Who is the worst fictional parent?

[OneUmberJoker]

Cilla Battersby

The Dursleys from Harry Potter. Not only did they abuse their adoptive son by neglecting and emotionally abusing him for years, escalating it to imprisoning and starving him by his teens, they also abused their own son by turning him into a spoilt, undisciplined monster.

Zinnia Wormwood (mother of Matlida)

Kate and Peter McCallister in Home Alone
Judy Geller in Friends (to Monica not Ross)

Topsy & Tims Mum. She’s an emotionless bot.

Mr Bennet from Pride and Prejudice

made no provision for his wife and children after his death, hid away in his study and ridiculed his wife for trying to do her best for them.

Horrid Henry's parents have set up a bizarre dynamic there.

The Mum in Goodnight Mr Tom.

All the parents from the Famous Five books. Kids went to boarding school all term then the second they arrived home for the holidays the parents would decide they were too noisy/hard work, or they were too tired to entertain them. So would immediately shove them off to various friends on the moors/on camping trips/off in caravans/off into the horizon on their bikes or random ponies. All totally unsupervised. Must've seen their children about 3 days in a year.

Elliot’s Mum in ET, how did she not notice there was an alien waddling around her house.

Christopher Robins parents hands down!
Who let's their child play in the woods all day with a hungry bear & a tiger (!!) with the other animals not far behind in terms of being dangerous to a small child.

Matilda’s dad.

Also the Pevensie's in the Chronicles of Narnia - when did all of these fictional children ever see their parents.

Mr & Mrs Wormwood from Matilda.

Many of the parents of Chalet School children.
Some of them didn't see their children for about 7/8 years from babyhood! (Bettanys, I'm looking at you... I know war got in the way but leaving a few months old baby to go abroad?)

The Pontipine parents keep losing their children. And neither they nor the Wottingers have enough bedrooms for their families.

Yep! I came here to mention them!

Oh God, that has stayed with me since I read it as a child 😳

to be fair, they were evacuated during the war in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. And then in Prince Caspian they were on their way back to school. In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader 2 of them had to stay with Eustace's family because they were too young (the others were all travelling, and i do agree that was unfair.)
The Silver Chair: they were at school
The Magician's Nephew: Diggory lived with his mum next door to Polly. Uncle Andrew was awful, but not a parent. And they were playing together at home so no parental involvement needed.
Horse and His Boy: set during Wardrobe
The Last Battle: some were adults. All ended up... sorry, no spoilers.

Weren't they evacuated though, which seems fair enough?

She also told her 5 year old to run a bath and then left her home alone while dealing with her brothers.

also to be fair to writers how can kids have adventures if their parents are hovering?
Can thoroughly recommend the Wild Magic trilogy by Celine Kiernan if you want good stories about and featuring children, where the parents aren't awful, in fact quite the opposite.

The mum (and granny) from Flowers in the Attic.

What. A. Bitch.

She's not the worst or even that bad but I never understood how much love Molly Weasley gets on the opposite threads. She compares everyone to her golden child all the time and it's just toxic.

Darth Vader.

DH was born early 50s. Second oldest of 4. All were sent to school at 7 and spent holidays with grandparents and friends. He says he recognises the upbringing of the FF and the Pevensies. He says it was brilliant for building his sense of independence but equally he was wholly unequipped for parenthood when we had our two sons. They are 15 and 13 now and he’s fabulous as a dad now, but it took a lot of work and reflection.