OK, in the past I've defended Debra because many of the situations where she's supposedly a smug snake can be interpreted in more than one way. But there's no excuse for how she acted in "Ally on the Bus". Not only did she take a very lax attitude towards Ally's bullying (and confusing "being self confident" with "being a bully", two very different things), but she insulted and teased Ray, even though he was clearly upset about the fact that Ally picked on other kids (and then tried to "gloss over" her teasing by telling Ray to relax). And when Ray and Debra addressed the bullying issue to Ally at the end of the episode, Debra just made the whole thing worse by arguing with Ray in front of Ally, thus displaying hypocrisy when telling her to be a good kid. Ugh.
The incredibly nasty tidal wave of insults that Karen Klein had to put up with certainly isn't helping my opinion of Debra in this episode. Because after all, it all starts at home. If you don't raise your child to respect others, this is the result. And unfortunately, the Karen Klein incident was real, not a TV show.
OK, in the past I've defended Debra because many of the situations where she's supposedly a smug snake can be interpreted in more than one way. But there's no excuse for how she acted in "Ally on the Bus". Not only did she take a very lax attitude towards Ally's bullying (and confusing "being self confident" with "being a bully", two very different things), but she insulted and teased Ray, even though he was clearly upset about the fact that Ally picked on other kids (and then tried to "gloss over" her teasing by telling Ray to relax). And when Ray and Debra addressed the bullying issue to Ally at the end of the episode, Debra just made the whole thing worse by arguing with Ray in front of Ally, thus displaying hypocrisy when telling her to be a good kid. Ugh.
The incredibly nasty tidal wave of insults that Karen Klein had to put up with certainly isn't helping my opinion of Debra in this episode. Because after all, it all starts at home. If you don't raise your child to respect others, this is the result. And unfortunately, the Karen Klein incident was real, not a TV show.