Who is the worst fictional parent?

[OneUmberJoker]

Cilla Battersby

Obviously not her real mum but Mother Gothel from Tangled. Aside from the obvious kidnapping and imprisonment of Rapunzel in the tower she was a horribly gaslighting narc

Yes both parents in Lily Alone definitely. 12 year old left in charge of two young siblings for a week, no money and hardly any food. They end up stealing scraps from a cafe and from a fridge in a house.

Most fictional children have parents who are dead, absent or incompetent. It's the old truism: happiness writes white. A book about kids growing up in a happy household with protective affectionate parents would probably not be very interesting to read.

The mum in Hideous Kinky. Self absorbed crusty horrible person. Abandoned her daughters with random men abroad to go find herself.

I also can’t understand why anyone would call their child ‘Topsy’ 🥴

I’m afraid I’m with him

‘if not duffers, then won’t drown. ‘

he was showing confidence that they were capable sailors, which they were. Admirable.

Sadly I don't think she is fictional. The book is based on the authors childhood.

Phil and Claire from Modern Family

And any mother in a book written by Virginia Andrew’s…

Lyra's parents in Northern Lights. All thr resources, all the abandonment and worse.

And the parents in Not Now Bernard who (spoiler alert) don't notice their kid has been eaten by a monster.

The Duchess in Alice in Wonderland:

"And with that she
began nursing her child again, singing a sort of
lullaby to it as she did so, and giving it a vio­lent shake at the end of every line:
"Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes;
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases"

Irene, poor Bertie’s mother in Scotland Street series.

controlling

Mr & Mrs Large (elephants) may be a controversial choice but I think they're absolutely dreadful!

But surely they're stuffed toys and the adventures are imaginary? Or have I been reading it wrong all this time?!

Really @Namechangefordaughterevasion urg, starred it years ago, but it infuriated me with what a shit parent she was and how she put so much on her young daughters to look after her and each other. Total waste of space trustafarian.

Monica’s mum in friends - the “daughter I never had” to a son’s girlfriend was epically cruel

Of course they were, I totally forgot that! Also their adventures only lasted about 10 seconds of earth time!

Oh Lordy that was so 🥲

The absolute worst are the parents in The Glass Castle and Educated. Sadly both are true accounts of hideous childhoods.

Our teens both read them and were horrified and more appreciative of Dh and I! Both very good books actually - though you want to jump into the books and rescue the poor authors.

Maybe a bit leftfield, but I'll plump for the cigarette-smoking man from The X-Files. The way he treats both Mulder and Spender (and Spender's mother), despite being both their biological fathers, is abominable.

Hera or Zeus. Booting poor Hephaestus off the mountain for being ugly was pretty poor parenting.

My firsts thought was the Wormwoods, but Mrs Beech beats them easily. And is much more disturbing because she's not a caricature.

Carrie White's Mum is also awful.

Assuming the Bible is fictional, then King Mesha of Moab. He sacrificed his eldest son as a burnt offering to his god - which seems a bit mean.

Roman generals could be harsh. Ones teenage son failed in a battle and lost and ran away. The father said how disgusted he was so the son killed himself. The father thought that was the right result then married the son’s young widow. We are far too soft these days.

Walter White, Breaking Bad

Harry, Dexter's adoptive Dad