I always felt that Claudia and Archie were neither particularly good or bad parents, but very realistic ones - at least based on my experiences growing up and what I saw of my classmates' relations with their parents (which of course might be a bit outdated). "Yes, of course we love you, but we both have jobs and those have to come first." In Archie's case with added: "It's a girl and not actually my own blood, so how close is appropriate?"
As for the adults not telling Alexandra everything - well, from reviewer reactions to my own old fics it seemed to me that American children do expect adults to take them seriously, but I was very surprised by that. I'm more used to adults' attududes being that a child is ONLY a child, maybe even not yet quite a person. It is to be protected (including from such things as scary information) and its immature and fancyful thoughts and opinions are to be indulgently smiled at, but don't need to be seriously considered. It cannot be expected to understand important adult issues such as details plans to defend schools against dark magic, so why bother to explain? - So to me the 'useless' adults, too, seem very realistic.
As for the adults not telling Alexandra everything - well, from reviewer reactions to my own old fics it seemed to me that American children do expect adults to take them seriously, but I was very surprised by that. I'm more used to adults' attududes being that a child is ONLY a child, maybe even not yet quite a person. It is to be protected (including from such things as scary information) and its immature and fancyful thoughts and opinions are to be indulgently smiled at, but don't need to be seriously considered. It cannot be expected to understand important adult issues such as details plans to defend schools against dark magic, so why bother to explain? - So to me the 'useless' adults, too, seem very realistic.
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