History Main / HandsOffParenting

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* ''{{Twilight}}'' seems to imply that Bella's mother is like this, which is supposed to explain why Bella is so "[[YourMileageMayVary mature]]."

* ''WolvesOfMercyFalls'' has Grace's parents, who have been mostly ignoring her for her teenage years.

* TheWolvesOfMercyFalls has Grace's parents, who have been mostly ignoring her for her teenage years.

* ''SkipBeat!'': It's implied that the super-serious Kanae "Moko" Kotonami is the product of such a style of parenting, leaving her as the de facto adult at her home... despite the fact that she has at least two older, married siblings, if only because they are repeating the same hand off style with their respective families.

* ''KingOfTheHill Hank Hill'': has to deal with parents like this on occasion, which serves as a good contrast to his own firm-but-loving view on parenting. In one episode, he had to deal with two parents who would put their children in neglectful situations like concerts or giving them alcohol just because it made them "cool," and seemed more interested in having a good time then being good, loving parents. Another had a pair of see-no-evil parents who outright refused to discipline their son in spite of mounting evidence that he was a horrible, insufferable brat. Interestingly, he deals with them by having Bobby act ''exactly like their son'' towards them.

->BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WONT DROWN
-->--a telegram from the children's father, in ''SwallowsAndAmazons''

See also AdultsAreUseless, DisappearedDad, MissingMom, [[CatsInTheCradle Cat's in the Cradle]], FreeRangeChildren, and ParentalAbandonment.

[[AC:{{Anime}} & {{Manga}}]]
* It's implied that the super-serious Kanae "Moko" Kotonami from ''SkipBeat!'' is the product of such a style of parenting, leaving her as the de facto adult at her home... despite the fact that she has at least two older, married siblings, if only because they are repeating the same hand off style with their respective families.

* Jiraiya takes this to the point of ParentalAbandonment in regards to his godson Naruto where it was all but said that Jiraiya never even MET the kid for the first 13 years of his life.
* While it is a far cry from neglect, {{Yotsuba}} spends a lot of time unsupervised, considering that she's only 5.

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
* Carrie Kelly's parents in ''{{Batman}}: TheDarkKnightReturns'' are so hands-off that they're depicted as having trouble remembering she exists at all when she's not there. (Which is convenient for FrankMiller, since it allows him to completely bypass the question of how she's going to explain to them about her new career path.) It may have something to do with the way they're always surrounded by a haze of what is probably not tobacco smoke.
** There's also a reference to 'needles', suggesting that their presence in this trope may also be down to harder stuff...

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

** And Olive Penderghast's parents in ''EasyA'' make Juno's parents look authoritarian; they are basically [[AdultChild teenagers in adults' bodies]] but, again, they are extremely supportive when Olive really needs them.
* Placid's parents in the Australian film ''TheRageInPlacidLake''.

** To be fair, they started off letting Ben get away with whatever he wanted. They only became super strict after finding out that he'd been lying about where he kept sneaking off to; that is, to fight evil aliens.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* An early example is Eustace Scrubb's parents in ''{{Narnia}}''.
* A more plot-centric example would be Professor and Dr. Fries in [[RobertHeinlein Heinlein's ]] ''Podkayne of Mars.''
* The parents in ''SwallowsAndAmazons'' are also rather like this, as described in the page quote. They have no problem with the idea of sending their 7-to-12-year-old children off in small sailboats to camp on islands for days at a time. ValuesDissonance?

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* Key'lehr being the closest thing a half-Klingon get to this explains why Alexander, Worf and Key'lehr's son in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', didn't pick up on Klingon values as a child.

* Were [[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Willow Rosenberg's]] parents ''ever'' home, except when it was convenient for the plot - like the time Willow's mom and the other parents nearly burned Willow and Amy at the stake?
** Her mother basically seems to be far more interested in studying teenagers than actually interacting with her teenage daughter. She doesn't know Willow's best friends' names, views Willow as a demographic rather than an individual, and is surprised to see Willow's change of hairstyle when it's been that way for months. All we know about her father is that his name is Ira and he won't let her watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special ([[InformedJudaism they're Jewish]]).

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* Ness' parents are surprisingly cool with their little boy heading out to fight monsters on his own without any form of escort or weaponry in ''{{Earthbound}}''. They just like it when Ness calls them every once in a while to say hi.
** [[EpilepticTrees Alternatively]], Ness used his psychic powers to ''make'' his parents okay with it.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* Richard's parents in ''SabrinaOnline'' - who seem to have been introduced mostly to counterpoint Sabrina's ultra-conservative [[strike:mother]] parents.

[[AC:Radio]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Jane and Trent Lane survived an artist mother like this and adventure-photographer father subject to ParentalAbandonment in ''{{Daria}}.''
** The other Lane kids didn't, with one an emotional basket case wanted in two states for bigamy and another being a teenage mother of four with two being runaways with an extended family who apparently despise the whole brood. Even Momma Lane has her limits when the whole family comes together, all begin to annoy one another, and eventually she comes running to Daria's mother for the best way to get rid of them.
* [[TheSimpsons Ned Flanders]] had hippie/beatnik parents and was like this before he was given a special treatment that involved being spanked continually for a whole year and was both literally and metaphorically [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]].
* Likewise, this seems to be the main reason [[strike:Susan]] Mandark from ''DextersLaboratory'' is evil (though it is also strongly hinted he was just born that way).
* Goo's parents from ''FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', who wouldn't stop her [[MrImagination imagining hundreds of imaginary friends]] because they didn't want to stunt her creativity, so they just foisted them all off on Fosters.
** And her name is 'Goo' because ''they let her name herself''.
* Percy and Anastasia, the parents of the title character on the Canadian cartoon ''Kevin Spencer'', are like this, being more concerned with getting more booze, welfare cheques and smokes than Kevin's welfare. Kevin would disappear for months at a time, and they were never particularly worried, simply noting that the boy would eventually come home on his own, which he always did. Of course, Percy and Anastasia often wouldn't be around either, given that they spent so much of their time in prison and rehab.
* [[KingOfTheHill Hank Hill]] has to deal with parents like this on occasion, which serves as a good contrast to his own firm-but-loving view on parenting. In one episode, he had to deal with two parents who would put their children in neglectful situations like concerts or giving them alcohol just because it made them "cool," and seemed more interested in having a good time then being good, loving parents. Another had a pair of see-no-evil parents who outright refused to discipline their son in spite of mounting evidence that he was a horrible, insufferable brat.
** Interestingly, he deals with them by having Bobby act ''exactly like their son'' towards them.

* Bessie's ex-hippie mom on ''TheMightyB!'' isn't really neglectful, but her idealistic worldview is rarely a help in solving her kids' problems.

** The other Lane kids didn't, with one wanted in two states for bigamy and another being a teenage mother of four with two being runaways with an extended family who apparently despise the whole brood. Even Momma Lane has her limits when the whole family comes together, all begin to annoy one another, and eventually she comes running to Daria's mother for the best way to get rid of them.

** [[EpliecticTrees Alternatively]], Ness used his psychic powers to ''make'' his parents okay with it.

** Nope! They WERE like that in the "Pseudo" final episode of the first series. The Alien Force canon has them being overbearing and unfairly strict. It actually had this editor wondering if the DNAliens possesed them.

** Interestingly, he deals with them by having Bobby act ''exactly like their son'' towards them.

** Her mother basically seems to be far more interested in studying teenagers than actually interacting with her teenage daughter. She doesn't know Willow's best friends' names, views Willow as a demographic rather than an individual, and is surprised to see Willow's change of hairstyle when it's been that way for months.

**The other Lane kids didn't, with one wanted in two states for bigamy and another being a teenage mother of four with two being runaways. Even Momma Lane has her limits when the whole family comes together, all begin to annoy one another, and eventually she comes running to Daria's mother for the best way to get rid of them.

* Dr. Henry Jones Sr. deliberately adopted this parenting style in reaction against his own strict upbringing and is astonished when Henry Jr. (aka Indiana) makes it clear he did NOT appreciate it.

* In ''TheEgyptGame'', Toby Alvillar has an artist father like this and a MissingMom. This is also heavily implied to be the kind of parenting April got pre-story from her self-involved actress/singer mother.

* Key'lehr being the closest thing a half-Klingon get to this explains why Alexander, Worf and Key'lehr's son in ''StarTrek: The Next Generation'', didn't pick up on Klingon values as a child.