did what they felt was the best thing for each of us individually. We all feel very blessed to have the parents and opportunities that we
It’s a good thing my mom is the strongest woman I know. In fact, the entire reason I nutshelled my parents’ childhood was so that I could explain why they raised my sisters and I the way they did. Dad made sure we knew how to love learning. He could turn anything into a story, and that’s how he taught us. He made sure we knew the woods as well as the back of our hand. I freely admit I took to Dad’s lifestyle better than my sisters did. They could never really stand to get dirty, which meant I had Dad all to myself. Both he and Mom taught their daughters how to be independent. They never wanted us to be at the mercy of any man, woman, or stranger. While Dad did this by practical skills (house and car repairs, budgeting, shooting, etc), Mom made sure we knew how to fight for ourselves. She would never get mad at us if we had a justified reason for arguing or fighting other kids. We were expected to stand up for one another and for the weaker kids. Don’t get me wrong, we weren’t fighting just for the sake of fighting, and it wasn’t even that frequent. As a matter of fact, my big sister was a cheerleader and a certified shopaholic. My baby sister was a dancer. She was all the time putting on shows for the family. Meanwhile, I was my mom with my dad’s face. I played any sport that had a ball, arm wrestled the boys, and played every sport my school offered. All in all, my sisters and I had a great childhood. We were home-schooled, private-schooled, and attended public school, too. My parents always did what they felt was the best thing for each of us individually. We all feel very blessed to have the parents and opportunities that we