In Teenage Wasteland, Donny is a trouble adolescent, who just needs some guidance to push him through in order for him take on responsibilities and oblige by the rules. Some stricter guidelines in the house, and some more support from his parents would help. His mother, Daisy, makes the right choice by sending him to see a psychologist and possibly diagnose a problem. The problem does not start to grow when Donny is sent to Cal. The situation emerges into a crisis once Daisy and her husband let Donny become so involved at the Teenage Wasteland, also known as Cal's house. The insecurity and laziness of Daisy lead to the eventual dissapearance of Donny. She put her own's sons problems into the hands of another man. Donny did not abandon Daisy. Daisy abandoned Donny by not reaching out to him more often.
When Daisy decides to let Donny go over to Cal's "Teenage Wasteland" all the time, without knowing what is going on over there, she is pushing Donny away from her. A parent's job is to take care of his or her child. Daisy dumps this duty onto Cal, a man who is clearly not fit to take care of a child and teach him responsibilities. Cal had trouble taking care of himself and couldn't even keep his marriage together. In general Cal reflects the stereotypical hippie of the 1960's and 1970's. He has a lackidaisical attitude and this rubs off on all of his "students," including Donny. Cal tells Donny that he does not have to worry about grades, and should just have a relaxed attitude. Cal is acts as if he were an apathetic 15 year old. When Donny gets kicked out of school for having beer and cigarettes in his locker, Cal agrees with Donny and says the school framed him. Daisy put her child's life and future into the hands of the wrong person. Donny's future should have been in the hands of Daisy and her husband the whole time.
Even when Daisy does try to become more involved in improving Donny's attitude, behavior, and grades, she is only concerned with herself. While sitting in the principals office to talk about Donny, she can only think about how fat she looks, and how raggy her husband looks. She even tucks her belly in when she leaves the office. Daisy is incapable of focusing on her son's problems; instead, she acts like an self-centered, insecure 15 year old. Daisy does not want to cause Donny to run away, but she needs to put more of an effort into helping her own son with his problems. When she actually does help Donny with his homework, his grades start to rise. She does not want to help Donny with his homework, clearly, because of the fact that she sends Donny to be "tutored" by the psychologist-recommended Cal. Another mistake of Daisy is not being able to make up her own mind. She listens to everybody other than herself on how to handle Donny's situation. Being a parent is a huge responsibility that Daisy does not live up to fully.
With the right guidance and proper care from his parents, Donny would not have run away. Of course it is incredibly harsh to blame this all on Daisy (which I have mainly done throughout this blog). Cal had a large influence on Donny and made his attitude even worse and more lackadaisical. The school in general, did a good job of calling Daisy and giving her updates on Donny. Daisy should have listened to these updates more. Still, the main reason of Donny's running away is his mother's inability to monitor his problems and secure his situation.
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Patrick, I think you're right that the story allows us to get a good sense of how many mistakes Daisy has made as a mother. But that's part of its point of view. There may be other reasons Donny gets so lost (himself, his father's lack of presence, who knows what else) but because we experience the story through Daisy's eyes what we see most clearly are, as you point out, the way her insecurities keep her from being more effective in her role.
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