(Walls 219) While her children hoped that Rose Mary would get up every morning to go to work, she practically had to be dragged out of bed. Rose Mary hated that she had to work even if it meant her children would be better off if she held down a job. Rose Mary found a way to always try to avoid going to work and refused to do her job as a mother and teacher. Her children graded all of her students' work and always made lesson plans for her. Rose Mary couldn't do one thing for herself, what would give her a reason to do something for her children? Her children looked after themselves at school and at home because Rose Mary was too lazy to do anything for them. She is a negative character who relies on others just like her youngest daughter Maureen. Maureen learned to rely on others because that was all that Rose Mary truly instilled in her children, showing them that they could not rely on their mother. Maureen, like her mother, went to others for a chance to get better, she never learned to take care of herself. However, Rose Mary took care of herself, she fed herself and only herself even as she saw her children starving. (Walls 174) At one point she made the right choice by renewing her teaching license but when she returned home she decided it was better to take care of herself instead of having to take care of others. (Walls 218) Rose Mary always found a way to make time for her paintings, thus relying on her children to find work so they could feed themselves. That's probably how his kids knew it would be better if they left. After all, they would have to work for food with or without their mother