In their first scene together, my impression was that Mrs. Potter was equally as unpleasant to Nigel as he was to her. Mrs. Potter did eventually ask Nigel if he would like to help her make a cake, but Nigel only saw her as someone who wanted to impress his father by doing unnecessary things like darning his socks and baking desserts. To him, she was an interloper who was wearing his mother's apron and wanted to marry his father just to get out of her own bad situation. The problem with that is that Nigel always felt unloved by his father and he saw her as competition for that love. His behavior was immature, but he was a kid and that's normal. Mrs. Potter did attempt to win Nigel's approval and acceptance a few times, but she was very quick to turn nasty on him when he resisted. That showed a lack of sincerity on her part because as an adult, she should have been more patient with this poor boy who had recently lost his mother. The competition between Mrs. Potter and Nigel for his dad's love was immature, but regardless of who started it, she was the adult, and it was very selfish and abusive for her to discourage his attempts to learn to cook. Her insecurity was very unfortunate; I would have jumped at the chance to let the kid do the cooking on Wednesdays and taken the day off! However, if Nigel's father had found a way to make him feel loved, that competition might never have happened at all.
About Nigel being considered a spoiled brat by so many posters, the problem I have with this is that it wasn't entirely his fault. First of all, a spoiled child is primarily one whose bad behaviors have been indulged, like Dudley Dursley from the Harry Potter series. He was selfish and obnoxious because his parents gave him everything he wanted 100% of the time, which was doing him no favor. Nigel said mean things to Mrs. Potter and had a condescending attitude, but I saw that as something his father should have addressed in a more appropriate manner. Calling him "stupid boy" and blaming him without asking questions first and having no patience for him in general was not helping the kid at all. Children can be corrected for bad behavior in a kind and caring way. Most importantly, kids need to know they are loved unconditionally. That kind of love serves as an important foundation for children to mature upon in due course, but Nigel didn't have his dad's unconditional love, all he got from his dad was impatience and anger, even when he wasn't misbehaving. Children become spoiled through bad parenting, and in this film, Nigel's dad was a bad parent. Mr. Slater didn't TALK to his son, he just treated him like a burden and made threats. He certainly wasn't setting a good example for his son when he grabbed Nigel's plate and threw his food down on the ground while picnicking at the beach. How immature can a grown man be? The kind of love Nigel received from his mother was what he needed. When he threw a fit because they didn't have any mincemeat for the pies, it wasn't about the pies at all, it was about Nigel's despair because he knew he was losing his mother, the only parent that made him feel loved. She didn't take his remarks about her deserving to die seriously because she actually understood the boy. He loved his mother, but he instinctively knew she was dying and was angry at her for leaving him alone with an unloving father, and she realized that. I felt deep sympathy for Nigel. His school chum told him "you'll probably grow up to be interesting", but Nigel said he didn't want to be "interesting", he wanted his dad's love and approval, but Mr. Slater just didn't know how to show it and it was heartbreaking to watch. It's almost certain that Mr. Slater was treated that way when he was a kid himself, but that is no excuse. The gardener that Nigel liked, Josh, was an example of what a mature adult should be, and Nigel was lucky to have known him. I found Nigel to be rather inspiring, because he managed to make something of himself in spite of the rough start he had in life. Mrs. Potter definitely had her faults, but the real problem in this story was Nigel's dad, in my opinion.
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