>>715917824Yeah, again, some people just see things in binary black and white. A character is bad or good, mean or nice, that's it.
Toriel is a good mom in the sense that she performs her responsibilities, makes sure there's food in the house, that Kris has a bed, hell, she even read up on how to care for humans. But she's also a divorced mother with one kid out the door. She's puts on this perfect persona so much that, after meeting Sans, she probably wanted a night to let loose. Tell some dumb jokes, dance, and forget for a second about obnoxious ex-husbands, grading papers, and the fact that her one kid is a bit of a troublemaker she always has to monitor. And that just so happened on the day Kris comes home in the dead of night, sullen and soaked.
Toriel tries, but only really does the surface level stuff. She doesn't actually make an effort to engage with Kris, maybe because she doesn't know how to go about it. So she just does everything else to the best of her ability, hoping it works out.
She's not perfect and, I would argue, not trying where it matters. But she's not evil or some awful floozy people make her out to be. She's just a parent that screwed up and needs to actually see what's happening to her kid. There's more to parenting than making sure your kid is fed, goes to school, and attends church.