In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, how would you characterize the parenting methods of Miss Watson and Widow Douglas?

This question can be successfully answered through an
examination of the first chapter of this excellent coming-of-age classic, which details
the living arrangements that Huck has to endure after The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer. Note what the opening chapter tells us about the Widow Douglas and
her ideas of parenting:

readability="9">

The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and
allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time,
considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I
couldn't stand it no longer I lit
out.

Wen need to remember
that the book is told from the point of view of Huck Finn, and thus it is tempting to
see things as he presents them, rather than have a more objective view. Let us remember
that Huck probably was a very difficult child to look after. Having been used to living
by himself and living off the land, it would have been a massive adjustment for him to
living a "civilised" life. Therefore, I think we can say that there was nothing bad
about the parenting style of Widow Douglas and her sister, apart from their obvious lack
of understanding about Huck and what made him tick. They seemed to take him on as a
project, and the way that they try to "civilise" him involves teaching him about the
Bible and Christianity, manners and reading and writing. Clearly, for their generation,
obedience could be commanded through threats of what would happen to you if you were
evil, as is shown when Mss Watson told Huck stories about "the bad
place."

Therefore I don't think that Widow Douglas and Miss
Watson were necessarily bad parents, but they did show a clear lack of understanding
about Huck and his position, which resulted in the kind of erroneous conclusions that
Huck makes about religion in the first chapter.