19 Bad — And I Mean BAD — Parenting Decisions Characters Made On TV Shows
Why were the parents never around on teen dramas?
We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about the worst parenting decision a character made on a TV show. Here are some of the best responses:
Note: Some of the following contain mentions of sexual assault and abuse.
🚨 Spoilers ahead! 🚨
1. First, when Tori's parents were absolutely never around on Victorious:
"They literally made Tori stay home with Trina when she had her wisdom teeth removed, were barely present throughout the series, and were just bad parents overall."
2. When Joyce kicked Buffy out and then got mad at her for leaving on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
"She kicked Buffy out of the house and then was angry when Buffy did, in fact, leave the house."
3. When Aaron Echolls slept with his teenage son's girlfriend and then killed her on Veronica Mars:
4. When Pam's mom dated Michael, Pam's boss, on The Office:
"I know Pam was an adult, but this was still such a bad parenting decision."
5. When both Brooke and Peyton's parents were always absent on One Tree Hill:
"They were gone 'for work' 99% of the time — it’s like all of these kids were expected to bring themselves up."
6. When Ander's mom outed Omar to his dad on Elite:
7. When Julie slept with her daughter Marissa's high school ex-boyfriend on The O.C.:
"Julie did redeem herself in later seasons, but she was awful in Season 1."
8. When Cheryl's mom sent her to the Sisters of Quiet Mercy because she didn't approve of her being a lesbian on Riverdale:
9. When Bart Bass faked his own death on Gossip Girl:
"Pretty much all of the parents were a disaster, so it was no surprise that all of their kids were hot messes too."
10. When Quinn's parents kicked her out for being pregnant on Glee:
11. When Timmy's parents kept hiring Vicky to babysit him on The Fairly OddParents:
"They could clearly see how Timmy felt about Vicky, yet they kept hiring her."
12. When Spencer's dad had all these other children and just kept them a secret from his family on Pretty Little Liars:
"Every single parent on Pretty Little Liars made terrible decisions, but Spencer’s parents were the absolute worst."
13. When Moira and Johnny knew virtually nothing about Alexis's life on Schitt's Creek:
"I love them, but I think we can all agree that Johnny and Moira were pretty crappy parents — they hardly knew anything about Alexis’s life."
"I mean, who forgets their own daughter's middle name?!"
14. When Lydia's mom sent her to the Eichen House on Teen Wolf:
"Stiles even warned her not to!"
15. When Spike was completely clueless about Emma's online "boyfriend," who turned out to be a grown man on Degrassi: The Next Generation:
"Spike even talked about how Emma was being weird about her emails at the beginning of the episode. It was so irresponsible."
16. When Dean's dad sent him to a boys home for stealing food to feed his little brother on Supernatural:
"John Winchester is one of the worst TV dads of all time. Had John been with his boys, Dean wouldn’t have had to steal food to survive."
17. When Jamie accused Brianna of lying about being sexually assaulted on Outlander:
"As much as I love Jamie, I wanted to punch him for this."
18. When Lorelai constantly acted like Rory's best friend instead of her parent on Gilmore Girls:
"I get that Lorelai was young when she had Rory, but a parent shouldn't be their kid's best friend — it makes it so much harder to actually discipline your kids."
19. And finally, literally every parenting decision ever made on Riverdale:
Got a bad parenting moment from a TV show that didn't make this list? Tell us in the comments!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.