As I said on the other thread, I see the movie is aimed to be kids friendly and depict the events on on a kid's POV, and by that Mike doesn't blame his mother from what happened.

But this annoys me. Mothers are responsible for their kids and it's their idea to bring a new guy to the family and their responsibility to choose who.

Mothers have to pay attention on their kids and find out when abuse happens. 80% of ppl have financial problems, and it's no solution bringing home an abusive guy to "have fun" with her sons so he pays her bills.

There are lots of real cases where ppl are heavily abused, family members could have helped but let them suffer and die, and they end up acquit. "Just" letting it happen must be considered as much guilty as doing it.