Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26261400-20150518155126/@comment-5106672-20150518163411

To answer this question, it would be interesting to see more of the periods of time between We Are Both and Fruit Of The Poisonous Tree (for the EF) and Save Henry and Pilot (for Storybrooke).

Regina kept her true colours hidden for years while she was living with Snow, only trash-talking and stabbing her in the back occasionally (discussing her with Tink and Rumple, or cursing her steed), but we have no idea of how she acted in her presence. They were growing close before Cora started the whole mess, but whatever happened in the Palace after the marriage stays in the Palace as of now. But ultimately, Snow's good nature comes from Eva's role model and from Snow's own guilt over not preventing her death.

In Storybrooke things are quite unclear. Regina is potentially very good parent material and has a natural affinity for kids: see how easily she bonded with Snow and Owen, before everything went to hell (she also bonded well with Roland, although that was after her redemption started). And she clearly has a desire for kids, as seen from how hurt she was when she cursed herself to be barren, or how deviously she tried to keep Hansel and Gretel, or Owen. Of course, there is her whole sociopathy thing that made her act very negatively on those instincts. In regards to Henru, in Season One she was clearly in full villainous mode and repeatedly hurt his feelings as collateral damage to a) get rid of Emma and b) keep the Curse intact, but before that things didn't seem nearly as harsh. From what we gather from bits of Season Two and Three, she seemed to be very close to Henry at first. She sacrificed her "head start" on Emma to be able to be a good mother to him without the impending Saviour-doom clouding her judgement, he gave her little presents, and so on. I don't think she acted evil on him at all, at least until the onset of S1. In S3, Mary Margaret said Henry's issues started when he learned he was adopted and, from what I gathered, it was the realisation of being abandoned by Emma that started tainting his relationship with whom he perceived as being some "fraud" mother of sort (yes, kids can be like that). Regina placed him in therapy before he got the book, but that might be because of how badly he handled the news. Then of course Regina's bad karma royally kicked her in the ass in the form of the story book from which Henry learned what she did back in the EF, which destroyed their relationship and prompted him to go find Emma, and that's when she started being villainous to him as well. So to me it is safe to assume for a good 10 years she was a good mother (maybe stern) to him.