Fictional Parents: An Obstacle or a Missed Opportunity?

Photo credit: alvarezperea on Flickr

So I thought today I’d write a post rounding up some of my favorite parents from various books I’ve read, but when the time came to start listing them…it occurred to me that I couldn’t really think of all that many.

I’ve already written about the parenticide trend, so I guess I shouldn’t have been all that surprised, but I hadn’t really thought about just how much it permeates kid lit in well over a year (when I wrote that last post).

That being said, with some help from lovely Twitter friends, I managed to think of a grand total of three awesome parental figures. Which…isn’t much, but it’s a start.

In no particular order!

1. Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling): Arthur and Molly Weasley
   
   Where to begin with the Weasleys? On top of being overall wonderful parents to their extraordinarily large family, they also pseudo-adopted Harry, have the best combination of quirks, and are badass wizards when they need to be. They were the loving parents Harry didn’t have in his childhood, and they even had time to knit embarrassing Christmas sweaters for all of them every year.


2. The Mortal Instruments (Cassandra Clare): Lucian (“Luke”) Graymark and Jocelyn Fray
   
   Technically, Luke is Clary’s kinda-not-really-step-dad because Clary’s biological dad is decidedly not awesome (at least, not at parenting). But Luke has really grown on me throughout the series (note: I’ve only read the first three books so far). Without spoiling the extent of his badassness to those who haven’t read the books or watched the movie yet, all I’ll say is he’s the perfect blend of caring step-dad and awesome character.
   
   Jocelyn, on the other hand, is a little MIA for a while, but the more you learn about her, the more you realize the full extent of what a wonderful (and pretty darn cool) mother she is.


3. Artemis Fowl (Eoin Colfer): Butler
   
   So, ok, Butler isn’t Artemis’s father—and his parents are actually in the series, but, well, they’re not exactly my favorite. But Butler! If you ask me, he’s more of a father figure to Artemis than his actual father is, and he’s certainly sacrificed a hell of a lot more for Artemis than the Senior Fowl. So in my book, Butler wins the Awesome Parent of the Year award. 

With these examples aside, the fact that it took so much digging for me to even come up with three examples got me thinking. Naturally, I understand the reasons parenticide works so well in kid lit, but the huge majority of dead, negligent, or just terrible parents in literature in contrast to the awesome parents mentioned in this post has made me wonder if maybe we’re missing out on an opportunity when we kill off parents in books. Every situation is different, of course, but I think I’d like to see more involved parents, and badass parents, and parents who are just plain awesome.

What do you think? Are fictional parents an obstacle or a missed opportunity?

Twitter-sized bites: 

Writer @Ava_Jae muses on parenticide and some of kid lit's best parents. Do you agree? (Click to tweet)  

Are fictional parents an obstacle or a missed opportunity? Join the discussion at @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)