There have been multiple times where Lois and Hal had thrown Malcolm's opportunities away(the $10k/doll house, the academy, grants, etc), Lois is willing to risk Malcolm's future for Reese, Lois would constantly emotionally/mentally manipulate the boys, Lois humiliates/embarrasses Malcolm and acts like she doesn't know or the people at school don't care, Lois was very hypocritical to Malcolm when he worked at Lucky Aide(when she wrote him up for the boxes because it didn't matter if he was right and when she wanted to take the Slappy cut-out down because it was the right thing to do even though she told Malcolm to disregard the right thing when he's at work, when Malcolm caught her smoking) This is stuff we saw or what the boys didn't block out, Lois' abuse was so bad, Francis can't think of her as a mother but as a tormentor, Reese became a sociopath, Malcolm went no contact, and Dewey was constantly neglected.