Like. It started out with people stanning Charlie bc he's funny in the movies and some people think his actor is hot. Fair enough! But it's completely morphed into this thing where people are 1000% unironically like "Charlie is an amazing father who had his daughter ripped from him multiple times and Renee is a completely fucking narcissistic neglectful mother and that's why Bella makes choices I don't like" and like GENUINELY shut the fuck up. There is NO textual evidence of Renee being a bad parent, and there's TONS of textual evidence that Charlie IS a bad parent!!!
I'm not saying Renee is the greatest mother of all time- she had an unplanned baby when she was like, 20?? and had almost no support system. But that woman ADORES her daughter. Bella and her are best friends. They do everything together. Bella describes them as constantly going on weekend adventures, road trips, concerts, ghost hunting, random classes, book clubs. Renee can read Bella SO well- she ALWAYS knows what she's thinking, even over the phone, you don't reach that level of awareness by neglecting your kid. She's described as overprotective and a worrier. She'd drop everything and come running for Bella, wants to multiple times, but ultimately she knows Bella has a strong personality and a good head on her shoulders so she allows her to make her own decisions. She supports Bella 100%.
CHARLIE, meanwhile. He originally had custody of Bella in the summers while Renee had the school year- sure, not a perfect split of custody, but when you live in different states it's the best you can hope for. Bella describes these summers as depressing and boring. Charlie doesn't talk to her. They sit in silence and watch TV. He goes fishing with Billy and leaves Bella to hang out with Rachel and Rebecca, because he assumes they'll get along by nature of them all being girls. She doesn't have any friends there. They don't eat anything home cooked. Her bedroom hasn't been redecorated from a nursery. She's miserable! She says that by the time she was 12 (maybe 13), she flat out refused to go there for the summers anymore. So what does Charlie do? Give up his full summer custody to spend a two week vacation with her somewhere else!
HE GAVE UP JOINT CUSTODY OF HIS DAUGHTER AND REDUCED HIS TIME WITH HER TO TWO WEEKS OUT OF A YEAR!!!
I'm NOT saying Charlie should have moved or anything- but Forks was not the real problem there. Bella was miserable bc of CHARLIE'S ACTIONS (or rather, lackthereof) and instead of listening to her and making a change to actually engage with her, he said OKAY I'LL JUST SEE YOU TWO WEEKS OUT OF THE YEAR!! But guys it's okay because he's sad about it :( aww he's just an innocent sweet dad who deserves his daughter but she's being kept from him by his bitch ex!! Awww :(
This is the exact same way he lost his damn wife! This happens because he refuses to do any fucking self-reflection!! He refuses to listen to the women in his life!
And apart from this- I will truly never forgive that man for LAUGHING when Jacob forced himself on Bella. When Bella was almost GANG RAPED she was more confident in her ability to fight them off than her ability to run away. She has been in self defense classes for years, probably at her cop dad's urging. CHARLIE KNOWS that BELLA KNOWS how to THROW A PUNCH. And he hears that she was in a position where she was so upset she BROKE HER HAND TRYING TO GET OUT OF IT. and his response is to laugh and tell Jacob "good for you". That is SO genuinely one of the most fucked up scenes in the series to me. And then he's mad at EDWARD for defending her?!?!
Bella does all the cooking, cleaning and shopping for the house- not because she necessarily enjoys it, but Charlie just genuinely doesn't do anything for himself. The one time he attempts to make dinner for her he blows up the fucking microwave. Barely a month after Bella moves out, he's got Sue Clearwater practically moved in and doing everything for him!!! The widow of his best friend who died like six months prior!!! Bitch you should be helping HER out?!?!
He loves Bella. He understands he's supposed to protect her (making her take self defense classes, telling her not to ride motorcycles, putting snow chains on her car) but beyond that? He's fucking lazy. He doesn't know anything about his daughter and it's entirely his own fault. He refuses to put in the effort to be involved in her life.
Again I KNOW he's funny in the movie. But it's genuinely gotten to a point where when I see people liking Charlie it's a red flag telling me I'm about to read a ridiculously misogynistic take on Bella and her mom.
And there is NOTHING to suggest Bella is going to be a bad mother to Nessie!!! These people are always going on about how she's too wrapped up in Edward to pay attention to her kid, that's she selfish, that she wanted to be a boy mom. Genuinely where are you getting any of this!!! She actively chooses that baby over Edward by deciding to continue the pregnancy!! The reason she doesn't scream during her transformation is because she doesn't want to scare her baby! She gets through it by imagining holding her baby! The entire back half of break dawn is her having an ongoing panic attack over how quickly Nessie is growing! She goes behind Edward's back to set up contingency plans to protect Nessie if they die! She spends the whole book fiercely protective of Nessie!
Just because she has sex with her husband at night while the baby is asleep does not make her a bad mom!!! Her being surprised her intuition was wrong about it being a boy does not make her a bad mom! Her letting Rosalie spend time with the baby does not make her a bad mom!
And while we're here Edward's not a pedophile. Nothing makes me lose respect for a person's opinion faster than someone trying to start age gap discourse on a ship where one of the characters is IMMORTAL and FROZEN IN TIME PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY AT A CERTAIN AGE. he's 17! shut up!!!
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