Joyce Byers, single mother of Jonathan and Will Byers, should get a lot more credit for her parenting skills than she seems to. In all honesty (particularly before Hopper becomes a pseudo parent in season two) she is the only mother, or father, paying any attention at all to what is going on with her children.
Sure, Nancy and Mike’s parents have a larger, cleaner, and more clean-cut house, but they have no idea what two of their three children are up to all day. But Joyce, like any parent, makes her fair share of mistakes, even when she means well.
Mistake: Not Looking For Jonathan
A lot of older siblings can relate to feeling a bit less important than their younger siblings and no television eldest should feel worst than poor Jonathan Byers. Sure, in the first season of Stranger Things Will obviously needs more of his mother’s attention because he’s, well, missing.
But by season three Will has been home, if not completely healthy, for some time. Yet, when Joyce and Hopper finally make it to Starcourt Mall to join the chaos, it’s almost as if Joyce has only one child. Not once does she reach out or search for Jonathan.
Shining Moment: Rescuing Will
Every mother would like to claim that they’d do anything for their children, but Joyce Byers actually did just that. No matter what anyone told her she never once thought that Will was dead and, when she started being able to communicate with him, not once did she doubt herself or her son, even through the paranormal monster movie shenanigans that started to take over her life. Will is lucky to have such a dedicated mother, one who was willing to enter the Upside Down herself to get back her youngest son.
Mistake: Smashing Her Wall With An Axe
Sure, destroying one wall of her home with an ax was supposed to be one of the “anything for her child” moments, but despite the monsters and paranormal energy around her, this was Joyce still living a bit too much in the material world. There was no need, other than confusion and frustration, to put a hole in the Byers home, and yet she made one. It was a mistake, it was silly, but of everything Joyce went through, this is hardly something that weighed on her mind for very long.
Shining Moment: Recognizing Will’s Drawings
Again, as the most engaged parent on Stranger Things, it’s very impressive that Joyce is tuned in enough to notice when the drawings her son Will begins to make on his return from the Upside Down are very different, in both tone and style, than what he used to draw before his disappearance. This recognition obviously leads to the greater revelation that Will is not okay and is in fact still very much connecter and tortured by the Upside Down season one’s rescue was supposed to allow him to leave behind. This simple attention to detail certainly makes Joyce a hero.
Mistake: Not Checking On Will
While her attention to detail in season two is commendable, the fact that Joyce doesn’t even realize her youngest son is missing until the morning after he disappears is still a major problem at the opening of season one.
“He came home last night, right?” Joyce asks her elder son, Jonathan. That’s not a great way to start the day when your son isn’t in his room. This may be one of Joyce’s greatest mistakes on Stranger Things, and it’s still something that any parent might do, whether there are monsters in town or not.
Shining Moment: Not Giving Up On Her Magnets
Having paid little attention at the beginning of season one, by season three Joyce Byers is not willing to let any small and strange occurrence go, and that’s to the benefit of her family and the residents of Hawkins in general. It looks like at least one character is learning from their mistakes, as Joyce investigates the small but disturbing occurrence. She talks to Hopper, but even goes so far as to interrogate the local science teacher, where they both discover the problem with magnetic fields, leading to, of course, greater and more terrifying discoveries for the community.
Mistake: Letting Lonnie Stay
Season one Joyce made a lot more mistakes than Joyce in later seasons, and that growth is great to see, but season one was rough. Despite the abusive history and how her ex-husband Lonnie treated both of their sons she trusts him enough to stay in the house for what is supposed to be Will’s funeral. Why Lonnie should care about his sons most when they are gone is an important question, but one that Joyce doesn’t have the capacity to examine at the moment. When she realizes he’s just in Hawkins to make money she throws him out, but viewers were not surprised.
Shining Moment: Burning The Monster Out Of Will
Despite the desperate screams of her youngest son, Joyce Byers sticks to her guns in a moment of true “mother knows best.” If the mind flayer can’t stand the heat then Joyce is going to turn it up as high as possible to get the beast away from her son. Even as Will screams and Jonathan begs her to let his brother go Joyce stays determined and succeeds in freeing Will.
Mistake: Depending On Jonathan
Again, as a single mother, Joyce Byers really does the best she can, but in season one she treats her eldest son Jonathan a bit too much like a co-parent and not enough like the teenager and child he really is. From being responsible for breakfast, waking his brother, and getting them both to school, one wonders what Joyce is supposed to do each morning other than getting her own self to work.
Shining Moment: Getting The Lights To Work
The most enduring image of Stranger Things season one is the Christmas lights hung on the wall in the Byers’ house and the alphabet painted beneath them. Despite her failings, Joyce’s ability to not only accept but interpret the situation around her and come up with a way to reach out to her son, wherever it is in time and space that he exists, is both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same moment.
