In defence of the Holmes parents

 (Sherlock meta by thelonelybrilliance)

I keep seeing people complaining about the Holmes parents being too normal.

But are they really normal? Did it ever occur to anyone that they were so freaking traumatized by the tragedies that came with having three brilliant children, one so intelligent and emotionally unbalanced that she murdered someone as a small child? That their middle son, the emotional, imaginative one–then repressed his memories and emotions for the next few decades?

That their family home was burnt down and then their daughter was committed and then they thought she died?

At the very least, the Holmes parents must have serious, serious guilt and PTSD. SO maybe the way they coped was by moving to a small, comfortable home, and just finding what little bits of normalcy they could, while they continued to cope with their two remaining very complicated children, one of whom ran the government and the other who struggled with a recurring drug problem and later faked his own death.

And the fact that they were willing to get in touch with Eurus later, and were angry at Mycroft for not telling them, says that they weren’t at all normal. They wanted to love their psycho daughter. Even after all the pain and fear and guilt they’d likely suffered.