Maria Connor Sutherland (Samia Smith)

[LouiseP]

By friends/babysitters who are not residents on the street ..

Ah well, my view is that they never seem to have any friends outside the street. None are ever mentioned . Fiz , Tyrone and Maria are always in the pub. Who do they get in to babysit. They live and work in the Street and don;t seem to have any relatives or friends outside.

[LouiseP]

By friends/babysitters who are not residents on the street ..

Ah well, my view is that they never seem to have any friends outside the street. None are ever mentioned . Fiz , Tyrone and Maria are always in the pub. Who do they get in to babysit? They live and work in the Street and don't seem to have any relatives, mothers, fathers or friends outside their small community.

[Dazzle]

Ah well, my view is that they never seem to have any friends outside the street. None are ever mentioned . Fiz , Tyrone and Maria are always in the pub. Who do they get in to babysit. They live and work in the Street and don;t seem to have any relatives or friends outside.

That's down to bad writing but we are supposed to assume they live ordinary lives off screen, and that includes seeing friends and family away from the street.

The way I look at it is that we are only shown the dramatic highlights of their lives (99% of which occur on the street ) and the boring bits are left to our imaginations. The same could be said of any work of fiction.

[lizann]

That was pretty bad though she still has a way to go to catch up with Peter burning the flat down around Simon while passed out drunk.

as bad a peter is i still like and even root for him, chris natural charisma makes peter likeable for a cheating womanizer and bad dad

[lizann]

That was pretty bad though she still has a way to go to catch up with Peter burning the flat down around Simon while passed out drunk.

as bad a peter is i still like and even root for him, chris natural charisma makes peter likeable for a cheating womanizer and bad dad

[Dazzle]

as bad a peter is i still like and even root for him, chris natural charisma makes peter likeable for a cheating womanizer and bad dad

Yes, I agree that Chris is naturally so likeable that it's almost impossible to hate Peter (though I came close to it during the tawdry Tina affair).

However, my point was that Maria haters jump on every imperfection and vilify her for it in a way that's not done for the other characters. Two parents in recent years in Corrie have almost burnt their kids to death due to outright negligence (Peter and Tracy) and David recently nearly ran over, crushed and burnt Lily to death due to extremely dangerous driving. None of these were vilified as much as Maria (except perhaps for Tracy, but then she's outright evil so actually deserves vilification), who's pretty harmless relative to most soap characters.

Plus, the thing that most gets my goat is disparaging her for sleeping with men when she's single (even if they're single too), and if they're being unfaithful then she's criticised far more heavily for being the other woman than the man is for cheating! Having a sex life does not make her a bad mother and since she's never (until now) that I can recall been shown to neglect or otherwise mistreat Liam and is portrayed as a mostly decent human being (again, relative to most other soap characters), then I assume that she's supposed to be a reasonably good mother. Going out and leaving the kids all the time is par for the course for all soap characters so why is she judged harshly for doing what everyone else does?

Falling asleep (even due to a hangover) when looking after a seven year old isn't a crime, though of course it's definitely not good either. Which of us parents reading this can say we've never fallen asleep or otherwise not paid enough attention when caring for our kids which could have led to catastrophe if we'd been very unlucky? I know I certainly can't!

I don't even like Maria very much at the moment and just wish she and Aidan would disappear frankly but I'll save that for the episode discussion thread.

[lizann]

maria choosing to be the other woman in affairs is tedious and just repetitive and does not endear her to viewers at least not to me

[Dazzle]

maria choosing to be the other woman in affairs is tedious and just repetitive and does not endear her to viewers at least not to me

I'm talking about the double standards applied to her, not whether she's an interesting, likable or moral character.

[lizann]

i think we have to disagree on her views on maria dazzle

her getting extra flack for her behaviour could be as she isn't liked

both aidan and adam are tools, adam returns an asshole with no baldwin charm

[lizann]

i think we have to disagree on her views on maria dazzle

her getting extra flack for her behaviour could be as she isn't liked

both aidan and adam are tools, adam returns an asshole with no baldwin charm