Considering the environment that Dick Whitman had during his childhood, maybe Don wasn’t a bad father.

All right, we can talk about how he was an emotionally absent father, he was not a good adult model, he constantly cheated on his wives, and always disappeared. However, close to being raised by a violent father, who died in front of him, and then living in a brothel, raised by a his stepmother who hated him, Don was even a good father within the reality of an adult who grew up in the worst environment possible.