The movies that define John Hughes' career chronicled suburban teenage life in the 1980s. But they also spoke volumes about parenthood. Parents in these movies were freakish aliens who couldn't see reality right in front of them. The dads of Emilio Estevez's and Judd Nelson's characters never showed up in "The Breakfast Club," but they dominated their stories. These fathers taught all the wrong things about manhood, botching the job so badly that their kids could see the mistakes as clear as a punch in the mouth.

From Cameron's absentee parents in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off " to Molly Ringwald's embarrassing, insensitive parents in "Sixteen Candles" and her mess of a dad in "Pretty in Pink," we saw images of what parenthood shouldn't be. A parade of mothers and fathers -- racing to accomplish or enjoy themselves or simply dull their own pain -- missing crucial opportunities to know their kids. The impact of parents was huge, even if they barely appeared on screen.

As we hear about Hughes' death, there are ripples from his generation-defining films in our own parenting. Jennifer James McCollum, a mother of three in Oklahoma who blogs about Generation X, traces her sensitivity about her kids' personal angst directly to cash-strapped Andie from "Pretty in Pink."

"So many of the John Hughes characters, they just lived in their own world. And most of that world was a mystery to their parents," McCollum said. Hughes built entire films around the notion that sometimes parents ignore the most momentous things in teenagers' lives.

"It's something that made me the way I am," she said, "because I am very, very attuned to not missing the story with my kids. ... I don't think my parents had any idea that the reason I didn't go out for basketball is that I didn't want to be the only one out there with the wrong sneakers."

Not every '80s parent missed the boat, of course. Surfing John Hughes-related coverage this morning, I saw that my friend, AP film critic Christy Lemire, wrote on PopEater of her mom repeatedly watching "The Breakfast Club" with her on cable TV. They bonded over the experience of, "feeling that nobody understands you when you're young, that your problems are unique and insurmountable." But in many households, especially the middle- and upper-middle-class suburban kind deftly depicted in Hughes' films, that kind of communication was uncommon.

In shaping his adolescent characters, Hughes always implied that, even if their teenage immaturity lasted, they'd be better parents than their own parents. The boys and girls who represented us in his films often spoke with wisdom, slang-inflected though it was, and improvised solutions to their problems. We couldn't depend on the adults around us, but we could find strength and resources within ourselves, especially if we banded together.

Judging by the buzz among Gen-X parents on Facebook today, this weekend a lot of X-ers will break out the John Hughes DVDs to reminisce. Seeing these flicks today as a parent, what do you see in them?