It seems that Buffy's role is not only to protect, but also to explain, to share, to make things more easy for the youngest.
I rewatched Him the other day (not a popular episode in fandom but very funny, and it has a lot of callbacks to all the previous seasons), and Buffy is EXTREMELY protective of Dawn - as of course she was in all the other seasons - but watching Buffy pull Dawn off the dance floor, I wondered if perhaps Buffy didn't wish that her mother had been stricter?
When Buffy wanted to go to the Bronze her mom would say "Have a good time"; when she found Angel and Buffy together in the house she left Buffy alone to walk him to the door; there are a few instances where she tried to ground Buffy (which failed) and in School Hard she protects Buffy from Spike, but for the most part Joyce seems a very hands-off mother, someone who wanted to be a friend rather than a disciplinarian on MOST occasions. (the characterization of Joyce was not consistent during the early seasons, but I think she was mostly there as a foil for Buffy, or as a joke, at least until Becoming she wasn't taken seriously in her own right.)
Of course Buffy knows more than her mom did about the dangers in the world - but I still think that in some respects Buffy would have wanted someone she could have opened up to and someone who could have protected her more.
Maybe that's why I write so much about Buffy having a child!
I'm not particularly interested in Buffy as a literal mother (although the fic I mentioned was very good), as Buffy as metaphorical mother, including mother or sire of all the Slayers (including Kendra and Faith). It's interesting that they explore the issues of single motherhood through Buffy in S6, although I wish they had bothered to deal with some of those realities in earlier seasons with Joyce. So they had a lot of ground to cover in S6 and didn't quite cover it all realistically (did Hank pay child support for Dawn, for instance? Or was he a deadbeat dad by that point? I'd rather doubt it - I think he'd pay the checks and satisfy himself that he was doing his duty.) And also as a daughter of a divorced mom who had to help raise my three younger siblings (including my sister) I can identify with Buffy on that level.
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It seems that Buffy's role is not only to protect, but also to explain, to share, to make things more easy for the youngest.
I rewatched Him the other day (not a popular episode in fandom but very funny, and it has a lot of callbacks to all the previous seasons), and Buffy is EXTREMELY protective of Dawn - as of course she was in all the other seasons - but watching Buffy pull Dawn off the dance floor, I wondered if perhaps Buffy didn't wish that her mother had been stricter?
When Buffy wanted to go to the Bronze her mom would say "Have a good time"; when she found Angel and Buffy together in the house she left Buffy alone to walk him to the door; there are a few instances where she tried to ground Buffy (which failed) and in School Hard she protects Buffy from Spike, but for the most part Joyce seems a very hands-off mother, someone who wanted to be a friend rather than a disciplinarian on MOST occasions. (the characterization of Joyce was not consistent during the early seasons, but I think she was mostly there as a foil for Buffy, or as a joke, at least until Becoming she wasn't taken seriously in her own right.)
Of course Buffy knows more than her mom did about the dangers in the world - but I still think that in some respects Buffy would have wanted someone she could have opened up to and someone who could have protected her more.
Maybe that's why I write so much about Buffy having a child!
I'm not particularly interested in Buffy as a literal mother (although the fic I mentioned was very good), as Buffy as metaphorical mother, including mother or sire of all the Slayers (including Kendra and Faith). It's interesting that they explore the issues of single motherhood through Buffy in S6, although I wish they had bothered to deal with some of those realities in earlier seasons with Joyce. So they had a lot of ground to cover in S6 and didn't quite cover it all realistically (did Hank pay child support for Dawn, for instance? Or was he a deadbeat dad by that point? I'd rather doubt it - I think he'd pay the checks and satisfy himself that he was doing his duty.) And also as a daughter of a divorced mom who had to help raise my three younger siblings (including my sister) I can identify with Buffy on that level.