What is wrong with the dad in this episode? The daughter is perfect in his eyes, yet she is a hateful little Miss Sourpuss. The poor son, who is a good kid, is treated like a red-headed stepchild. Why this man's wife puts up with this treatment of her son is beyond me.
shareNotice the little boy is overweight in a family of thin people, too. It'd be understandable if one or both parents were overweight too, but that's not the case. I think the little boy eats to self sooth.
I think Dad comes from the old school mentality of "little girls are princesses, boys just need to buck up." He saw his son's whining as girly or sissy.
And that whole arguement with the homework and spelling the letter "a".... what was that about? I don't think it had anything to do with how his son's A's looked. I'll bet part of it was just Dad taking out a lot of previous built-up frustration that his son isn't more of a "man." Jo was right. There was no respect for him. He did everything short of spit on the kid. I hate to say it, but underneath, maybe his weight and appearance as something to do with it. He's obviously not an athletic kid. He's a brainy chubby kid with glasses - again, that doesn't fit in with that "little man" image.
I think Dad pretty much admitted that on camera in the beginning, didn't he? That he treated them differently. And boys should just behave. Or something.
Not once did he use any of that hardness on his daughter, who really needed it. Had she actually had Dad in her facing saying "you're not getting away with this" and a little less of watching her mom cry, she might've behaved better. She knew she was the little princess in that household.