Who was the worst mother?

[Chris2]

Most of our Dallas moms aren’t exactly mother-of-the-year material. Let’s discuss. Our nominees are:.

MIss Ellie. Her sins include:

• Blatantly favoring the fair-haired Gary and letting Jock raise JR.
• Her weird obsession with keeping her adult sons on the ranch and referring to their moving out as “losing” them.
• Raising her granddaughter while denying the girl’s actual mother any access to her.
• Being nasty to her stepson Ray when his father was first revealed.

Pam. Her sins include:

1. Abandoning Christopher and cutting off contact because she’s not pretty anymore.
2. Helicopter-parenting Christopher in order to deal with her husband having a child with another woman.
3. Taking Christopher away from his home - Southfork - to live in a hotel suite while gallivanting with The Pornstache.

Rebecca. Her sins include:

• Abandoning Cliff and Pam to their drunken murderer of a father so she could go off and find herself.
• Stoking the flames of the Barnes Ewing feud in order to get revenge for her son.
• Giving 2/3 of her daughter Katherine’s rightful inheritance to Katherine‘s half siblings.

Sue Ellen. Her sins include:

• Drinking heavily while pregnant with John Ross (fetal alcohol syndrome, anyone?)
• Refusing to bond with her infant son and letting Auntie Pam do it instead.
• Shooting her son‘s father.

Jenna. Her sins include:

• A lack of transparency around who her daughter’s father was, multiple times in the series.
• Allowing her new husband to try to overparent her teenage daughter as if he were the girl’s father (and not putting an end to his unhealthy obsession with her social life).
• Packing her daughter off to a Swiss boarding school because the girl didn’t get along with her stepfather.

 

[Kaleid]

This is a close one between Rebecca and Jenna. I think Rebecca has to take it though for damaging three children to Jenna's one. The one child she actually raised became a psychopath while the other two became worse for her reintroduction back into their lives.

 

[LMLDallas78]

Sue Ellen. Her sins

Let's look at the reasoning behind her behaviour, not an excuse but factual evidence.

John Ross was most probably conceived during a "grey area" marital rape. Sue Ellen was physically abused when her and JR were discussing her pregnancy. She was neglected by her husband and by everyone else really who knew about her drinking.

Cliff and her had an affair which she wasn't mentally strong enough to handle and he dumped her when she was going to leave JR for him. She was desperate, lonely and neglected so found comfort in her alcohol addiction.
She was then locked away in a sanitarium by JR.

Refusing to bond with her infant son

Well she didn't refuse exactly, she was most probably suffering from alcohol withdrawl along with being in a deep post natal depression. That's a very misunderstood illness that is very real.
(Linda played it brilliantly as usual)

She sought help by herself by getting therapy and was ridiculed by JR for it. Her therapy resulted in her being able to show her son the love she felt.

No excuse for her shooting JR apart from he deserved it!

 

[Barbara Fan]

@Chris2 Do you mean Rebecca in your poll rather than Katherine?? She didnt have any offspring during her stint in the show? Can change poll options if you wish me to x

 

[Billy Wall]

Rebecca and Pam. There's no coming back after abandoning your kids.

 

[Chris2]

@Chris2 Do you mean Rebecca in your poll rather than Katherine?? She didnt have any offspring during her stint in the show? Can change poll options if you wish me to x

Thank you! I meant Rebecca. I added her, but I can’t delete Katherine so if you can, that would be great!

 

[Taylor Bennett Jr.]

I voted Jenna simply for the crime of inflicting those horrible scenes on us with Charlie and Ray.

even if she’s on the list by mistake, I thought Katherine was an inspired choice: imagine what a nightmarish mother she’d be!

The one I’d like to see on the list is the great Patricia Shepard!

(seen above: the esteemed matriarch at left, behind her prize pupils at the Gardens restaurant, a place Jock felt was for ladies and not men, even the lesser Barnes man who’d approached them at that moment)

 

[LMLDallas78]

The one I’d like to see on the list is the great Patricia Shepard!

Oh yes of course, how did I not think of her?
What a Mother!

Gardens restaurant, a place Jock felt was for ladies and not men,

Love how Jock delivers that line,

"What's Cliff Barnes doing at the Gardens Restaurant? That's a female hangout with watercress sandwiches".

 

[Michelle Stevens]

They were all bad but Rebecca to me was the worst.

 

[xab]

We all love Miss Elie... But which mother demands her sons son to live under her roof till death do them part...? Wasn't she a little bit fusional...? Isn't this as neurotic as Patricia Shepard's point of view about her daughters ? I loved the character as a non-Ewing, but I'm not sure I could have beared this "Mama would like you to..." pressure...


And now, I pray for Barbara Fan not to be wandering around the block, because I'm dead.

 

[Chris2]

Love how Jock delivers that line,

"What's Cliff Barnes doing at the Gardens Restaurant? That's a female hangout with watercress sandwiches".

How did I as a superfan miss this line? What episode is it in?

 

[Crimson]

I think the clear winner (err, loser?) of the Worst Mother of DALLAS has to be Patricia Shepard.

Of the options, I'd have to go with Pam simply for abandoning Christopher after her accident; It's unfortunate that Victoria's departure resulted in prolonged character assassination of Pam.

I also feel compelled to defend Rebecca here. Priscilla Pointer was great in the role but her casting was problematic because it made Rebecca seem to be a contemporary of Miss Ellie. Rebecca was just a teen ("barely" per the canon-adjacent Van Wormer book) when she met older Digger. A poor, desperate kid having to abandon her babies out of fear for her own life should be a scenario viewed with some sympathy. And she did, rightly, predict Cliff and Pam would be raised by Digger's sister. Everything Rebecca did during the series proper was obvious overcompensation for her guilt in abandoning her children in the first place.

 

[LMLDallas78]

How did I as a superfan miss this line? What episode is it in?

The silent killer.

That line by Jock is one of my favourites, it's how Jim delivers it!

Also where Jock rubs JR's tummy when JR says baby John is turning into a regular little fatty and Jock says yeah just like his Daddy. Great looks exchanged between JR and Sue Ellen here both thinking of Cliff Barnes.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

I have to vote for my Mom Jenna Wade. Her and dear old Ray Krebbs were terrible parents as I can attest to.

Sorry Mom, sorry Uncle Ray.

 

[DallasFanForever]

I would have to say Jessica. At least no one on the list murdered anyone.

Well, technically Sue Ellen attempted it once and Jenna was convicted of it if you want to get picky though.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Rebecca hands down, Abandoned her kids and didnt acknowledge Pam when she went looking for her

After that Patricia Shephard, snob, social climber, and instilled a "marry rich and marry well" mentality into her daughters, even if he is a rotter - well neither of them had a happy marriage (SE) or relationships (Kristen)

Sue Ellen was a bad mother pre birth and after birth - too self centred and self absorbed and abandoned baby John - (he should have had Foetal Alchohol Syndrome!) but she did redeem herslef and by Dream season ep 12 when she decided John Ross should stay on SF I thought she put her child before herself and had grown up

 

[LMLDallas78]

Mother Of The Year
episode title awarded to Sue Ellen.

Finally Sue Ellen picks her baby up and is able to show him the love she has felt all along after struggling to bond with him because she was unwell.

It's clear from this episode and previous ones that she loved her baby but was unable to show it.

After nearly everyone having a rant at Sue Ellen, it was The great Dr Elby, Cliff and Lucy whose words encouraged Sue Ellen to feel able to show her baby she loved him.

 

[Chris2]

I think Sue Ellen was the best mother on Dallas. Aside from trying to murder her son’s father, that is.

 

[LMLDallas78]

Sue Ellen attempted to murder a "murderer", an abuser, a rapist, a narcissist etc etc, doesn't make her actions right, just a bit more understandable.

JR probably had a part to play in Kristin's death too.

He threatened to kill the Mother of his child more than once and infront of their son on one of those occasions.

 

[Rove]

Miss Ellie!

For starting the whole saga...

...thank you.​