h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

... to that picture for so many reasons that I'm assuming that I'm misinterpreting it.

I agree with you - it's not a very nice picture & seems to imply divorce at the very least! Although the divorce of parents does seem to affect to their children's attitudes to relationships in later life - that's not what the question was about. In fact that would seem to be a topic all to itself.

I was puzzled by the choice of graphic. I wondered if it was included in error.

I think it was done directly for this entry. I think I know what the artist was trying to get at, but I don't like the way that dad is split off from the kids, nor the implication that anything less than a two-parent family causes the child from hell. I don't think it's supposed to be taken literally like that, but still, I'm not keen.

I saw it as one parent not taking his responsibilities properly. If you find it objectionable and I don't, it's possibly because of our own individual circumstances rather than anything in the graphic. If it had been the mother in that broken off bit, I'm sure we would have had comments about 'why should it only be the mother's responsibility?'. Plus paternal rights is a big issue right now. And from a cynical point of view, if this entry's got you fired up enough to post something, then it's done its job.