Definitely not an original thought in the slightest, but I feel like the way the show portrays Gloria and Al is really interesting. They're an example of abusive parents being portrayed in a more subtle, realistic way, which almost makes them feel even worse than if their portrayal was obvious and over-the-top.
Starting with Gloria, because she's definitely the worse of the two. She constantly gaslights Linda all the time, and never feels remorse about it, or even acknowledges her own behavior. The best example of this behavior is the Season 11 episode "The Terminalator II: Terminals of Endearment", where she literally forces Linda and the rest of the family to buy cream for Al, one that he doesn't even end up needing, mind you. The airport is also pretty far, so the drive over must've not been very fun (Bob has even stated on one occasion that it's difficult to drive for a long time with everyone because they all end up getting each other carsick).
Apparently, one time in the past, Gloria straight-up stole Linda's phone charger and refuses to admit she did it. Even when Bob is confronting her and becomes rightfully upset, she doesn't say anything about it. This leads to Linda saying that Gloria didn't do anything, even when the signs are extremely obvious that she did. And just in general, everything the family went through that day just to gather Gloria and Al in one place was a complete nightmare, because Gloria kept getting sidetracked and doing things like going on the wrong tram. It's no wonder that Bob went on a whole rant about Linda's parents not deserving her and her generosity.
There's also the fact that Gloria lied to Gayle about her goldfish being immortal, forcing Linda to keep up the lie too and to be on the receiving end of Gayle's outburst when she inevitably found out the truth. In general, she's very enabling of Gayle, pretty much letting Gayle do whatever she wants and not being very helpful in terms of Gayle's behavior. This must've led to Linda having to be a parent to Gayle growing up and also gave Gayle the impression that she can just do whatever around Linda.
And during her first appearance in "Crawl Space", she's really not much better. All she does is criticize Bob and is just no help whatsoever. You can't really blame Bob for wanting to stay in there instead of spending time with her. Not to mention that she and Al literally had sex presumably knowing that their grandchildren could hear them. Gene even recorded them and got in trouble for it.
Al isn't much better than Gloria. While he isn't as horrible, he's very enabling of Gloria and doesn't do anything to stop her or encourage her to be better. Not to mention that because he's hard of hearing, he has difficulty communicating. He just seems like a distant sort of guy, and one has to wonder how present of a father he was during Linda and Gayle's childhoods.
Gloria and Al also don't really acknowledge their grandchildren that much, and Tina, Gene, and Louise definitely don't have a good opinion of them. It doesn't seem they spend many of the major holidays together, either--it feels like they've seen more of Big Bob than them despite Bob's strained relationship with Big Bob. Or at least, it's obvious they have a better relationship with Big Bob. It's just interesting how Gloria's awfulness is very realistic, just doing little things and refusing to acknowledge her own wrongdoing, leading to Linda always being the one to apologize even when it's not necessary. And Al just doesn't do much at all, which is bad, too.
Linda deserves better parents, or at least her current ones really need to shape up. It's probably not too late for Al.
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gummygunk
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