I've honestly never understood DC's fetish with killing off the Kents. Especially in modern continuity.

Sorry to hear about your father, if I'm interpreting correctly.

Also, spoilers for Superman and Lois should be avoided for now.

I'm not sure why he gets killed off all the time. It's better with Superman talking to his old Parents in his off-time rather than jerking around in his Snow Fort.

Ok and my dad retired last year so everything good

That's good to hear.

In the Silver Age, the Kents died when Clark was about 18? Before he moved to Metropolis. In animation at the time, this was simply not addressed - they appeared in Adventures of Superboy but not in New Adventures of Superman. He only appears in Super Friends in Flashback. The same is the case in the 1988 Ruby-Spears series. Simply put, their role in the story was over so they didn't need to add them. We don't know if they're alive or just still back in Smallville.

Then after the Crisis, the Kents didn't die, so they were still important enough for them to show up. They appeared in Lois & Clark and Superman: The Animated Series, occasionally visiting. Look: a live action series where he didn't die.

In Smallville, the role of the Kents was obviously much bigger than an out of town visitor, more like the roles they had in the Silver Age. And after a while, someone's contract is up, or they simply want to move on with their career - being in a series is a long term commitment that means having to say no to a lot of other things.

Or the writers become so lazy they mistake "a loved one dying" for "character development".

But after Smallville did it, Pa kicking the bucket became a thing - he did it in All-Star Superman and mainstream within two years. All done better than the way Zack Snyder did it.

The original reason for the death of the Kents in pre-Crisis continuity, particularly regarding Earth-One, was to add pathos to the Superman character, The idea was that Clark Kent dedicated his life to protecting the Earth and had saved countless lives as Superboy already, but was unable to save his parents from dying in spite of his godlike powers. The tragic impact that this had on a developing Clark Kent was to reinforce that even a Superman cannot save everyone no matter how much he may try, also serving to humble Superman before the inflexibility of certain incontrovertible natural laws, such as that which maintains the approach of death is inevitable for all beings. In other words, it was to humanize the character and to put a permanent if subtle dent in Superman's emotional armor of assuming that his powers would always be sufficient to save everyone.

I think that a lot of it has to do with the Donnerverse, which did it and played it to dramatic effect. They showed the seemingly all-powerful Clark/Superman being unable to save someone from a simple heart attack. And a lot of writers have attempted to copy that moment since then.

In the case of Smallville, quite literally. Seriously, Jonathan's death scene is basically a fleshed out recreation of Jonathan's death scene in Superman the Movie. In both, Jonathan has a fatal heart attack and dies, right outside of the barn on the Kent farm. With Clark (18 in both) and Martha by his side.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman let Jonathan live. However, the motivation there was Deborah Joy LeVine feeling the need to give Clark someone that he could talk to openly. Someone who'd know that Clark is Superman.