I feel this! I've run across a few of these characters in my time too. And granted, I wasn't the best parent in the world, I had my oldest son just before my 19th birthday, but I did my best, and I knew simple things like children have to be fed. Seriously I wish I were joking. here are the highlights of some of the "winning" parents I've encountered:

1. The former mommy friend that had a son about 18 months older than my oldest who never seemed to have food in her house, never cleaned and one day bought herself McDonalds and when her child came begging, "put her foot out, shoved him away and said, I kid you not, "Go away, Mommy can't afford to share with little boys." Our "friendship" ended that day.;

2. The mother who brought her son over to my place the day we moved into the neighbourhood because my son and he were playing earlier in the day and asked if he could spend the night ebcause she wanted to go to the bar and see her boyfriend's cousin's whatever play in some band or another. I could have been some sort of nut for all she knew, yet she was content to allow her child to stay with me without ever having seen me let alone meeting me;

3. There was the time I questioned the school about my son's work. He was acting up because he was bored and I noticed his reader and a lot of the things he had to do were exactly the same as what I did in grade 2 (the reader was The Dog Next Door, I still remember it in grade 2). He was in grade 3. I asked about it. The teacher's response: the parents don't read, they can't do grade 3, how can I teach grade 3 to the kids?

I could go on, but you get the point. :)