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Janet was finding that she was becoming more invested in the Mystery Incorporated kids. She even gave them their own office in City Hall just yesterday.
She couldn't help but feel some level of protectiveness over them. They were the same age as her little half-sister, Brenda, after all, and she could see also a part of her teenage self in each them.
There was Fred, who has recently experienced a major traumatic event involving his family. Fred, who's a very natural leader, but struggles with expressing his emotions and letting people in. Though, Janet had to admit that those were still things she wasn't great at either.
Meanwhile, she didn't know much about Shaggy's family, but what she did know made her feel sorry for him nonetheless. He was instrumental in exposing Mayor Jones as the criminal and fraud that he was, and yet that somehow prompted his parents to send him to military school. Also, Janet wasn't quick to overlook the fact that the first thing Paula Rogers said upon seeing her son and his dog back in town was, "What are you doing out of prison and the pound- I mean, military school and the farm?". One has to wonder how she and her husband treat him - and Scooby - on a regular basis.
As for Daphne, it was clear she lived in a volatile household. She was very flippant the other week when mentioning that Nan destroyed a lot of priceless furniture and physically attacked Barty, and the rest of the gang barely batted an eye at it too. It seemed like that was normal in the Blake home and Daphne's friends were probably used to hearing about it. Janet, however, made it a point to talk to Daphne privately to let her know that she could relate, and offer her a listening ear for whenever she needed, something she'd already offered Fred and Shaggy.
Then there was Velma, an intelligent and driven young girl, but Janet could see just from watching the dynamics in the gang that she seemed to feel like a fifth wheel to them sometimes, between Shaggy and Scooby's bond and whatever Fred and Daphne have got going on. It made Janet think of her own high school years spent with one group of friends she never completely fit in with. The only other friends she really had were Cassidy, Judy, Brad and Ricky, and in hindsight they were better friends to her than her actual group, but even then, they had a bond with each other that they didn't let anyone else in on.
The new Mystery Inc. were all really good kids, though. That was more than Janet could say for herself at their age. They may be used to not having positive adult role models around them, but she hoped that they could see that she was trying to be different.