Who is the worst fictional parent?

[OneUmberJoker]

Cilla Battersby

It was the making of the kids though!

Came here to say exactly this!!!

At least the evil gran owned it and admitted to being a giant bitch. The mum however? Complete and utter narcissist so obsessed with her own sense of victimhood that she neglected her children to their literal death while STILL acting like the victim!

Mr Earnshaw (Wuthering Heights) means well, but he's a poor specimen. He scoops his little foundling off the streets of Liverpool, then dumps said foundling on his wife, who hasn't the least idea what to do with him. The outcome is dreadful for Heathcliff and everyone connected with him. If Mr Earnshaw had taken Heathcliff in hand while he was still a lost little mite, things could have been very different. Of course, there wouldn't have been as much of a story.

Mrs Reed (Jane Eyre.) Her mistreatment of Jane is shocking enough. The way she pampers her son and allows him to tyrannise the household (especially Jane,) is exactly why he grows up feckless, wasteful and horrible and dies an early death. Her daughters regard her with disdain and who can blame them?

Lyra's parents in the Philip Pulman trilogy. What a pair of psychopaths , and they both abandon her.

Yep. Was always deeply suspicious of Uncle Quentin 🤣

Eddie from AbFab - alcoholic, neglectful, emotionally immature, and utterly self-absorbed. At least Saffy had June Whitfield's gran on hand i suppose.

Also Cersei and Jamie Lannister.

Meghan Markle 🤣

Leonard’s mum in the Big Bang Theory!

The McCallisters, all of them. I want to see grown-up Kevin get his revenge on all of them.

🙄

From Corrie?? Not only did she call her son Chesney I remember her forcing him to say Emily Bishop had pushed him down the stairs and go through a criminal prosecution so she could get the victim payment and use it to go on holiday

Mary and John Winchester

Sheldon says that he wished he had Beverley as his mum.

Not true. He thrived on Mary’s love and attention, and is the man he is today because of her.
Even though her other kids were ‘as dumb as soup’.

Leonard is aaalll kinds of messed up because of Beverley.

Ross Gellar. Where does Ben go after Emma comes along? When he arranges a playdate with a strippers kid to make Rachel jealous. Why wasn’t Ben at the wedding to Emily? When he doesn’t want his son to have a Barbie. He’s upset that Rachel wants to move to Paris but where’s the mention of Emma? Firing the male nanny for no good reason.

Irene Pollock in the Bertie books.
Toxic, controlling joy-sucker of a woman.

Mummy pig

Yep.
He was ok complaining and criticising what ‘silly, ignorant girls’ the youngest 3 were.
But, he had a role to play in their upbringing, as well.

And like you said, he pissed off to his library and left Mrs Bennett to do it.

The dad in swallows and amazons. He'd prefer his kids to be drowned than be duffers 😁.

Leda Strike was a dreadful mum, particularly to Lucy.

The dad in we’re going on a bear hunt. Completely and utterly reckless. Pretty much from the off when they wade across a river through to going into a snowstorm. LTB territory.

Jacqueline wilson also has a fair few contenders.

Bella’s mother in Twilight strikes me as a terrible mother.

She did do things with her as a child (loads of things and made a quilt!) but just seems so selfish and self absorbed.

Im sure there are much worse but I really dislike her for some reason!!

The mum from drop dead Fred

The parents in Sixteen Candles. Who forgets their daughter's 16th birthday? Made me so angry when I watched it.
And the McCallisters obviously.