#janet i see as being way more aloof and disconnected than jack

[redrobin-detective]

Sooo... thoughts on how Tim would've turned out if Janet was the parent who survived Haiti?

I think on the surface level things would have different but the same overarching result.

When Janet woke up from the coma, I think she would've been more demanding of Tim's time and help. Jack, for all his faults, worked very hard to get himself healthy again. I think Janet would have struggled in this area and used Tim as a stand in Dana to get herself fixed. Tim would have done it, working less and less as Robin to do so. He would have been resentful and Janet would have called him ungrateful for all she'd done for him. It would become a vicious cycle of them guilting the other.

Eventually Janet would have gotten herself together but her relationship with her son is cold. She feels a bit guilty for pushing him, for needing him so heavily when he's just a kid. Her 'reward' for him to to try and make things better, she dotes on him like she did when he was a child, tries to engage him. But her knowledge of Tim as a person is 10 years out of date and she can't quite grasp that her son isn't a child but a teenager well on his way to being an independent adult. She babies him when all he craves now is adult acceptance. He needed this years ago but moved on, its too late.

Tim rebuffs her attempts as he gets more bitter about the whole situation. Eventually, Janet grows bored with trying to appeal to Tim and decides to do her own thing. I could see her reengaging with the Gotham society scene, trying to save Drake Industries that way. Ironically the more she's away from the house, the better her and Tim's relationship gets. Distance gives them breathing room and they can actually get along better. I don't see Janet marrying again (though there would be an uncomfortable/sorta hilarious subplot of her trying to marry Bruce for his money since he's already half raising her son and its just.... super awkward for everyone).

If Janet were to find out about Robin, she would also try to take it away from him in a panic. I think she'd do everything she could to keep Tim grounded which would work for a while but Tim would sneak out anyway. She's furious that he disobeys her and says she doesn't care what he does. They never talk about it after nor how Janet cries herself to sleep every night in worry but is too angry/scared at her son to stop him. She realizes that she has no idea how to be a mother, that she's a bad one and just kind of gives up. They live in the same house but she's all but handed over the reigns to Bruce.

Tim leans more heavily into Robin, Janet wines and dines with a fake, bright smile. When they ask after Tim she tells them he's studying or with friends or whatever it is kids do these days. She's miserable and aching and has no idea how to fix the situation she caused so she just pretends that all is well. I want to emphasize that she, like Jack, tries but a) so long apart and b) such different expectations of what Tim should be and c) just pure inability to think outside herself sour any attempt to reach out. The relationship remains cold, uncomfortable, filled with spiteful arguments and unsaid affections until she is killed by Captain Boomerang. Even as she was dying, all she could say is that she failed Tim, she never said she loved him. Maybe she didn't know how.