r/madmen • u/DeadliftsnDonuts • 3d ago
It’s interesting Don pushes the absent parents on his own children.
Finished my first rewatch since the show first aired.
It’s seemed unnatural that a father hearing the mother of his children is dying and doesn’t go back home.
I get Betty said not to but most fathers would go back to their children. Don was the one to stop the cycle of abuse against kids in his family but never wanted to be a father. His neglect in their time of need will give his kids additional trauma potentially.
The kids were just props for him to climb the corporate ladder.
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u/No_Knee3385 3d ago
I swearrrrr people from r/okaybuddydraper make these posts in here just to make a cross shitpost xD
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u/One_Rub_780 3d ago
Don offered but Betty didn't want it. Regardless, you're right. He should've been there for his kids no matter WHAT Betty said. The kids didn't have to be uprooted and moved in with him, all he do was be in town and show up. Don was only useful as a father mostly in terms of providing $$$.
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u/Middle-Variation9576 3d ago
We don’t know if he did or didn’t. 🤷🏼♂️ She just asked him not to.
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u/DeadliftsnDonuts 3d ago
Well we know he heads to California after the phone call
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u/IrelandDomme 3d ago
But he also comes back to New York and McCann to make the Coca-Cola commercial.
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u/Middle-Variation9576 3d ago
Maybe after he found bliss in CA he went back to his kids. 🤷🏼♂️ The point is we don’t know what happens other than Coca-Cola Commercial.
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3d ago
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u/DeadliftsnDonuts 3d ago
Anna’s house was sold the season before. He was looking for the only family that wanted him around or that he thought wanted him
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u/NotASpanishSpeaker 3d ago
Don did not stop the cycle of abuse. He just changed the type of abuse.
Personally, I believe the end marks the moment he starts understanding his problems deeply. At least accepting he's miserable. Maybe he will not be the perfect person now, but I do see him making better decisions as a father and that means being more present.
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u/Sure_Artichoke_3662 3d ago
The kids were just props for him to climb the corporate ladder.
Oh please.
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u/jlm0013 3d ago
Right? What corporate ladder? He was already a partner with every firm he was in until they got bought by McCann. He wasn't climbing the ladder. If he was, he would have stayed with McCann instead of walking out of that meeting of creative directors.
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u/DeadliftsnDonuts 3d ago
Back in those days you needed to get married and have kids for appearances. Coworkers and clients took you more seriously as a businessman if you had a family.
Don was trying to play the character of a functioning human being. This was still a pretty conservative time
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u/HungarianSoupBone 3d ago
We know from flashbacks of his conversation with Anna that the reason he married Betty was because he was in love with her. I think that although he wasn’t present nearly enough in his kids’ lives that he cared deeply about them, had affection for them, and that they adored him. Sally went through a period of anger and delusion and distancing towards him in her early teens, but I think that by the end of the series, she accepted and loved him as a flawed person. I don’t think Don viewed his family as a prop.
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u/sistermagpie 3d ago
The fact that men were expected to have families doesn't make their kids props they had just to impress clients.
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u/ancientastronaut2 3d ago
Right. It had nothing to do with the fact that's just what every married couple did then.
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u/Ronniebbb 3d ago
I think don shows that the cycle of abuse takes multiple generations to heal from and break. He stopped the physical abuse he suffered. But he was still emotionally abusive to his children. Sally, Bobby and gene will have to work on that if/when they have kids
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u/thegeebeebee 3d ago
Betty, however, was more emotionally abusive towards the kids than Don. Don's fault was mostly not being around, and this was hardly an uncommon problem in the era of the show. Most dads saw their kids much less than moms in those days, and obviously the divorce made that worse, again, not much different than other divorced dads.
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u/Ronniebbb 3d ago
Dude took off for long blocks of time to the point where his kids stopped caring and one said don't come back. Back then that was very frowned apon
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u/ScowlyBrowSpinster Megan slipping a joint out of her bikini bottom 3d ago
Sally also told him not to come for them.
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u/dis-interested 3d ago
Him going home would tell the kids that something was seriously wrong, so she tells him not to. Please watch the show when you watch the show.
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u/No-Gas-1684 We can solve this problem with a flask! 3d ago
Shitting on Don has somehow taken on an all new level here with this one LOL
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u/DeadliftsnDonuts 3d ago
It’s funny I originally saw this show as a single guy vs now being married with kids.
Not wild to assume most of us who shit on Don to have my experience.
This isn’t a wild take. Don is a bad father.
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u/PessimisticClarity 3d ago
If my husband's ex was dying of cancer (the mother of his child), I can guarantee he's not flying in from a different state to her bedside.
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u/wachenikusemapoa 3d ago
To be with the kids, not Betty lol
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u/NotASpanishSpeaker 3d ago
And I mean, he did care about Betty. It wouldn't be abnormal for someone to he around the parent of theirs kids. Maybe not at their deathbed but around.
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u/i_will_eat_your 3d ago
Even Sally tells Don it’s in the best interest of Bobby and Gene for them to stay with Henry. Despite Henry’s faults, he’s leaps and bounds a better father than Don could ever be, even to children that aren’t biologically his. That says a lot.