Bad parenting is its own character in Hereditary, passed down from one generation to the next. Should one mother’s parenting be excused because of her own mother’s ruthless obsession with demonic forces? Absolutely not. When it comes to parenting, everyone is to blame, no one is safe, and hell is all around us, one Blippi video at a time.
Below are some of the biggest parenting mistakes I noticed in the film.
Don’t let your mother-in-law breastfeed your baby.
It really complicates the relationship down the line. Sure, it’s good to have a support system in place and wise to have a trusted family member nearby to watch your children, but once this bridge is crossed your child could become the conduit for a malevolent entity beyond your control At best they’ll wind up officiating guinea pig weddings outside the King Kullen.
If your family has a backyard treehouse, don’t let your naked cult pals hang out there
A treehouse should be a sanctuary for kids. The most nudity allowed should be adult porno mags abandoned in the woods that are both grossly sunbleached and waterlogged. When I was in elementary school there was a construction site near my house which provided a mysteriously replenishing stockpile of anonymously donated Club, High Society, and Leg Show, offering a daily “what’s that?” on my way home from school. That’s all well and good, but heavy breathing nude satanists lurking in the shadows? A step too far.
Ask Toni Collette about “Muriel’s Wedding!”
If Toni Collette was my mom I’d be pummeling her with questions nonstop about that movie and if she still listened to ABBA, and did they ever consider doing a sequel and a musical because I’d rather watch those than Mama Mia, though I did like M² a bit. Remember when that one former so-called friend showed in that hat made of little bananas? There are better parts to that movie but for some reason I always think of that first… anyway yeah, big missed opportunity.
Take peanut allergies seriously.
The film takes a real hard left (or right) when a peanut allergy unspools a horrific chain of events that ends in tragedy. All could have been avoided had a simple EpiPen been available. To be fair, they are cost prohibitive. American citizens without insurance must contend with EpiPen and EpiPen Jr ranging from $650 to $750. Yes, EpiPen Jr is a thing, and it costs as much as a domestic plane ticket if you were one of the 38 million people living at or below the poverty level in 2021 according to the US Census Bureau.
Stop playing the blame game; in fact, throw away the whole board.
Sure, your son may have been somewhat responsible for another horrific loss in your family, but couldn’t that have all been avoided had the original family member not been partially possessed by a demanding demon or at the very least not urged along by its earthbound following’s invisible hand? The point is listen more and don’t fake the funk!
Do not downplay almost accidentally setting fire to your children in the middle of the night.
The best parenting strategy is to lead by example, and sometimes that means showing your kids what it means to take accountability. If a subconscious fear of your demonic mother’s influence has ever caused you to attempt setting your children on fire while sleepwalking, admit that you made a mistake.
Don’t make painstakingly detailed miniatures immortalizing your child’s greatest mistake.
Sometimes kids screw up, and yes, they should be reprimanded. They should also however be given breathing room to learn from their mistakes and grow past them. Creating a diorama of the worst thing your child ever did may feel like the right thing to do in the moment, but can have negative long term effects.