Each parent or guardian in Shameless has a unique way of parenting and influencing the children in their care, some better than others.
Content Warning: This article contains mention of child abuse and sexual assault.
At its foundation, Shameless is a show about family and the complexity of growing up without repeating the mistakes of one's parents. Over the course of eleven seasons, the Gallaghers and adjacent characters struggle to balance paying bills, navigating relationships, and becoming parents themselves.
From trying to murder their own children to leaving their baby as collateral for drug money, the guardians in Shameless have done it all. With that said, it's interesting to assess who truly takes the top prize for bad parenting and who shines as the best guardian in the show.
The lowest of the low, Terry Milkovich is the only parental figure that can easily be considered worse than Frank Gallagher. Terry's physical and verbal abuse of his children creates a cycle of violence that many of them are unable to escape. Terry's behavior doesn't stop at assault as he even tries to murder Mickey on his wedding day.
When Terry isn't traumatizing his kids, he torments the neighborhood with racist and sexist attacks. While Mickey and Mandy manage to break free from his tyranny, they're left with permanent emotional scars.
Although arguably not as bad as Terry, there are still plenty of moments that show Frank Gallagher is a horrible parent. His ability to screw up the lives of the Gallagher siblings at every turn is something to behold. By using his children for money to feed his drug and alcohol addictions, Frank keeps his family in a constant struggle to keep food on the table.
Among Frank's worst antics are leaving baby Liam with drug dealers as collateral, using his children's names to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and even calling Child Protective Services on Fiona to have the children taken away from her care.
When Peggy Gallagher comes to stay with the family in season 2, the reason for Frank's behavior becomes clear. Insisting that her grandchildren call her "Grammy," Peggy wastes no time before grabbing her stashed gun and cash and threatening the life of a former drug dealer.
Grammy buys the love of her grandchildren with bribes and has them do her dirty work. However, she doesn't afford Frank the same sweetness, even stabbing him with a screwdriver. After tormenting Frank and attempting to shoot Sheila, Grammy is "put out of her misery" with the help of a pillow and Sheila's full body weight - a fitting end for one of Shameless' worst caregivers.
Monica has a complicated relationship with her children, having abandoned them after Liam's birth. While Monica's erratic behavior can be explained by her bipolar disorder, she is described as having always been wild and reckless.
Monica reappears in the lives of the Gallagher children whenever the guilt of leaving them becomes too much. However, she never stays long as her motherly behavior is merely performative and she almost always leaves just as her kids get used to the idea of having her around again.
Debbie's questionable parenting decisions and her relationship with motherhood follow a similar path to that of Monica as she has Franny for her own selfish reasons. Debbie forces her own ideology onto Franny in an attempt to relive the childhood she never got to have.
When Franny becomes old enough to form her own opinions and personality, Debbie refuses to listen to her. Debbie uses Franny as a pawn to guilt Sandy into coming back and later dates the woman who threatened to shoot Franny if Debbie didn't keep quiet.
After discovering she was pregnant at the end of season 9, Tami struggles with the decision to keep the baby, feeling pressure from Lip, her family, and her predisposition for breast cancer. Ultimately Tami decides to follow through with her pregnancy despite her fears of not being ready to become a mother.
Following complications from her C-section, Tami has to stay in the hospital and finds it difficult to connect to Freddie once she is released. Problems arise as Tami and Lip try to co-parent and Tami is guilty of using Freddie as a pawn in arguments, threatening to take Fred away from Lip.
After being assaulted at gunpoint, Mickey is forced by his father to marry the now-pregnant Svetlana. Despite Yevgeny being a living reminder of the worst day of his life, Mickey gradually adjusts to a paternal role and even falls into a routine with both Svetlana and Ian to look after the baby.
When Ian steals Yevgeny during a manic episode, Svetlana takes Yev with her to stay with Kev and Veronica. Season 11 brings the idea of fatherhood back to the forefront for Mickey as Ian proposes the idea of adoption or surrogacy, reassuring Mickey that he will be an amazing father. Despite ups and downs, Mickey always tries his best as a parent.
Kev and V begin their journey as parents by fostering a young girl named Ethel who was abused by her father. After Ethel runs away, the pair take time to heal before attempting to have biological children. As a last resort, V has Kev impregnate her mother, Carol, who later gives birth to a boy named Dominic. Veronica becomes pregnant after all, and Carol decides to keep baby Dominic with her.
While Kev often makes poor choices such as letting Svetlana breastfeed the babies without V's knowledge and later teaching the twins to roll joints, his compassionate nature makes him a great father.
Although Sheila's time on Shameless was over too soon, her impact on the Gallaghers and her own family was immense. Sheila suffers from agoraphobia and struggles to be there for her daughter Karen and laments watching her grow up to become a "mean girl." Despite being unable to leave the house, she tries her hardest to improve her symptoms and be a good mother to Karen.
Sheila's confidence grows after she kicks Eddie out for his verbal and emotional abuse of Karen. After Karen's accident, Sheila takes care of her and baby Hymie full-time, buying an RV and leaving their past behind.
When Karen tells Lip that she's pregnant in season two, Lip prepares to take responsibility and help Karen raise the baby. Lip is shaken by the truth that Karen's baby was not his, but it doesn't stop him from later taking in Xan and allowing countless homeless children to take shelter in the Gallagher home.
After Freddie is born, Lip takes care of him full time while Tami recovers in the hospital, going to baby classes to ease the postpartum depression and maintain his sobriety. Lip consistently takes on odd jobs toward the end of the show in an attempt to provide for his growing family, showing that he's nothing like his own father.
All of Svetlana's decisions after season 3 center around her desire to protect Yevgeny. She manipulates and threatens to out Mickey in order to guarantee protection and shelter for her baby. Although Svetlana often has an ulterior motive behind her actions, her motivation is always selflessly in Yevgeny's best interest.
When Ian puts Yevgeny at risk, she leaves the Milkovich house and secures residence with Kev and V, using her persuasion and sexuality to gain their trust and become part of their family. Svetlana's main goal is to give Yev the opportunities and safety she was never afforded - so while her methods are questionable, she proves to be one of the best parents in the show.
Fiona comes close to being the best guardian in Shameless, but her reckless actions damage her standing. Whereas the other characters in this list are parents, Fiona is in a unique position, taking responsibility for her siblings in place of their absent parents. Fiona juggles several jobs, makes sure the kids never go hungry and runs the household for the majority of her life without thanks.
When the pressure of being a guardian of five in her early twenties becomes too much, Fiona begins doing drugs and endangers Liam's life. When Emmy Rossum left the show, Fiona's character was written off, leaving with almost no regard for Liam who was legally placed in her care.
Veronica takes the cake as the best parent in Shameless, consistently aiming to protect the children in her care and ensure they get the best possible education (even if it means they take turns pretending to be one child).
Though V struggles with postpartum depression and splits from Kev, she works through her emotions to come back stronger. When Liam begins looking to connect to his Black ancestry, V also takes him under her wing, helping him feel a sense of community he was never given in the Gallagher household.
