History Recap / TheSimpsonsS7E3HomeSweetHomediddlyDumDoodily

** While techincally doing their jobs, the two Child Protective Services workers get no repercussions for the series of misunderstandings that lead to the kids being given to the Flanderses in the first place. Much like Abe, they see nothing wrong with their actions and act like {{Jerkass}}es to Homer and Marge the whole time despite getting called out for it the whole time.

* SkewedPriorities: Bart may be a major contagious health risk for the entire school with head lice, but Milhouse appears to have caught a severe southern hemisphere related disease from the monkey that came from the store that leaves him in shakes and an extremely high fever.

* HollywoodLaw: No, the DepartmentOfChildDisservices probably wouldn’t be allowed to put the kids in the house next door to their original one. Also, no family can gain legal custody over the kids by performing a religious baptism (doubles as ArtisticLicenseReligion, see above).

** Granted Cletus was at the parenting classes with the Simpsons

** Several of the [[ContrivedCoincidence Contrived Coincidences]] that make the family look bad are actually signs of Marge's ''good'' parenting when seen in context: the out-of-date newspapers left on the kitchen table were tracked down at great hassle because Lisa needed them for a school project, and the "I'm a stupid baby" sign only ends up stuck to Maggie because Marge noticed that Bart had stuck it to Lisa and took it off her.

** When Lisa tries to argue that Marge and Homer are good parents who've never neglected she and her siblings, one of her teeth fall out. She insists that it was a baby tooth and it was loose, but it's clear the Flanders don't believe her.

** Played Straight with Ned. Once he learns that the Simpsons Kids have not been baptized, he takes it upon himself to do so, and thus make them official members of the Flanders Family (giving them full custody).

* FelonyMisdemeanor: There is only ''one'' thing that takes Ned over the line with the Simpsons Family... learning that the kids were not baptized at their church. He sees this as more-than-enough justification to take the kids away from their family and make them a part of the Flanders. As he and Maude state to kids in the car ride to the river to perform the baptism:

* HollywoodLaw: No, the DepartmentOfChildDisservices probably wouldn’t be allowed to put the kids in the house next door to their original one.

* FelonyMisdemeanor: There is only ''one'' thing that takes Ned over the line with the Simpsons Family... learning that the kids were not baptized at their church. He sees this as more-than-enough justification to take the kids away from their family and make them a part of the Flanders.

** When Flanders prepares to baptize Bart and Lisa, he asks them, "Do you reject Satan and all his empty promises?"--except that he kind of omits "and all his works", and the question he asks is a part of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptismal_vows baptismal vows]] (which are actually "the renunciations required of an adult candidate for baptism just before the sacrament is conferred") in the Roman Ritual of the Catholic Church, which often happens at one's First Holy Communion and Confirmation, as well as annually during the Easter Vigil. Also combines with DatedHistory: if this episode were made in TheNewTens, Flanders would have asked the children, "Do you ''renounce'' Satan, and all his works, and all his empty ''show''?"
** Similarly, Ned and Maude want to baptize Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Doing so apparently makes the Simpsons Kids part of the Flanders family for good and give Ned and Maude full custody of them, hence why Homer and Marge rush to stop them. Except, Baptism in the nearly every Christian Branch is a practice where someone is made an official member of the church/congregation and is able to accept God's graces, ''not'' to make them an official member of the family who baptizes them (most babies who are baptized are typically ''already'' considered part of the family; the same applies to branches that practice adult baptism). Also, no church, much less members of said church, has the authority to determine official custody of children who were declared to be under the protection of Child Protective Services.

** Flanders, he forcibly tries to baptize Bart, Lisa and Maggie and calls Homer and Marge bad parents because they never baptized them, and by the way they talked, he and Maude intended to keep the Simpson children permanently despite that being outside the scope of being a foster parent.

** Similarly, Ned and Maude want to baptize Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Doing so apparently makes the Simpsons Kids part of the Flanders family for good and give Ned and Maude full custody of them, hence why Homer and Marge rush to stop them. Except, Baptism in the nearly every Christian Branch is a practice where someone is made an official member of the church/congregation and is able to accept God's graces, ''not'' to make them an official member of the family who baptizes them (most babies who are baptized are typically ''already'' considered part of the family; the same applies to branches that practice mainly adult baptism).