When going on holiday there are three essential things you must remember to take; your tickets, your passport and your family all of them. Yet I don't blame Peter McCallister (John Heard) for only managing 2 out of 3 on this list. His house at Christmas is a menagerie, his brother is a fantastically unlikable cretin and the pizza guy keeps knocking over his lawn ornaments. So you can forgive a father of four for forgetting his youngest child, Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), on, not one, but two occasions. You can also forgive him for his lack of effort in trying to find his last born once he realises he is still at home, or lost in New York. His wife has the frantic searching angle completely covered it's kind of her 'thing', and he would just get in the way. What you can't forgive this 'Dad of the Year' is his reaction once he's reunited with everyone's favourite brat. In Home Alone, having saved the house from being burgled, Kevin proudly informs his Dad he has bought, "Milk, eggs and fabric softner." To which Peter replies, "What a funny little guy." What. A. Funny. Little. Guy. No remorse at leaving him behind, no gratitude for saving him a snowy drive to the shops. Nothing. In the second film, after Kevin sends the Wet Bandits to jail for a second time and saves 'Duncan's Toy Chest' from being robbed, he receives a huge Christmas tree and a boatload of presents for him and his family to enjoy as a thank you from Mr Duncan. Everyone is pretty happy about it, everyone except Peter McCallister, who instead decides to lose his mind over Kevin's room service bill. How much do you think that tree and presents are worth, Pete? You think maybe you can forgive your youngest son for the bill as you left him at an airport and he managed to survive, alone, in one of the world's most dangerous cities? Perhaps you feel like saying thank you to him for saving Christmas? No, of course you don't. At this rate Kevin will be in therapy by the time he is 12, asking Dr Sheboygan why his Daddy didn't love him.
