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Description
i drew these two along with roxie and albert, as they're mel's parents.

andrew hoggs had a locally successful indie rock band in which he was the bassist, and sarah belkin became their publicist/manager. distraught at the band's lack of gigs, sarah and andrew started spending time talking about things other than work. sarah had a biting wit and alluring confidence, and andrew had that sweet face and artistic appeal, and soon they were fooling around.

after a year of dating, right after the two graduated from college, sarah learned she was pregnant. they decided to have the baby (after quickly getting married, of course) because sarah wasn't entirely comfortable with getting an abortion and she was also certain she would be able to mother her child well. unfortunately the child was roxie, who was a bit of a terror from infancy and put her parents through the wringer. nevertheless, they had a second child when roxie was about seven, hoping that a baby in the house would teach roxie about responsibility. the baby was obviously mel, so that didn't work quite as expected.

sarah and andrew love each other despite teasing each other about their differences, but have very different parenting styles. sarah gets frazzled about her kids doing dangerous activities and gets snappy and dismissive when her kids disobey her, though they learned to tune her out. she gave up on trying to discipline them when roxie was sixteen and their interactions devolved to petty insults. she's kind of a control freak and finds it hard to love her kids when they're kind of terrible people.

andrew, on the other hand, is pretty hands-off and prefers to chat with his kids like he's their older brother. he tries to teach them about the pop culture of his days, and employ them in music, but they're not as into it as he is. they also are a bit embarrassed at how eager he is, but at least he lets them get away with everything because he just wants them to like him.

a good way to think about them is sarah being "i can't believe you were smoking weed!" and andrew being "i can't believe you were smoking weed...without me!" roxie and mel don't exactly love it and that's why roxie left home as soon as she could and why mel left with her.

(fun fact, sarah is ethically jewish, making roxie and mel half-jewish, though they aren't very cultural. i might switch and have andrew be jewish or have them both be half-jewish if i feel sarah is too much of a "jewish mother" stereotype- that wasn't my intention, and i tried to lead her away from the overprotective aspect and more towards a neurotic woman who doesn't want to be seen as vulnerable and is a bit too aggressive. i just established mel as half-jewish a long time ago.)

Description
i drew these two along with roxie and albert, as they're mel's parents.

andrew hoggs had a locally successful indie rock band in which he was the bassist, and sarah belkin became their publicist/manager. distraught at the band's lack of gigs, sarah and andrew started spending time talking about things other than work. sarah had a biting wit and alluring confidence, and andrew had that sweet face and artistic appeal, and soon they were fooling around.

after a year of dating, right after the two graduated from college, sarah learned she was pregnant. they decided to have the baby (after quickly getting married, of course) because sarah wasn't entirely comfortable with getting an abortion and she was also certain she would be able to mother her child well. unfortunately the child was roxie, who was a bit of a terror from infancy and put her parents through the wringer. nevertheless, they had a second child when roxie was about seven, hoping that a baby in the house would teach roxie about responsibility. the baby was obviously mel, so that didn't work quite as expected.

sarah and andrew love each other despite teasing each other about their differences, but have very different parenting styles. sarah gets frazzled about her kids doing dangerous activities and gets snappy and dismissive when her kids disobey her, though they learned to tune her out. she gave up on trying to discipline them when roxie was sixteen and their interactions devolved to petty insults. she's kind of a control freak and finds it hard to love her kids when they're kind of terrible people.

andrew, on the other hand, is pretty hands-off and prefers to chat with his kids like he's their older brother. he tries to teach them about the pop culture of his days, and employ them in music, but they're not as into it as he is. they also are a bit embarrassed at how eager he is, but at least he lets them get away with everything because he just wants them to like him.

a good way to think about them is sarah being "i can't believe you were smoking weed!" and andrew being "i can't believe you were smoking weed...without me!" roxie and mel don't exactly love it and that's why roxie left home as soon as she could and why mel left with her.

(fun fact, sarah is ethically jewish, making roxie and mel half-jewish, though they aren't very cultural. i might switch and have andrew be jewish or have them both be half-jewish if i feel sarah is too much of a "jewish mother" stereotype- that wasn't my intention, and i tried to lead her away from the overprotective aspect and more towards a neurotic woman who doesn't want to be seen as vulnerable and is a bit too aggressive. i just established mel as half-jewish a long time ago.)