Who is the worst fictional parent?

[OneUmberJoker]

Cilla Battersby

Their oblivion where Alex was concerned was terrible parenting

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!

Hence the popularity of boarding school stories. The parents, if any, are at a distance, so the characters sort out their own problems.

And in fiction set in the past, when travel and communication were more dfficult, you can have the parents less available.

Phil did describe Alex as a ‘self cleaning oven’.

They definitely took their eye off the ball with Alex.

Homer Simpson. Although Bart was a bit of a shit right enough.

Mary-Lou’s mother in the second Malory Towers

Shipped off to boarding school, then she has a “French girl” to look after her in the holidays.

Poor Mary-Lou!

I agree

Not the worst, but Mrs Dashwood and Mrs Dale (Sense & Sensibility/ The Small House at Allington) both need a good hard slap. (Lily Dale I would shake until her teeth rattled; Marianne D I would drown.)

All the parents in Jane Austen.

They have their adorable little quirks and are all silly - but silly turns bloody serious when their DDs are on the arse end of it.

IRL Austen’s parents gave the family home to their favourite son and his upwardly mobile wife, leaving themselves, Jane and her DSis homeless. The four sons went away to work.

The parents decided to go travelling - Bath - but Jane’s DF died & the three women were left penniless. They stayed in pubs and crappy damp flats for years, only getting housed shortly before Jane died at 36. They were as poor as you can be without being underclass.

Jane’s mother, a lifelong whiny hypochondriac, saw all her children out and died at 93.

JA knew about silly parents.

I’m watching Call the Midwife on iPlayer and Chummy’s ‘mater’ is awful. And poor Chummy is lovely.

Also Juliet Carrick’s parents for abandoning her.

To be fair the five couldn’t have the adventures they did with parents hanging round.

At least Julie's parents were condemned.

An Enid Blyton one - Joan's mother in the Naughtiest Girl in the school. She sent her child to boarding school and never visited or sent her things. Then when Joan became very sick she came go visit and became very upset and told her the real reason she hadn't been there for her. Joan had a twin Michael who died. This is where you might think the poor woman is so traumatised she couldn't love again... but no. She explains that she had loved Michael more so when he died she didn't want anything to do with Joan either. I was reading that book aloud to my boy / girl twins and was gobsmacked!!

I always thought Marmee was pretty awful. Pious and judgemental.
Also Ma Ingalls, racist and played favourites.

Dylis Price

i just cannot imagine it - my ds is just 7 and he is gorgeous . I cannot possibly imagine being parted from him, my heart would break in two.

Kaiser Soze in The Usual Suspects. Kills his children when they're taken by a rival crime gang rather than being held to ransom.

There’s a whole sub genre of videos on youtube etc of, "Watching Friends without the laughter/audience track."

Ross in particular comes across as being very, very strange indeed without it.

The mum in Precious wasn't great

Uncle Quentin seems to make an appearance more than the rest of them. Probably why they dote on the parents they never see

Jude and awful Sue in Jude. Such an unpleasant story

Not Susan though!!! She committed the dreadful sin of (whispers) liking nylons!

OK, I give you the unpleasant story past without reservation. But all Sue said was "There are too many of us", not unreasonable for her to predict the horrors that follow.

Have you seen the film adaptation? Brilliantly played by Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet (who must have been unbelievably young to play that part).

Yes I found it very distressing

Ooh, Sweeney Todd! He was a terrible Dad!

As is Titus Andronicus. Or any of the parents in that play at all.