Bad parenting examples seen from popular sitcoms

We love watching sitcoms, and there are some shows which have gained a cult following over the years. Most often than not, there are a lot of lessons that we learn and feel inspired, watching these shows- ones about love, familial relationships, friendships. As we watch the characters move on with their lives, we cheer for them and get excited for sitcom babies too! However, there's a big loophole that we fail to ignore- the bad, terribly bad parenting examples.

While some of the current shows have raised the bar with their brave, honest parenting portrayals, a lot of popular sitcoms and classic funny shows have a dark side to them, since they stem from troubled families and toxic parent-child relationships. Having said that, although it's critical that we do take sitcoms in jest, we must also remember that if we adore and cheer for character progress, we must not follow the same journeys, and narratives as them. We discuss some of the most toxic parenting examples and troubling 'issues' sitcom kids experience:

The Simpsons is a cult classic and still running. While the show continues to offer laughs, the show's lead, Homer Simpson is quite the irresponsible father to his three kids. Think about it- a dad who never is shown to work much, abuses his son for fun, Homer Simpson is in reality, far from the lovable, hilarious father he is shown to be.

While toxic traits such as abuse and parental neglect can have long-term effects on kids, cause behavioural issues, it could also lead to kids becoming people-pleasers, classically, what Lisa does in the show and tries to overachieve just to please her parents. Neglected kids can often turn out to be overachievers, since they tend to try hard to win their parents' attention, or clear fights.

Family Guy is another show which has won a lot of praise and accolades for its comedy, but there are one too many parenting faults at play here. Consider Meg, the lead daughter in the show for example. Not only is she a middle child in the family, she's constantly put to immense ridicule, trolling, neglect, crude jokes on her looks, how she talks or how her personality is, from all the members in the family.

Not only does Meg continue to be subjected to this trolling and criticism, she continues to stay put because of her innate fear. Experts say that children like Meg, who undergo a lot of judgement, or are made to feel insecure at home, in an environment which should be absolutely non-judgement are more prone to feel vulnerable, insecure, easily get manipulated, be self-critical and worse, experience extreme body-image issues. Experiencing such deep levels of insecurity can harm one's life, make them more susceptible to having relationship issues, and take extreme steps as well.

Modern Family wasn't the perfect of shows and played on many parenting fails, which was its catchpoint. However, while there's a lot of humour and love shown in the show we absolutely adore, parental relationships portrayed in the show aren't completely example-worthy, and worse, spans across generations.

While Jay Pritchett has difficulty coming to terms with his son, Mitchell's sexuality, the two elder children often compete with each other to win their parent's attention. While Mitchell is referred to as his mother's boy, listening to her every command, Claire is often mocked to be 'Daddy's girl', and the validation and approvals they feign for is very questionable.

Even with Claire and Phil, while their relationship is quite lovable, they are shown to judge and rank their children based on their academic talents. Prompting such actions could cause a difficult parent-child relationship, lead to insecurity and jealousy within the siblings, or make them devoid of parental attention.

Extremely popular , The Gilmore Gores revolved around Rory, and her mother, Lorelai. While the lead Lorelai wasn't always the perfect of mothers, what's very critical in the show is the way the mother sponges off loads of responsibilities onto her darling daughter, Rory, when she is just a teenager. Such an equation is uncomfortable, and keeps children away from enjoying their childhood. It can set the wrong standards , and make kids have unrealistic expectations. In the show, we see Rory to be stressed about her mother, and not the other way around. Even if you do tell teenagers to do tasks, make sure you follow age-appropriate manners, and do not load them with responsibilities which would be too immature for their age.

Lastly on the list we have the ever-so-popular and still acclaimed show, Friends. While the show continues to have a mega following, of late, the show and the character portrayal have been deemed somehow problematic. One of the characters we find engaging in a lot of problematic situations is Ross Gellar, who plays a father to two on the show.

For one, not only does he seem uncomfortable around having Susan, a gay woman around his child, he also seems very uncomfortable when his son, Ben, demands playing with a doll and not typical trucks and boy toys. Passing on this judgement can push children away from being real, and stereotype what should be done. As kids growing up in an extremely aware and gender-equal world, kids should be allowed to play or wear anything they want. Remember, clothes and toys are genderless, and as a parent, it is your duty to be accepting of your child, above all.

What's also concerning on the show is how Ross tends to be a very different, active parent on the show when he has his second child, a girl Emma than he was with Ben. He is seen to pass on responsibilities, or not have Ben around when Emma is there, which again sets a wrong example, especially in a relationship when the siblings aren't connected by blood. To forge a good relationship, kids should be allowed to be comfortable with each other, spend more time, instead of enjoying separate lives.