the wheeler family is really fucked up and honestly i feel bad for them (mike too) so here's some reasons all the wheeler family needs some therapy
NANCY.
— has horrible guilt for barb's death
— wouldn't be surprised if she had ptsd because of what happened over the last two seasons
— finds out a boy she was nice too stalked her and took photos of her undressing
— has to be some badass monster fighter when she was 16
— has seen some horrifying things, including her fiends rotting corpse
HOLLY.
— probably only born to try to save ted and karen and ted's marriage
— karen takes a bath, for what we guess at least two hours, leaving a toddler alone in the house unsupervised
— we don't see holly a lot, so we can guess the wheelers either neglect her or send her to another persons house
— the only family member who ever shows her affection is karen, and even that is sparingly used
— she's at least four years old, but she never talks. and it doesn't seem like anyone is encouraging her
KAREN.
— trapped in a loveless marriage with unresponsive kids who are both going through puberty and acting out
— she is so desperate for love she flirts back at a teenager who flirts at her
— has to care for three kids for herself
— none of her kids or her husband show her any love or affection
— mike stayed at joyce's house for three days without telling her or calling, and she wasn't even worried
MIKE.
— honestly a dick but even i admit he's gone through way too much in season one then any twelve year old should
— shows a lot of the symptoms for depression and anger issues
— has no strong parental figures at home
— had to watch his best friend go through extreme ptsd for a year and tried his best to help
— extreme attachment issues
— while we're at it, abandonment issues as well
— doesn't have anyone to talk to about his issues. will, dustin and lucas all have parents who are receptive and we have seen them all go to their parents for advice, but mike can't do this since his father doesn't care and karen has shown she has a better time connecting to nancy
— i think in season one he was bottling up lots of emotions, and when eleven left he took it out on everybody, which isn't healthy
TED.
— neglectful to all his children
— even his son's friend called him 'useless'
— just a really horrible neglectful father who should have helped with mike's very obvious anger issues/depression and nancy's sadness over her friend
_____
i can honestly see a affair in season three, because it's clearly been many years since karen has experienced actual love in her marriage, if she did at all.
i think karen really wants to keep this appearance of the perfect family, and there's also the fact if she were to divorce ted, chances are she would not win custody of her children since shes financially reliant on ted and has no money as nancy stated