History Main / AbusiveParents

This includes parents who are emotionally abusive, physically abusive, mentally abusive, or who neglectfully allow their children to be abused by others if they don't abuse the child themselves. Sometimes the abuse at the hands of their parents or others end up as the FreudianExcuse for a villain. But sometimes the character manages to not grow up broken, bitter, and hateful, and ends up being [[CharacterDevelopment a different and better person]] than the upbringing would incline one to think.

* TheFairlyOddParents: Arguably, Timmy Turner's parents. While they are mostly neglectful, they have occasionally crossed into emotional abuse by telling Timmy that their life was so much better when they didn't have a child. Or [[ItGotWorse worse]] they let him know they would have rather had a girl rather than him. Not to mention they, often, forget his name. Interestingly enough, they have accused Timmy of being selfish while being selfish themselves.

* [[MadMen Don Draper]]'s father abused him physically (partially explaining how he got so messed up). On the other hand, messed-up as he is, he isn't half as abusive to his children as Betty, whose ice-cold and often oblivious parenting has given way to physical abuse. Betty's second husband, Henry Francis, is more understanding, but he doesn't seem to be able to make Betty get that she's making things worse. We predict a ''very'' interesting 1965-75 for Sally Draper. Perhaps ''too'' interesting.

*** In ''Legacy of Doom'', Howard is also physically abusive, but it's unclear whether or not Howard ever physically abused Tony in life. (Although Tony doesn't seem too surprised by Howard trying to kill him; but then again, Tony ''is'' in hell.)

* Character Aaron Echolls, father of Logan Echolls in {{Veronica Mars}}, is notably one of the worst dads in television - among other things he has been shown to physically abuse his son, hitting him and striking him with a belt. Logan's mother could be said to be neglectful, in the least, due to her drinking with the intention of ignoring her son being beaten in the next room.
** It should probably be said that Aaron's "among other things" includes [[spoiler:"having sex with his son's girlfriend and then murdering her with an ashtray."]]

* Logan in ''VeronicaMars'' was belt-whipped onscreen by his father, whilst his mother looked on.

* Poor, poor [[SlightlyDamned Kieri Suizahn]][[http://www.sdamned.com/2010/08/08212010/]]

* [[ShrinkingViolet Hinata Hyuuga]] from ''Naruto'' has shades of this, what with being so constantly berated for her mild nature and natural compassion to the point where she developed a severe inferiority complex and was veritably disowned by her father.

* While {{fanon}} has expanded on it and treated it seriously, it was PlayedForLaughs and implied with both [[ThatGuyWithTheGlasses Ask That Guy and the Nostalgia Critic]] [[hottip:* : commonly portrayed to be [[{{Twincest}} very close twins]] ]]; Ask That Guy seems to think that he was never good enough ([[FridgeLogic hard to imagine him ever trying]]) and they told him that he would have go to back in the dumpster where they found him, while the Critic portrayed them as monsters ripping him apart in a kindergarten drawing. And Ask That Guy's response to "Why does Daddy hit Mommy?" and the Critic apparently hiding in the cupboard when he was scared seem pretty suspect.
** Also treated for [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood throwaway laughs]] (but not come up in {{fanon}}... yet) was the [[DistaffCounterpart Nostalgia Chick]]'s childhood. Her mother made her feel inadequate, her uncle sexually abused her and her father never gave her any love. [[TheWoobie Poor girl]].

*"Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" by The Offspring. The song is meant to be an apology to a girl that lead singer Dexter Holland, as well as his friends, knew was sexually abused by her father yet no one ever brought it up.

*DC comics Deathstroke/Slade Wilson. Even putting aside how [[spoiler:he was heavily involved in the deaths of both of his sons]] you could make a case for this solely on Slade's youngest child. Rose Wilson has spent most of her life since her dad discovered her existence trying to deal with his epic-scale emotional manipulations. [[spoiler:After rejecting her at first, he stormed back into her life by having her foster family killed and her kidnapped. Then he lured her into being his apprentice and injected her with the same super-soldier serum that gave him his meta-human fighting abilities (crossing over into Physical Abuse as such). Rose eventually had a psychotic break and carved out her own eye to prove her loyalty to him.]]

--> '''Howard:''' Brilliance isn't enough. You'll never reach your true potential worrying about ''consequences''. You're '''''weak.'''''. [...] You're no son of mine.

*Penny's mom on ''GoodTimes''. She hits Penny numerous times, breaks her arm, and in one of the most infamous scenes in the show, she burns Penny with a HOT IRON. This troper still will not watch the last 5 minutes of that episode.