Mamacita says: I read “The Glass Castle” several years ago, and I can fully appreciate the excellent writing; the author is really good. That she survived her childhood in one piece, physically and mentally, is a miracle. There are interviews with these people on YouTube that are also good; I recommended them to my students that one year we were required to teach the novel. However, I loathed the parents in this autobiography so deeply and thoroughly that there is not enough money in the mint to pay me to see the film version. Just thinking about those parents makes my blood pressure rise. They were despicable. They were repulsive. They were unforgivably selfish, childish, ignorant, needy, and grasping. I could not deal with seeing them brought to life on the screen. There was nothing positive about them.

The innocence of our children is too precious to profit by. . . .

The film version is coming out this summer, but I won’t be going. I can’t go. I understand that film is art, and there are all kinds of art. I love art. I just don’t want to re-experience the author’s parents. Actually, it’s more like I can’t re-experience her parents.

All those years in the public schools, experiencing all kinds of children with all kinds of parents. . . . some of those parents were as horrific if not more so than the parents in this autobiography. I loathed these people then. I loathe them now. Sure, even horrific people are still people, and maybe they’re horrific because they have severe mental issues of some kind, but the fact remains that how a person treats children says a lot more about them than they prefer the world to know. No matter what kind of childhood someone might have had, there is never an excuse for mistreating a child. Never, ever. Ever.

I am on the side of the children. So, no, I won’t be seeing the new movie. “The Glass Castle” is a work of art. It’s well-written, and no doubt well-acted. I’m sure the author found writing it all out quite cathartic. But I can’t watch it. I love children too much to pay money to watch dysfunctional people torture, starve, and otherwise misuse innocent children.

You go. I hope you enjoy it. But I won’t be going. I have to deal with people like this on a daily basis. Most of the time, I am helpless. These people always seem to have more rights than do their innocent victims.

There are never enough resources for everyone. Children should be at the head of the line. Those who abuse them, no matter what the reason, belong at the back of the line.