Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4962906-20151003135616/@comment-25701646-20151015192726

Trainer Green wrote: Thank you King ^ bad person a bad parent does not make. Regina raised Henry and he grew up to be the next author. She was a strict mother but she did love him and she did want what was best for him. Rumple is the Dark One but he was strong enough to avoid killing Henry and even went as far as sacrifcing himself to stop Peter Pan. Maleficent has more Darkness than even regina and after she found Lily she didn't care about anything except Lily.

Regina is a murderer, bitter, manipulator, liar and even Henry himself thought she didn't love him in season 1. But she did and he turned out fine. She didn't physically abuse him and made sure he had a work before pleasure attitude.

Robin Hood on the other hand, was constantly endangering his son wirth his vigilante bullcrap and even had the nerve to sneak around the Dark One's house. What about Snow and David? Don't even get me started on their passive agrressive supercilous attitudes.

Regina has Henry and Robin Hood has Nolan. Why can't Zelena have her baby? Regina may have loved Henry but she gaslighted him, made other people think he was crazy, and, when that wasn't enough to keep him in the dark and to herself, tried to murder his birth mother. That is not physical abuse but it is psychological abuse and that is just as bad.

Rumple did try to kill Henry but was interrupted by Snow, Charming, and Emma. The normal parent/grandparent tries to kill their child/grandchild 0 times. Even when he decided not to kill him, he was going to step back and allow the rest of Henry's family to die so Rumple himself could be a psuedo parent to Henry. We have no evidence about Maleficent's parenting skills. Loving or caring about someone doesn't mean you won't abuse them. Many abusive parents do love/care about their children in whatever way they're capable of,  but that doesn't stop them from abusing them. Sometimes, in their mind, they don't even view it as abuse.

Robin's not the ideal parent, I'll give you that. Putting Roland at risk, though... I don't remember a whole lot of specific times. The shadow thing in the Neverland arc is the only time that specifically comes to mind. I'd need to rewatch the episode, but I believe that was because there was no other way to get Neal to Neverland, which was needed in order to save Henry and Emma and Co. It wasn't a great situation and in normal circumstances Robin would be a horrible parent for letting it happen. However, those weren't normal circumstances, several lives were on the line, and he did take precautions to make sure that, at least if it had to be done, there were people to make sure things didn't go south. If there are other times you're thinking of, then elaborate.

Snow and Charming are only the baby's cousins through marriage, so I don't think you need to worry about them getting custody.

Zelena can't have her baby because she's never shown a desire to reform. The closest was when she joined the coven and that was for all of five seconds. She wants her happy ending but doesn't care whose lives she wrecks (and often tries to end) to get it. A parent needs to put his/her child above his/herself. She's never done that for anyone.