Jane and Michael probably aren't going to end up writing angry tell-all biographies about their evil mom and dad…because Mr. and Mrs. Banks are both pretty sound, parenting-wise. But the credit goes to Mary Poppins.
Mary gets Mr. and Mrs. Banks (but, particularly, Mr. Banks) to see the light and start spending time with their kids, showing their love. The problem isn't that the Bankses don't love their kids: it's that they're so preoccupied with other things that they're failing to appreciate this time in the life of their family.
They need a good shock to switch things around, and Mary's the right person to administer that shock. She's sweet and nice, but she also understands that, only by shaking things up, will the Bankses become a cohesive family unit again.
Questions about Family
- Do you think Mr. Banks has always been so uptight, or has his job made him that way?
- Does Mrs. Banks need to change the way she relates to her family?
- Do the Banks parents match up with your own idea of good parents? In what ways to they meet and miss the mark?
- How does Mary teach the Banks parents to be better parents? What's her method?
Chew on This
The Banks family is a wee bit dysfunctional because the kids don't have enough freedom: their father and a series of bad nannies are always trying to control them.
The Banks family is a wee bit dysfunctional because no one's paying enough attention to the kids. The adults are all distracted with their own problems, and aren't taking the proper amount of care in selecting a nanny, or spending time with the children themselves.