Let's look at it...
I will rate each response from Mom from a 1 to a 5, where on this scale:
1 – Terrible Response
2 – Bad Response
3 – Neutral Response
4 – Good Response
5 – Perfect Response

In Camp K.

1. Mom's first exposure occurs when she is ganged up by the girls of the cabin and presented with Erika with no warning.

Mom's Reaction:

Initially extremely upset, wants to pull Eric out of there, assuming (correctly I might add) that he was co-erced into this. After listening calms down and lets Eric finish out the summer, with promises that he will see a therapist and leave Erika's things behind.
Response Critique:

Under the circumstances a fairly positive response, I would rate it a 4.

In Princess and the Plague.

1. Eric returns and tries to renege on the therapist, being belligerent and childish in his behavior towards her, referring to her repeatedly to his mother as Dr. Farts.

Mom's Reaction:

She insists that Eric keep his promise to seek help. Help that Eric truly does need by the way.
Response Critique:

The correct response by any standard, I will give her a 5.

2. Eric puts on make up on the trip to the mall with Mom, gets pushed into the fountain, which she does not see happen, but see's the results of the water on the mascara.

Mom's Reaction:

Despite having been told by the girls at camp about the abuse that Eric takes at school, she does not understand the full extent of that and focuses more on Eric's violation of the agreement.

Response Critique:

While she should be more upset at Eric being bullied, she does not truly understand the level of abuse he has taken. Even though she did hear about it from the girls at camp, they have a low credibility factor with Mom at this point. Samantha in particular pushed Eric into attending as a girl. Mom could have been more sympathetic here, but she also felt that Eric brought it on himself by appearing in public with makeup on. I would rate it a 2.

3. Eric wants to attend a sleep over with the girls from camp.

Mom's reaction:

Initially Mom says no, she doesn't think it is a good idea. However, she agrees to speak with Dr. Barts, and arranges an impromptu meeting with her. She accepts the recommendation of Dr. Barts and allows it.

Response Critique:

Allowing a male child, and at this point Eric has not made a claim to his mother that he does not consider himself to be a male child, to be the lone male at a girl's sleepover would be unusual. So I don't see how you can blame her for being hesitant about allowing it. Again Eric has given her no reason at this point to believe that he truly is Erika. Working with Dr. Barts and taking her advice can only be viewed as a positive. I would rate it a 5.

4. Dr. Barts wants to meet Erika.

Mom's reaction:

Uncomfortable, but she tries to make the best of it with Erika. Not only do they go to Dr. Barts, but they actually stop for a snack on the way home.

Response Critique:

Can't ask for a better response, I would rate it a 5.

5. Eric spends the night at Tricia's, goes to a party, gets drunk, passes out and leaves without letting anyone know where she is going, or calling for help.

Mom's reaction:

Mom is livid. Eric was completely out of line with this one, and Mom was justifiably peeved. Mom and Dad together agree on a suitable punishment. Mom was stricter here, and would have prevented Eric attending his after school club, which they do not know is the rally team. Mom has no way of knowing that this is more than just a club, and that Erika has an obligation to attend. Dad intervenes in private and they relax the punishment accordingly.

Response Critique:

While she was clearly very angry at Eric, it was justifiable anger, because Eric could have been killed as a result of his actions. Her response was in proportion to the action, and was the correct thing for a parent to do, I rate it a 5.

6. Mom finds out, when going to school to pull him out of school that Eric has not attended all year.

Mom's response:

Mom contacts Dad and has him come home immediately to confront Eric when he gets home.

Response Critque:

Mom has no idea what her son has been doing for the past several weeks, as far as she knows he has not attended school. She is justifiably concerned, and contacts Dad to correctly confront Eric together. This again is the correct response for a parent to make, and I rate it a 5.

7. Eric tells his Mother and Father that he has been going to school as Erika, that he IS a girl. At the same time, Dad reveals his history with TG and his Uncle, and does not react as anticipated.

Mom's response:
Shocked and angry that Eric has taken such a risk. Shock and anger at Dad as well. She storms off in a huff and goes to Dr. Barts.

Response Critique:

Eric/Erika has completely violated any trust that his mother has for him/her at this point. Followed up only a day or two after the drinking episode, Mom spent the day thinking her son was out and about doing God knows what, possibly something dangerous and /or illegal. Instead she finds out that he has been going to school as a girl, completely ignoring the agreements that they made, not to mention the risk of injury etc. should he have been caught. Dad's reaction after weeks of Mom trying to cope with this on her own to protect both Eric and his father was the final straw. She leaves somewhat recklessly, but mitigating that is that she went to Dr. Barts. That was probably the best thing she could do at that moment, and it does mitigate some of what she had to say, so I will rate this a 2.

8. The family meets with Dr. Barts. Dr. Barts lets them know that there may be a biological reason for becoming TG, as she has very low hormone levels of either kind.

Mom's response:

Mom lets it be known that she does not like what is going on. She does not believe that Eric showed any signs of this prior to Camp this summer, and that this is just a phase, that was brought on by being coerced into being a girl at camp by Samantha. She is struggling with the concept, and grasps to the concept of a medical problem. Something that might be fixed. However, she agrees that Erika should continue to present as she is comfortable, at least for now.

Reaction Critique:

Mom is hones t in her feelings here. She does not want to lose her son. It's awkward, etc. but prior to the big reveal a couple of days before, she did not have any evidence that this was more than a summer lark. She is now going into the anger/denial stage of mourning.

I think her reaction here was pretty neutral. She is feeling alone, as her husband has made the leap directly to acceptance, and out of control. Yet she is willing to listen to the professional and take her advice at least for now. I am going to rate this as neutral and give it a 3.

9. The family meets for lunch after the appointment with the Doctor for bloodwork.

Mom's response:

Mom is still very upset, it is only the next day. She reveals that she went to see Dr. Barts, because she is uncomfortable with this whole thing. She sees Erika as a boy in a dress, and thinks the rest of the world sees her that way too.

Response Critique:
This was a bit much for Mom to take in at this point. Expecting anything more, is unrealistic. However, the response is not pleasant for anyone. I will give this a 2.

10. The family and Dr. Barts meets with the school Principal, finds out that Eric broke into the school, stole school records, and used them to create a new transcript. Also finds out the real details about the bullying abuse that Eric had to deal with last year.

Mom's response:

Mom's reaction to learning about the breaking and entering was fairly vocal. She was clearly upset by this. As was Dad, of course. Mom was less vocal upon learning about the abuse. We actually do not know what Mom's reaction to the abuse was, there is nothing mentioned in the story about her reaction. Dad was vocal, and clearly peeved by it, and the lack of information that the school had provided.

We really can't make any assumptions about Mom's response to the overall meeting, on either side, because we don't hear anything further about it. I will give this one a neutral rating of a 3.

11. Dinner the night of the school meeting.

Mom's response:

Mom is a bit snippy, and short. She makes Erika do "women's work."

Response Critique:

Mom is still in anger/denial mode, it has only been days since the big reveal, and that will continue on for quite a while I'm sure before she can move past that. Making Erika do the dishes, could be a spiteful thing, but then this household has been following traditional gender roles, and that is the way Mom and Dad were raised. Erika should learn the downsides to being female as well. I would rate this evening neutral at 3.

12. Shopping for Homecoming dresses.

Mom's response:

Although difficult to say for certain as we have not seen the dress, or anyone else's reaction to the dress, it appears to go well. They have a decent discussion, and Mom does seem to try to impart some of her experiences as a woman to Erika. We do learn that Mom has a paternalistic view of the world, which is making this more difficult. Mom wants to bring Erika to church.

Response Critique:

This was a fairly positive night. It was exhausting for Erika, but not necessarily in a bad way. There is some bonding going on, and that is a good thing. The church issue could become an issue, but thus far to date it has not. The discussion even about women as second class citizens is not positive or negative; it simply is a discussion point. I would rate the response here as a 4.

13. The family learns that Erika has a brain tumor. Erika expresses that she might not want it out if it is going to start male puberty.

Mom's response:

Mom is concerned about her child having a brain tumor. Mom is still not convinced that Erika is the right path for Eric, and believes that the releasing of Testosterone may awaken her son again. When Eric expresses that he would rather keep the tumor so that he can stay a girl, she gets extremely upset. She wants to have it out with Erika right there and then on this, but Dad intervenes.

Response Critique:

The news being imparted about a brain tumor had all of the family on edge. Both Mom and Erika saw the tumor and the TG as being intertwined, and reacted accordingly. This put them at odds. Dad of course saw it correctly as being two separate issues and acted to intervene, and put himself between them. Mom and Dad then privately had a heated discussion about the situation. While we don’t know what was said in this discussion, beyond that Dad pointed out that Erika was in shock and needed to be given some space.
What we do know is that the next morning, Mom was pleasant and acting more or less concerned for her child.

Any parent that hears about a brain tumor is going to be emotional. Expecting any other kind of reaction is again unrealistic in the extreme. Mom would have gone ballistic on Erika if she had been alone, so that is a negative, but from what we can tell, once she and Dad had the argument she did calm down. I would choke this one up as neutral, but knowing that many people would argue against that, I'll skew it to the negative side by giving it a 2.

14. The Next Morning. Back to school.

Mom's response:
Mom is pleasant and acting concerned about Erika. She agrees to drop off the dress and things she needs for the presentation. She calms her concerns about her hair. We find out later in the day that she contacts the school to fill them in on the brain tumor.

Response Critique:

The early morning shows that the discussion with Dad the night before appears to have had some benefit. She is showing concern about the tumor, as any good parent should at this point. She has returned to trying to help Erika with the homecoming preparations, there are no negative comments, no warnings or concerns expressed about rally. While Mom does not mention that she is going to contact the school about the tumor, there is nothing to suggest that this was for malicious intent. There is nothing to suggest that Mom is anything other than concerned about the tumor. There are any number of things that could happen as a result of the tumor and sometimes there are warning signs. A good parent would notify the school. We don't have any indication that Mom called knowing that it would get her suspended from the rally squad. All we have is the Principals statement that she got a concerned call from Erika's Mom. She did not say that Erika's mom was concerned about Rally, but that she was concerned about her tumor. The Principal took that information and led to the medical leave.

Despite all of the anger from other posters on this topic, there is nothing in the story to substantiate it was done maliciously. Frankly, I would put this whole morning up as a positive, but I will again skew in favor by leaving it neutral, at 3.

So out of a total possible of 70, Mom score is 51, or an average score of 3.64. So from how I see it, Mom's responses have been overall neutral with a slight edge towards positive. When you consider that she has had about two weeks so far to come to terms with this, as something that is more than a summer lark, I think she is doing pretty well. I know that we would all like to see whole hearted acceptance from both her parents, as we would all want that ourselves, but this was completely foreign to her before parent's day at camp, and she is clearly trying.

Hugs,

Kristy