That title is sarcastic.
Okay. Before I begin, I want to preface this by saying I like England, and this isn't bashing him--just pointing out that he has his shortcomings. And I know that none of the Hetalia characters are good parents, bar Sweden and Finland.
Also, this is technically canon, but the fandom tends to gloss over it.
Anyways. England...is not a good parent. Like, he tried, but he's really, really bad at it.
He manages to forget who Canada is, even though Canada stayed with him and took care of him after the American Revolution.
He left America alone for YEARS AT A TIME. He presumably did this with Canada as well. Let me repeat this. He left a small child--probably two small children--home alone, for years at a time. That is neglect.
Also, the thing with Davie--it takes him 50–60 years to get a flower.
And let's discuss the years pre-dating the American Revolution. England, after neglecting America for years, CANONICALLY suddenly gets possessive and controlling. The manga gets into this much better than the anime does, though the anime touches on it briefly with the suit scene (micromanaging your teen brother/son to the point of trying to pick out his clothes for him is a huge red flag and not at all healthy). The manga lays out exactly why America wanted independence: "At this point, however, England's characteristic tsundere ness selfishness ('don't buy tea from anyone except me', 'don't be close to anyone except me') had created a good deal of animosity for America.".
Tsundere or not, this is selfish. It's also isolation, which is an emotional abuse tactic. No, I am not saying England is an abuser, but their relationship could have unintentionally headed down that route if America hadn't broken away.
Not to mention, he dumped Australia on New Zealand and basically said, "good luck". Yes, this is technically an improvement over leaving a small child home alone for years at a time, but it's still not good.
We don't know much about how he parented Hong Kong or Seychelles--Gakuen Hetalia isn't canon--so I won't go into detail with them.
But Sealand. Just...Sealand.
So yeah. I like England, and he's not a bad person. But a good parent, he is not by any stretch of the imagination. Even by Hetalia standards.
