Oh yeah I didn't hate her either, I guess it's more that I feel like the shows view of what consists of reasonable parenting was pretty skewed, it felt like she generally treated Buffy as way more of a burden than was called for. Even as late as season 5 she asks Buffy to babysit, and then berates Buffy for her sister coming across a dead body, hello it's not like Buffy planted the body there for Dawn to come across, get a grip!