Was anyone else really ticked off at the parents? There was something very clearly wrong w/ Phoebe.. At first I thought it was OCD and Schizophrenia.. and nothing was done for the longest time, and the mother was in denial. She could have been helped sooner and not gone through some of those things (the jumping), I thought it was really irresponsible of the parents. Especially when the Dr diagnosed her and was promptly "fired".
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I agree - we were really annoyed at the parents, but I also think it's pretty realistic for parents to deny there is something wrong with their child. The mother was determined to shelter Phoebe from any consequences, and the father was unwilling to stand against her. I think after the early bruises, etc., the parents should have been much more worried than they were.
shareThe parents (mother especially) just didn't want their daughter to be "labeled". The mother was clearly upset at how kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore. She had a point - doctors these days are so quick to diagnose kids with ADD and ADHD and prescribe them with Ritalin simply because parents and teachers are too lazy to deal with kids doing what they do best.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqDv4FHBw3A
I agree, Cartman. It seems irresponsible for her be in denial for so long, but she was only doing what she thought was the best thing for Phoebe. Phoebe was already an unusual child because of her overactive imagination, and her mother just thought the psychiatrist was compartmentalising Phoebe because he didn't know how to handle it.
I only do it with superheroes.
It is very common for parents to live in denial, and denial is not something that people do on purpose so it's hard to get angry with the mother. The problem is that people never picture their future children as being anything but "normal"." So some parents have a hard time getting over the fact that their children have something "wrong" with them. It's a scary situation, and I do commend the woman for being able to stand up for her daughter. I'm happy that she came to terms with her daughter's disorder, though.
On another note, your post really seems to be about the mother. The father was not in denial. He really just didn't know what was wrong with his daughter. If anything, a person could only be angry with the father for essentially being absent when dealing with the problems that Phoebe faced, this feeding the mother's denial.