'Mad Men's' Betty Francis (Formerly Mrs. Draper) Continues Her Campaign for Mother of the Year

For anyone who saw Sunday night’s Mad Men, the scenes between Betty and her 10-year-old daughter Sally were tough to watch.

First Betty slapped Sally across the face after learning that, in a desperate cry for attention, Sally cut her hair when she was staying with her father. Then, in another scene, Betty threatened to cut off Sally’s fingers after the mother of one of Sally’s friends found Sally touching herself and promptly drove the kid home.

Come to think of it, other than Mona Sterling whose daughter got married last season, are there any mothers from Mad Men who could be considered “good moms?” I’m drawing a blank. . .

(The actress who plays Betty, January Jones, did a Q&A about the challenge of acting out the slapping scene with Kiernan Shipka. She once cut her hair when she was a girl.)

Betty Draper, Mother of the Year

*Warning spoilers from the recent episode of Mad Men.*

Mad Men’s Betty Draper could be considered the antithesis of what one would consider to be a good, caring mother, at least by today's standards. She’s constantly telling her kids to “go upstairs,” “go watch TV” or once, to “go bang your head against a wall.”

So when the fourth season of the AMC drama began last night, we got more ammo for our arsenal painting Betty as, shall we say, a less than perfect parent:

While eating her first Thanksgiving dinner with her new in-laws, her mother-in-law asked Betty’s daughter Sally, “Don’t you like the food dear?”

Sally answered honestly, “No.”

“Sally Draper, that’s rude," said Betty, aghast. "You love cranberry sauce.”

To which Sally replied, “It’s got seeds in it.”

“How ‘bout the sweet potato?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Look, there’s marshmallow,” said Betty as she forced a forkful of marshmallow-topped sweet potato into Sally’s mouth. Sally then pulled a Tom Hanks in Big by letting the food fall from her mouth back onto her plate as she gagged muttering, "I'm sorry."

Betty lied, said something about Sally having a fever and being "sick," and dragged her into the other room. Sally could be heard yelling, “Ow, stop pinching me,” as a door slammed.

Later in the episode, Sally tried to call her dad Don, who was living in a bachelor pad in New York City (as opposed to the suburbs where he used to live with his family before the divorce), to wish him a Happy Thanksgiving. The previews imply that it won’t be long before Sally’s practically begging to go live with Don to get away from her cold mother.

Although I despised her, Henry’s mom had a point when she said of Betty’s children Sally and Bobby, “I’ve raised children in my life Henry. They’re terrified of her.”



Image: Michael Yarish/AMC. Video clip from AMC via Jezebel.

'Mad Men' Starts Sunday = More of Betty Draper's Bad Parenting

One of the secret pleasures of watching Mad Men is observing Betty Draper doing a cruddy, cold job of parenting (like reprimanding her daughter Sally for leaving the dry cleaning on the floor but not for putting the plastic bag over her head) and knowing that, at the very least, my parenting looks gloriously Dr. Spock-ian by comparison.

New York Magazine put together a compilation video of Betty's not-so-noble parenting moments:



Then again, if someone were to follow me around with a video camera during these long, work-from-home summer days -- particularly when I'm on a deadline -- I'd hate to see the edited video they'd be able to produce, focusing just on me snapping at the kids.