NATIONAL PARENTS DAY

The fourth Sunday in July is National Parents Day.

Since soaps are all about family and illegitimate pregnancy (which leads to parenthood), we at the PGP Classic Soaps Blog thought it would be fun to honor some of the best parents on our shows.

However, once we started talking about it, it became obvious that even those who are always referred to as terrific parents aren't in reality all that great.

For instance, Nancy Hughes is practically an Oakdale saint. She is called the world's best mother, the world's best grandmother, the world's best great-grandmother. And yet, once upon a time, Nancy was such a nag and a buttinsky that her son, Don, moved out of town in a rage over the way she treated the love of his life.

Then there's Bob and Kim. Salts of the earth, both of them. Except that Bob's son, Tom, became a drug addict and a thief as a teen due to the way his parents alternately ignored and spoiled him. Not to mention that Chris, the child Bob and Kim had and actually raised together (as opposed to Sabrina, who was born as a result of their affair while Bob was married to Kim's sister, then kidnapped and raised by others), turned out to be more or less of a jerk with a passion for mother/daughter pairs like Abigail/Molly and Emily/Alison (I know, I know, Alison was raised as Emily's sister, but she's her biological daughter, and Chris knew it).

Upstanding Tom and Margo raised one almost-rapist son and one gambling jailbird. Holden and Lily's teen drove drunk and their daughter had an eating disorder. And Susan... well, what else is there to say about Susan?

Over on Guiding Light, Bert Bauer was the accepted paragon of parenting. Except that she enabled husband Bill's drinking all the years the boys were growing up, including defending him to son Ed (another alcoholic -- I wonder where he learned that behaviour?) in her famous "He's a big man and you're small" speech.

Cassie is often praised for being a good mother and no one is denying that she loved and grieves for Tammy. But how many Daddies has RJ had so far? And has she even mentioned Will lately?

Reva may have given birth to four children, but she hasn't raised a single one. Dylan and Jonathan were both given away for adoption, while Reva was "dead" (alternately a princess and an Amish woman) for the bulk of Marah and Shayne's childhood. (To give credit where it's due, when Reva returned from the dead and saw that her children were happier with the not-yet-crazy-then Annie, Reva did step aside for their own good).

Harley obviously loves her boys, but she's another one who puts her kids on the Daddy roller-coaster, not to mention periodically getting shot and making them think they might lose her.

Frankly, the Boudreau parents seem to be the most fit ones in Springfield. Clay and Felicia have only been married to each other (well, as far as we know, this is daytime, after all), Remy is a mostly upstanding cop (he did have the slip with Gillespie but hey, he was upset about the poorly-parented, now dead Tammy), while Mel has a JD and an MD, plus a seemingly well adjusted child, Leah, of her own.

To be fair, it's easy for Clay and Felicia to be good parents. They're rarely on-screen.

So I turn the question to you: On this National Parents Day, who would you nominate as the best parents in P&G soap land? Tell us in the Comments below.