Raising a teenage daughter is hard enough for most parents, especially single parents. Raising a teenage daughter who is also a vampire slayer adds an additional level of difficulty to an already hard job. Joyce Summers, mother to Buffy, the vampire slayer, has her work cut out for her, and Buffy doesn't always make it easy.
Buffy and Joyce have their fair share of happy mother/daughter moments, but there are also plenty of times where Buffy doesn't make the right choice. Sometimes, Buffy acts out as a way of protecting her mother, and sometimes it's just the side effect of being a teenager.
Good: Saves Her Mom... A Lot
Joyce is an easy target for a demon looking to take down the slayer and a lot of the demons wanting to kill Buffy, usually start by trying to harm her mother.
In the beginning of the series, Joyce is especially clueless. One line Joyce seems to utter a lot is, "Buffy, what is going on?". Buffy saves her mom from a new big bad, pretty much on a weekly basis, and her mom usually never finds out about it because Buffy continues to protect her mom by keeping her in the dark about her Slayer duties.
Not: Lies About What She's Doing... A Lot
Lying to her mother about her role as the "Chosen One" is something Buffy has to do to keep her mom safe, at least that's how it seems in the beginning.
As the series plays on, Joyce clearly starts to suspect something, but Buffy continues to lie to her mom and in a lot of episodes, she even gaslights her to the point where Joyce questions her own sanity multiple times.
Good: Includes Her Mom In Her Social Life
Buffy and her mother have a very special bond, despite all of Buffy's secrets and lies. Buffy wants to include her mother in her life as much as possible and enjoys the fact that her friends and her mom have their own individual relationships.
Joyce takes on a more motherly role to Willow and Xander, and even Spike in later seasons. She becomes a caregiver to not only Buffy, but all of the people in Buffy's life because Buffy makes her mother such a pivotal and important person in her own life.
Not: Invited Angel Into The House
Buffy, like most teenage girls, has her blinders on when she meets and falls for Angel, the dark, mysterious, older, brooding guy. Angel is really a vampire with a soul, but when they first meet, he keeps his true identity from her.
Buffy invited Angel into her home, which ends up putting her mother in danger multiple times once Angel's soul is removed from his body and he becomes Angelus, his evil vampire alter-ego.
Good: Comes Back After Running Away
In the season two finale, Buffy prepares to send Angel to hell in order to save the world. She runs home to grab some supplies and gets into a fight with Joyce, which ends with Joyce telling Buffy that if she leaves their home she's not allowed back.
After Buffy kills Angel, she runs away, taking her mother's words to heart. When Buffy realizes it was just a fight and her mother didn't mean it, she returns home to a very relieved Joyce.
Not: Invited Spike Into The House
When Buffy invited Angel into her home initially, she didn't know he was a vampire, but when she invited Spike into her home, she did.
Spike is not only a vampire, but he's wildly untrustworthy and giving him access to her home and her mother was an extremely risky move for Buffy to make. Spike definitely takes advantage of his invitation, but luckily, never harms Joyce.
Good: Took On A Motherly Role When Joyce Got Sick
Most fans of the show always expected that Joyce would eventually be killed by one of the Big Bads after Buffy, but ultimately, it was a brain tumor. When Joyce is first diagnosed, Buffy dives into action.
Buffy wants her mom to focus on healing and resting, so she takes on the motherly role of the house, making sure Dawn is taken care of and gets to school and handling bills and whatever else comes up around the house that Joyce would normally take care of.
Not: Almost Got Joyce Killed A Lot
Not only did Buffy invite vampires into her home, but once her mother knows about Buffy's superpowers and her purpose, it adds another level of risk to Joyce's life.
In one episode in particular, Joyce is used as bait to lure Buffy to a deserted house where a strong vampire waits to kill her. Joyce is frequently used as bait, but also frequently comes scary close to being killed by a vampire or some other demon looking to torture the slayer.
Good: Stopped Dawn From Resurrecting Joyce
Joyce eventually dies from complications of her tumor and the episode where Buffy finds her mother, dead on the couch, is one of the most heartbreaking episodes of television that's ever aired. Buffy and Dawn are obviously distraught after their mom's passing and are grieving in different ways.
Buffy does her best to take care of Dawn, while Dawn secretly plots to resurrect her mother. Buffy catches Dawn just in time and breaks the spell, knowing that whatever Joyce would come back as wouldn't be the mother they know and love.
Not: Didn't Stay With Joyce In The Asylum
The season six episode, "Normal Again" gives viewers an alternate reality for Buffy that some fans argue is her actual reality. In this episode, Buffy is not a slayer, she's in an asylum in LA after burning down her school gym. Her mom and dad are still together, Dawn doesn't exist and she never lived in Sunnydale.
Buffy's mind jumps from this reality to her slayer reality and at the end of the episode, Joyce begs Buffy to stay in the non-slayer reality, but ultimately, Buffy doesn't listen to her mom and goes back to her reality as the Slayer.