Who is the worst fictional parent?

[OneUmberJoker]

Cilla Battersby

Mrs Joe Gargery (Georgiana), Pip’s sister in Great Expectations. But she did meet a nasty end.

Not the worst but worth a mention - Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Lay around in bed watching his son and daughter in law struggle, eat cabbage soup and clean up around him. But soon leapt up when it was time to visit a chocolate factory.

Dickens's vast array of atrocious parents and parent-figures. David Copperfield alone has that sibling horror show the Murdstones, the improvident Mr Micawber, Mrs Steerforth and Mrs Heep, terrible mothers who bring up dreadful young men, Mr Creakle, the bully headmaster..admittedly, Dickens also gives us the wonderful Betsey Trotwood, but he churns out creeps, sadists, predators and the hopeless and feckless as if there was a shortage of them.

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

My parents. They forgot my 17th birthday. And they didn’t have the excuse of hosting a wedding for their eldest child! At least Molly Ringwald got an exceptionally hot boyfriend out of it. I can’t say the rest of the movie has aged well.

Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fayre

I was going to say the same. Evil person.

Jack Torrance in The Shining. Clearly he would say that "the ghosts made me do it". But they knew who to target, didn't they? An alcoholic wannabe novelist who breaks his sons arm, drags his family off to the middle of nowhere, and then lets his wife get on with the job he's being paid to do so that he can martyr himself over a typewriter, blaming his family for his lack of talent writer's block.

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

I agree. Parentng these days has gone too far the other way I think, with parents having no confidence in their children's abilities.

There was a thread here some time ago in which the op asked whether she should let her children go and camp on an island, the youngest being only seven and unable to swim. Someone gave the proper answer quite quickly, but twenty pages in there were still posters expressing horror at the idea.

The parents in Monica Edwards' books are very much present - but I find Tamzin's parents a bit too good to be true.

Worst Chalet School parent is Adrienne's father, I think. He hadn't provided for a guardian for her, or made any financial provision. He hadn't done anything to equip her to earn her own living. He hadn't told her anything about his or her mother's background or family, or left any information, so when he died no-one knew if there was anyone who should be told, who might want to offer Adrienne a home.

The real life dad was Lucien Freud I think? Who had about 70 kids so I image not the most attentive father.

She didn’t know what to do!

(70 is an exaggeration, but it was definitely a lot!)

Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones. He has his daughter, who is about 11 or 12, burned alive to facilitate a magic ritual. Which doesn't actually achieve anything anyway.

Will's mother in Goodnight Mister Tom. Abuses her son and then abandons him, tied to something, in a cupboard with his dying baby sister. Proper jaw-droppingly awful stuff.

Both of Shuggie's parents in Shuggie Bain.

There are also some utterly horrific parents in all of Sarah J Maas's books. Special mentions for Rhysand's father, Feyre's mother and both of Mor's parents in ACOTAR, Chaol Westfall's father in the Throne Of Glass books, and the father of Ruhn Danaan and Bryce Quinlan in Crescent City.

Margeret White. Carrie White's mum in Srephen King's Carrie.

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Liane Cartman yet, she's directly responsible for the 8 yo monster that is Eric Cartman.

This. Plus why didn’t she get a job? She’s just happy for her kids to live in poverty without the money for basic school supplies (Ron’s broken wand seems pretty important) and yet she can’t be bothered to get a job. Her kids aren’t even home most of the year. In book two they even stay at school for Christmas. That’s at least 6months without seeing her kids, ample time to get a job!

Bernard’s parents in Not Now Bernard!!!!

disappointed this is still there. This is about fictional parents.

Agree, plus the grandfather in The old Curiosity Shop, gambles away all the money and sends little Nell out in terrible weather to beg, when no-one gives anything because they are all trying to get out of the weather: he sends her out again, and unsurprisingly she dies of a totally avoidable fever, and everyone is sorry for him. But I can see why Oscar Wilde said what he did, Dickens does make his women largely spineless.

Not parents but grandparents.... Charlie Buckets Grandpa Jo. He lay in bed for 20 years doing nothing literally while his daughter or daughter in law worked all day long and his grandson went through life in poverty, going hungry most days. Then he hears about a freebie day out and suddenly he is up and about, dancing around the place.

Mr Banks in Mary Poppins. Ignored his children every single day then spends about 45 mins flying a bloody kite and all is forgiven.

Logan Roy (Succession) is a shitty father.

Mrs Boynton in Agatha Christie's Appointment With Death

Probably a few other Christie parents who would qualify too.

And back to the Chalet School, Juliet Carrick's parents.

Yes! and there is another book like this called "Come away from the water, Shirley," where the parents take her to the beach and ignore her and she gets kidnapped by pirates.

Why did they read this stuff to us!

The dad in The Goldfinch. Lazy feckless and greedy. Tries to con his only child out of money and kills himself when he doesn't succeed.

Agree re the mum in Flowers in the Attic. Literally shoved her children away so she could max her inheritance and then find a rich new husband whilst her neglected children love her and long for her.

Saw (most of) Pamela Anderson's film The Last Showgirl on a plane recently. Her character was a terrible mother. Literally dumped her daughter on friends to raise as she didn't want to give up stripping on stage because she enjoyed that more. when her daughter came to visit she couldn't even remember how old she was. I didn't finish it but I doubt she got better. Awful totally vacuous character and pointless film.

Also agree about Grandpa Joe. Lazy gaslighting cunt.

Agreed! 🥲

It is actually very hard to have parents in books. I write adult Women's Fiction, but often have to have either parents who are deceased or estranged, because otherwise a lot of the heroine's struggles can be solved by the sentence 'just go home and stay with your parents for a while.'

As soon as you have an existing strong familial support network an awful lot of stories have no basis for continuing, and it's the same in children's fiction!

Are we allowed step-parents? If so, I'd like to nominate the step-mum in Hansel and Gretel, who pays a huntsman to take her stepkids into the woods and murder them "because they ate too much".

Snow White's step mum was also a little unmaternal, but at least SW was older when the attempted murder was carried out.