Life After Life Family

Maurice is the stereotypical mean older brother, even when he's only five years old. He will never grow out of this kind of bratty behavior, either.

Sylvie wonders this about her childless friends, but Ursula feels a similar mother-child bond with her younger brother, Teddy, whom she would do anything for. Of course, in parallel lives, Ursula has had children, so maybe those motherly instincts just bleed over from there.

Hugh may not be a bad father, but he's kind of an oblivious one. He never associated much with his own parents when he was a child, so he has trouble relating to his own kids when they're really young.

Sylvie is very possessive of her children, but we think in this case, it might just be that she doesn't want Izzie to have anything to do with them. She probably wouldn't mind if other people, who weren't shameless hussies in her eyes, wrote about them.

Ursula's relationship with Teddy almost feels more like a mother/son relationship than a brother/sister one. She is very protective of him, and in most lives doesn't have kids of her own, so she focuses on giving Teddy the best life she can.

Sylvie has very traditional views, which she tries to foist on her own children. Ursula shrugs this off, but Pamela, who often seems like the more modern thinker, ends up doing exactly that: being a wife and mother.

Izzie gave her child away, something that Sylvie never lets her forget. But without wanting to have another one, Izzie wants to acquire a family in some way… so she's willing to ask Sylvie for one of her kids.

It is indeed—and it doesn't go well for Freida and Ursula.

This is the one timeline where Ursula gets married and has a child. That seems to be her priority here, as her mother's values have sunk in this time.

In one timeline, Teddy dies and Ursula suffers as though she's lost a son. She has to find someone else to focus her affections on, and she chooses one of Pamela's sons.