My favorite parent in the BSC is Stacey’s mom, Maureen Spencer. I know that Stacey’s parents don’t seem to be the most well-liked in the BSC-iverse. Ed gets it worse than Maureen, though–workaholic dad who tries to buy Stacey’s love, hiding Samantha from Stacey while getting mad at Stacey for hiding Robert from him, etc.–but Maureen is often accused of being kind of golddigger, since she seemed to spend the months leading up to her divorce at Tiffanys.

Maybe she just had the mean reds?

But as someone else who also grew up with divorced parents and a workaholic dad (who also happened to work in New York City and has a new younger wife whose first name starts with “s,” etc.), I always liked Maureen and Stacey’s relationship. We saw more of Stacey and Maureen together than we did of any other Sitter and their parent(s), I think. They did things together like watch old movies and discuss things about their lives, and I appreciated seeing that.

Plus I liked Maureen’s attitude to the new circumstances of her life, going from a housewife to a career woman who didn’t need a boyfriend and wasn’t going to settle for just anyone. Even if they were pretty cute, like that John guy. Maureen seemed to embrace and even revel in her new situation, rather than retreating into depression and feeling sorry for herself.

Team Maureen.