the lousy husband you are shedding is her father.

What really marks this particular Prudence is her failure to listen. The mother said that he was "absent," not lousy. And if he's absent, he's not really much of a father figure, as Prudie implies, is he?

Can't help but think that this Prudie is purposefully awful just to generate more clicks, which is what all these Slate writers want, of course.