Being a Good Parent

In the book, "The Bluest Eye", Pecola has a terrible mother and father who don't take care of their kids very well and in general live terrible lives. Unfortunately, this is largely due to both of their sad, sad childhoods. It's true they were discriminated by race, sex and even a different degree of race (Pg 92). But undisputably one factor to their lack of parental capabilities was due to their own lack of childhood.

Lesson 4: Don't abandon your child on a junk heap. (Pg 132)
Now this goes without saying, but apparently it happens. Cholly's mother abandoned him on a pile of trash near a railroad track--dangerous and disgusting. He's forced to be taken care of by his great aunt who isn't much of parental figure, at best just a caretaker.  Cholly doesn't have a basis for a parent so in turn he can't be a parent. Well, at least Aunt Jimmy didn't throw her child away.

Lesson 9: Don't ignore your child (Pg 111)
This one happens quite a bit, see Middle Child Syndrome. Pauline, Mrs. Breedlove, got a nail stabbed through her foot at age two. Someone should've been paying attention, but in this case it can maybe be forgiven as she was the 9th child. Afterwards she was the "broken" child. None of the other kids played with her and her parents went on to overlook the 9th child. Worse, she was given the bare minimum attention required of a parent to her child and none of the other kids even really talked to her. No teasing, abusing, or any attention given at all. It's been said that being alone makes you insane. Pauline, got off easy as a semi-delusional, incompetent parent.

Lesson 16: Do make sure that your child is thinking straight.
Cholly thinks about all sorts of stuff, like preferring the devil/evil over God/good(134). From a young age Cholly's corrupted. Something should've been done, anything. Pauline's not much better. She's found sanity through arranging stuff and categorizing objects throughout the house. Then she starts daydreaming and now she's lost forever in the world of her imagination. Until one day, the Stranger appears. Unfortunately, Pauline's parents ignored Lesson 9. So Pauline was whisked away riding into the sunset living happily ever after...for a while. Then they discovered money, probably something that they should've learned to deal with by then, and a tooth came loose, and everything started to fall apart.  Now Pecola has been raped.

Parenting isn't a hobby. It's a full-time job.