The Parents in Sunnydale

[sosa lola]

One of the show's biggest flaws was the lack of parents' involvement. Not just the main cast's parents, but also other characters' parents (especially the victims). For example, the members of the swim team's parents. Shouldn't they have pressed charges against the school for putting drugs in the steam and turning their kids into monsters?

And it's not just Sunnydale, even the potentials from different countries get taken away and killed and buried and their parents non the wiser.

What do you call that kind of parenting?

 

[vellavu]

Besides the offscreen bad parenting you pointed out, there is an on-screen large-scale bad parenting.

In Graduation Day, Part II, there are a lot of parents sitting behind the students. They all just ran away, leaving their kids to be eaten by the Mayor and vampires.

 

[sosa lola]

In Graduation Day, Part II, there are a lot of parents sitting behind the students. They all just ran away, leaving their kids to be eaten by the Mayor and vampires.

Makes Joyce win the award of #1 Best Parent.

 

[brinkster130]

I think Joss and co. believed that good parenting was boring, so they stayed away from it. We almost never saw parents and when we did it was usually in an negative context.

It was also probably a lot easier for them to just ignore parents than to have to work them into the story in a way that made sense and was realistic.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I think Joss and co. believed that good parenting was boring, so they stayed away from it. We almost never saw parents and when we did it was usually in an negative context.

It was also probably a lot easier for them to just ignore parents than to have to work them into the story in a way that made sense and was realistic.

He did not want to have ANY parents on the show at all.. but realized that might not be believable. So he made every parent horrible, to amplify the feeling of isolation against the 'adult' world.

 

[cryptwarmer]

One of the most interesting parent relationships for me is Wood/Nikki. There wasn't time or room to go into it too much, but the concept of a Slayer with a kid is interesting to me. Something for the world of fanfic for sure.