So once again, The CW series Jane the Virgin has managed to tackle a parenting struggle that is all too real. While some kids are fortunate enough to grow up with both parents living under one roof, others are not so lucky. Granted, this is usually due to divorce rather than accidentally getting artificially inseminated by someone who is not your fiancé. But those are just semantics. Regardless of the circumstances, the struggle is still the same. When parents are no longer together, children find that their attention (especially at a young age) is divided. Sometimes they see more of one parent than the other... and sometimes end up developing misplaced parental feelings. Such was the case for Mateo, who called Michael daddy on Jane the Virgin , much to Rafael's horror.
It was a completely innocent mistake, mind you. When Xo suddenly backed out of babysitting Mateo due to her ongoing feud with Jane, Michael offered to watch him, being the sweet and caring man that he is. And while their time together could not have gone more smoothly, they apparently bonded a little too well because when Rafael went to visit Mateo later that day, he said "daddy" (his very first word!), but to the wrong man.
This made Rafael realize that he should be spending more time with Mateo and confronted Jane about his growing concern. Seeing as he is Mateo's actual father, he wants to be the man most present in his son's life and she whole heartedly agreed. And although the issue seems to have been smoothed over for now, I'm starting to wonder if this will become a more significant problem moving forward. I mean, we're talking about a parent's most deepest fear: getting replaced by their ex's current significant other. So this could push Rafael to take some sort of custody action to make sure he's getting the proper amount of time with Mateo that he deserves.
I'm not saying it will definitely come to this, but every great parents wants to feel fully involved in their child's life, so hearing Mateo call another man daddy had to be a pretty emotional blow, regardless of whether it was done intentionally or not. Let's just hope this doesn't end up snowballing into a much bigger fight.
Image: Michael Desmond/The CW
