Very few men -then or now-would. This isn't particular to Hank Ketchum

I just think it's amazing foreshadowing, that when their little kid makes a gigantic mess, he decides to not help at all, and instead draws cartoons. And then yard later this man cannot understand why his wife leaves him.

Imagine calling from boarding school like "Papa, I know I'm not supposed to bother you but I have not heard from mom in some time." And he's like "oh, she dead. Buried her months ago."

And then his dad tells him that his mom drank herself to death, when she died in a car accident.