who are the worst parents on Smallville?

[laurarawlins]

Please leave comments and discuss this poll. Please be kind in your opinion and not make this thread into an intellectual debate. Thank you. I don't want to close this thread down. Plus I don't know how to close down a thread because I haven't close thread down before.

[Aurora Moon]

I think everyone knows my answer by now. Definitely Lillian and Lionel Luthor.

Martha and Jonathan was flawed in their own way, and made plenty of mistakes. but at least they genuinely cared about their son and raised him with love.

Lillian and Lionel Luthor, if they even loved their son they showed it in pretty twisted ways. Lionel Luthor was so abusive and controlling towards his own son....
Lillian killed off her baby and then let her older child take the rap for it, even if it was something Lex was willing to do. Plus, the marriage between Lillian and Lionel was shown to be highly dysfunctional, and they didn't bother to hide that from their child. So between the abuse from his parents and being in an dysfunctional family... well that wouldn't had been the best situation to raise a child in.

edit: Accidentally put in the wrong answer for the poll. I thought the poll said, Which parents were the most evil ones. Martha and Jonathan were never evil to me, so therefore they were the lesser "evil".

[Dagenspear]

edit: Accidentally put in the wrong answer for the poll. I thought the poll said, Which parents were the most evil ones. Martha and Jonathan were never evil to me, so therefore they were the lesser "evil".

Lol! I did the same.

God bless you! God bless everyone!

[laurarawlins]

The Poll question I was trying to ask is:

The poll that I put up here is not on which 2 parents are the most evil parents. I wasn't asking who are the most evil parents? I wasn't saying they were evil. The question for this poll that I was trying to ask was. which 2 parents had the worst parenting methods in their role of being parents? that I was meant by the lesser evil for clarification. sorry to confuse you. that was never my intention. again I'm sorry.

[Jennsen]

Definitely Lionel and Lillian. I've said what I think about Lionel many times, but Lillian was a crappy parent too - her behavior in 'Fracture' was loathsome.

I'd add AI!Jor-El to the list of worst parental figures ever too.

[laurarawlins]

My Two Cents on this subject

what about Jonathan and Martha?. They weren't exactly the best parental figures either. In some ways they were and other ways not so much. they are just as flawed as parents.

[Aurora Moon]

Jonathan and Martha were flawed, but they were NEVER abusive at all. Being flawed is completely different than being abusive.

Jonathan can be an judgmental ******* at times, but he's never willingly or intentionally hurt his own son. Which Lionel did. or did you forget when Lex Luthor got that scar on his lip as a kid? He got it from being punched in the face by his own father while Lionel was wearing a ring? or the flashblacks where Lionel was shown to be more rough with Lex as a child than any loving parent would be?
Lionel Luthor was shown to be very violent at times towards his own family. and again, I guess you're competely glossing over all those times when he attempted to kill his own son using hired muscles....

[Jennsen]

what about Jonathan and Martha?. They weren't exactly the best parental figures either. In some ways they were and other ways not so much. they are just as flawed as parents.

As I said in another thread: Jonathan and Martha may have been flawed, but they never tried to murder their son.

I can't even understand how it's possible to say Jonathan and Martha were just as flawed as Lionel and Lillian. Lionel beat his son up. He manipulated him and abused him both emotionally and physically. Lillian was cold and cruel to Lex ("Fracture") and let him take the fall for the murder of Julian.

[laurarawlins]

My observation of the Kent family

Need I remind you all that Jonathan and Martha taught Clark many evils. Like prejudice and paranoia? not to mention told him to be dishonest? and told him not to get caught while committing unlawful activities? like breaking and entering? stealing? stuff like that. and influenced his actions by pushing their fears and opinions onto him? am i the only one who remembers that?. Am I the only one who remembers what Clark said about them in season 2 in episode Red? Jonathan and Martha may not have tried to murder, beat up, or hurt or emotionally and physically abuse Clark like Lionel and Lillian did to Lex. That I concur. But they did other things for other reasons that was just as damaging like judgment before knowledge, selfishness, self righteousness, jumping to conclusions without knowing all the facts and not letting Clark save Lex in episode Asylum. yelling and arguing and disagreeing all the time. the Kent Family had their struggles and conflicts too, but they weren't as bad. It's like every time Clark tries to fix things within his family Jonathan always gets mad and yells at him for it what Kind of parent gets mad and yells at his son for fixing things?. And I won't forget his disrespect and unfair mistreatment of Lex. I don't think Clark will either. Oh, I also remember Jonathan's emotional reaction towards Clark in the Season 2's finale.

[Aurora Moon]

I've known many people who were raised by parents with many evil viewpoints, like racism, etc... Yet once they grew up and got away from their parents they were able to overcome it and become better people.

Parents with bigoted viewpoints are something kids can recover from when growing up, especially if you realize that your parents were flawed, and can be wrong about things. Children can find their way to the light very easily once they realize that their own parents were wrong about certain things.
They can say things like: "I love my parents, and for the most part they were good parents to me. BUT, they certainly were VERY wrong about this one thing... as an result I've chosen to go down a different path than they did."

On the other hand, it's far more difficult to recover from things like physical abuse, emotional abuse, etc. That's the kind of thing that's very difficult to recover from.

At least with bigoted parents all you had to do is change your mind about certain things. You can be comforted with the thought that even though your parents were wrong about so many things, at least they meant well and loved you. And you know something? Bigoted parents also can come to admit that they were wrong about things. All it takes is changing minds, etc.

With abusive parents, you're not sure if they even loved you in the first place. After all, what kind of loving parent would do *THAT* to you? After all, violence and the like are typically only reserved for those who you hate. It can royally screw up your idea of what love is supposed to be like. It can even give you a very dysfunctional view of family. It takes decades of therapy to recover from that.

At least with things like racism, being told not to trust others, etc... you don't need therapy for that. All you have to do is go out into the world and meet people, and realize that your parents were wrong.

[Aurora Moon]

I couldn't help but tell a bunch of people who I knew had survived childhood abuse about this conversation on here. Because I couldn't believe how stupid this kind of logic was. No offense.

Even though they didn't watch Smallville, they knew enough about the show from all the times I've spoken about it.
The conversation went something along the lines of this. (names reduced to the first letter only for privacy)

Me: "So that's why I was in such a annoyed mood today. Tell me, if you had to pick having bigoted parents or sticking with the abuse that you suffered as a child.... which one would you pick? Do you think the two is equal?"

B: I think I would definitely prefer having bigots for parents over abusive parents. I could handle the fact that my parents were total idiots who hated other people for no reason. But I had to deal with the fact that both my parents saw me as an disappointment, and being beaten black and blue every other night. Sure, realizing that your own parents were bigots might be unpleasant in itself but I don't think that's on the same level as having to deal with abusive parents.

J: Yeah, I don't think having prejudiced feelings is the same thing as beating your own child. My mom was emotionally abusive to me as a child, and I have to say that maybe I would had a healthier childhood if she had chosen to be racist instead of being a ****** mother.

Golly.... even two childhood abuse survivors thinks that it would be better to have parents that were prejudiced about certain things, over having parents who beat you black and blue!

Maybe it's time to realize that being a bigot is NOT the same as being some guy who beats his own children.

I know you like the later versions of Lionel Luthor and maybe even find him charming. But that doesn't mean it's right to retroactively go back in time to try to justify what he did. Let's just accept that Early Lionel from season 1 to 5 was really a piece of **** who had no right raising children at all. Even in season 6 to 7 I find his parenting methods to be questionable at best, even if he was redeemed.