i'm constantly torn on this. i adore the concept of them being found family orphans who aren't biologically related so they can twist the themes of the show, but i'm also obsessed with the idea of wittechild looking like philip. i think that if they did have parents, they weren't particularly loving at all and didn't provide much for them — caleb was always more of a parent to philip no matter what. i do think that philip in particular would really aim for getting their approval, though. he's definitely a big mommy's boy. he craves the acceptance of his parents no matter how old he gets, but an older caleb eventually stops caring about that once he realizes how fundamentally incompatible his personal mindset and goals are with the human realm.

in a world where they're orphans, i think it's all philip has ever really known. he's always been very self-sufficient, and he's probably kept himself surviving through some brutal methods (he definitely fought with other kids...). i think he wouldn't even remember his parents, because he was simply too young when they died. caleb would remember his own, though, and his decisions are constantly shaped by them. he probably bases how he treats philip after how his own parents raised him, at least at first. i think having the influence of a loving parent still in the back of his mind definitely turned caleb into a kinder person than philip, who has no memory of his. caleb's memories slowly start to fade as he gets older, though, and he starts creating more of his own independent identity rather than just following what he was instructed to do by his parents. caleb's parents probably had some messed up mindsets about witches and such at the time, and i wouldn't be surprised if caleb was the one who taught that kind of behavior to philip and ended up regretting it years later.