hmm

Obviously they're going to have different ways of approaching Mel, since Ken knows she's human and Mud does not. But even without that, Mud and Ken are written to be pretty opposite people. Ken mostly has his life actually together, but a mental disability makes him blow up at his family members sometimes, even if he does his best to curb it. Mud, on the other hand, absolutely does not have his life together but is also very lax and doesn't lose control of his emotions. They're written and designed to be opposites, so of course their parenting styles oppose each other as well.

And this leads to Mel and Breadhead. Mel really feels the brunt of all of this, because she's the smallest person in her family and is the only one who can die, so she's not bringing that much to the table. She wants to, though. Anything that will get her dad to say he's proud of her like he says it to her brother. She pulls elaborate tricks, makes genius plans, all to try and impress him, but each and every time there's something that keeps him from expressing pride in her. The first time is the time with Jack, where she got out, car-hopped over to him, and then survived a car crash and helped cement him. It's all very impressive, but Ken is hung up on the fact that she didn't follow the orders he gave her. She makes an elaborate plan to steal the angel egg and it all goes perfectly, but Ken's too busy thinking about Temperance to care. He gets upset that she broke his promise to him like he didn't break his first. It's a double standard, and one that he doesn't even fully realize he has.

This is all in stark contrast to how Mud treats her. He repeatedly expresses that Mel should be allowed to do more within the group. He explicitly compliments the skills she showed when they were hunting Jack. When she goes to them with her angel egg scheme, he votes in favour of doing it. And he doesn't mind her breaking promised occasionally, it's all just a part of changing plans as they go along. While Ken criticizes every move that Mel makes, Mud is out here constantly affirming his niece, giving her pretty much all the positive attention she gets from her guardians. He's also somewhat rubbed off on her too, we see in the pilot that she mimics the coin tricks he does well enough to impress even him. I suspect she's his preferred of the two kids, the two have a lot in common.

And, of course, there's Breadhead. He's much lower needs than his sister, he's the biggest and the strongest of his family, and he makes his dad so proud with everything he does. An absolute golden boy. But while he may be Ken's favourite, the consequences of needing so little is that people don't really check up on him. If we check the card that says The Smiling Dead during the pilot, we can see that Breadhead is there, carrying all of them on his back. This is affirmed in the pilot too, when he's really the one who pulls them all out of heaven safely. But another detail on the card is that there are chains around his arms. He's the parentified child, the perfect one. He needs to help take care of his sister, help run the restaurant, kill people for his dad, the list goes on and on. But even though his dad may love him more, he pays more attention to his sister and Breadhead's emotional and mental state is often left in the dust.

Breadhead and Mel both have something that the other would want, but in spite of that, they don't hold it against each other. It's a rough world and they both understand the importance of sticking together, and it seems that they both use each other's strengths for the benefit of the whole family. Their guardians have had it rough, but they're making it work out anyways.