History Main / ParentalHypocrisy

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In "[[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E4TheRuthlessPursuitOfBloodWithAllA ...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding]]", Lestat de Lioncourt is the "Do as I say, not as I do" type of parent because his ''very'' harsh lesson to his vampire daughter Claudia after she accidentally kills her FirstLove (and Lestat forces her to watch as Charlie's face melts in the incinerator) is that vampires should "never get close to mortals because sooner or later, they end up dead." Yet Lestat spent the ''entire'' [[Recap/InterviewWithTheVampire2022S1E1InThroesOfIncreasingWonder first episode]] being wholly ''besotted'' with Louis de Pointe du Lac when the latter was still human. Lestat stalked, flirted, courted, seduced and harassed Louis over a period of a few months (based on Louis' comment that "It was a cold winter that year, and Lestat was my coal fire"). While Lestat's endgame was to turn Louis into a vampire, he nevertheless fell head-over-heels for a mortal and invested a lot of time bonding with his human LoveInterest before offering Louis the Dark Gift. Lestat's warning to Claudia rings hollow knowing that he did the very thing he's telling her not to.

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Marty's mother scoffs at Marty for his behavior with Jennifer. "In my day, we never parked and made out." It's quite the shock to Marty when he travels back in time to find his mother willing to "park for a while" (not to mention drinking and smoking). Of course, this probably wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't trying to do it with ''[[ParentalIncest him]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIReturnToTheSea'': Ariel becomes an overprotective parent to Melody and gets on her case for disobeying her, even though she herself was a rebellious teen who regularly disobeyed Triton. Of course, while Ariel [[PoorCommunicationKills went about it]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero the wrong way]], she has good reason to be strict with Melody with [[BigBad Morgana]] on the prowl.

* ''Film/ThePatriot'':

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Marty's mother scoffs at Marty for his behavior with Jennifer. "In my day, we never parked and made out." It's quite the shock to Marty when he travels back in time to find his mother willing to "park for a while" (not to mention drinking and smoking). Of course, this probably wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't trying to do it with ''him''.

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': During the ''Mother's Rosario'' arc, Asuna' mother forcefully disconnects Asuna's VR helmet and scolds her for being a few minutes late for dinner, accusing Asuna of "disrespecting the staff's efforts," Asuna is sorely tempted to remind her of several occasions where Kyouko was also late for dinner, threw out the meals untasted, and had the staff make them again for her own convenience, but ultimately decides not to do so.

--> '''Vivio''': I heard that [[HasTwoMommies mamas]] were [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha quite unruly]] at [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs Vivio's age]], right?\\

* {{Discussed|Trope}} in a rehearsal scene in ''The Convict's Opera''.

* The Music/BeastieBoys' "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" has this line:

Mom just doesn't understand! She tells our heroine off for going out with the wrong boy or having a secret life, etc. Then, we find out in a dramatic twist that ''[[FormerTeenRebel she did the same thing when she was her age!]]'' What a hypocrite! But, of course, having seen her hypocritical ways, we love her again or she sees her wrong-doing and allows the act to continue. Or doesn't.

Note that this trope isn't necessarily a bad thing: the parents went through the same thing their children are facing, learned from it, and now they want to keep their kids out of the same situations. The parents look upon the situation with regret and want better for their children. Not stopping to remember how much they'd heed such advice in their time, of course. This trope only focuses on the fact that the parent did the same as the child and it is considered a "twist" in the story.

On the other hand, the unsympathetic side of this is when the parent disciplines the child for doing something that they ''still do'' as a parent, rather than something they ''did'' as a kid, learned a lesson from, and don't do anymore.

'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' While this trope is indeed TruthInTelevision, it would be filed with [[NoRealLife/TooControversial natter and complaining]] about parents who engage in hypocrisy.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lestat de Lioncourt is the "Do as I say, not as I do" type of parent because his ''very'' harsh lesson to Claudia after she accidentally kills her FirstLove (and Lestat forces her to watch as Charlie's face melts in the incinerator) is that vampires should "never get close to mortals because sooner or later, they end up dead." Yet Lestat spent the ''entire'' first episode being wholly ''besotted'' with Louis when the latter was still human. Lestat stalked, flirted, courted, seduced and harassed Louis over a period of a few months (based on Louis' comment that "It was a cold winter that year, and Lestat was my coal fire"). While Lestat's endgame was to turn Louis into a vampire, he nevertheless fell head-over-heels for a mortal and invested a lot of time bonding with his human LoveInterest before offering Louis the Dark Gift. Lestat's warning to Claudia rings hollow knowing that he did the very thing he's telling her not to.

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Jor-El is worse than most examples because he didn't do it when he was young. In "Arrival", [[spoiler:he almost killed Chloe because [[TheyWereHoldingYouBack she was holding Clark back]], and she is alive only because of Clark's interference.]] In "Lazarus", he berates Clark for [[spoiler:almost killing a psychopathic Lex clone (who set off traps to kill ComicBook/LoisLane and a bunch of other people), in which case Clark stopped himself from doing it.]]
* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': Lane's mom, a strict Christian, eventually found out that she was hiding her life away from her. How she found out was a mystery to us for a long while (how did she know to look under the floorboards?). Then, on Lane's wedding day, we find out that Mrs. Kim hid her life away from her mother (a strict ''Buddhist'') under the floorboards, and still does to this day! And she needs to hide her lifestyle fast before her mother arrives for the wedding!
** Lorelai engages in quite a bit if this as well, though arguably more justified because she is trying to prevent Rory from [[TurnOutLikeHisFather becoming a teen parent]] like she did. The season one episode "Rory's Dance" features it prominently, when Rory stays out all night (accidentally and innocently) with her boyfriend and Lorelai has a complete freak out, despite her own wild child teenage years.

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'' runs a booming business in high school exposing the hypocrisies of parents for their children.

* ''Series/StillStanding'': The parents were complete {{Jerkass}}es in high school, so they often run into this trope when disciplining their children.
* ''Series/TheAffair'': Whitney calls out her father's affair with Alison when he admonishes her for her fling with Scott.

* In a "sibling-turned-legal-guardian" example, in ''Series/EverythingsGonnaBeOkay'', Nicholas' attempts to impose rules on his teenage half-sister Matilda's sex life fall flat because it's hard to tell her that she can't have boys (or girls) over when he lets his boyfriend sleep over all the time. Similarly, he has a hard time trying to tell her she can't drink when he drinks on a regular basis.
* ''Series/Stargirl2020'': Pat (formerly Stripesy, the original Starman's sidekick) refuses to let Courtney play at being a superhero, pointing out that she's just fifteen. She replies that he had no problem teaming up with Starman when the latter was ''also'' fifteen. Pat's response? "That was different."
* Deconstructed in the ''Series/ShakeItUp'' episode "My Bitter Sweet 16 It Up", in which [=CeCe=] acts incredibly bratty and demanding to her mother to get all of whatever she wants for her sweet 16 party, only for her mother to get sick of her behavior and ground her for it. Later on, though, [=CeCe=] comes across a DVD of her own mother at ''her'' sweet 16 party, acting quite similarly to how [=CeCe=] was towards ''her'' mother over not making her party just like she wants. [=CeCe=] decides to call her mother out over this trope, but realizes at the last minute that her doing this wouldn't make the problem any better, and her own mother eventually stopped being like this by gaining maturity later in life. [[JerkassRealization Having learned better from this experience]], [=CeCe=] apologizes to her mother for her awful behavior.
* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lestat de Lioncourt is the "Do as I say, not as I do" type of parent because his ''very'' harsh lesson to Claudia after she accidentally kills her FirstLove (and Lestat forces her to watch as Charlie's face melts in the incinerator) is that vampires should "never get close to mortals because sooner or later, they end up dead." Yet Lestat spent the ''entire'' first episode being wholly ''besotted'' with Louis when the latter was still human. Lestat stalked, flirted, courted, seduced and harassed Louis over a period of a few months (based on Louis' comment that "It was a cold winter that year, and Lestat was my coal fire"). While Lestat's endgame was to turn Louis into a vampire, he nevertheless fell head-over-heels for a mortal and invested a lot of time bonding with his human LoveInterest before offering Louis the Dark Gift. Lestat's warning to Claudia rings hollow knowing that he did the very thing he's telling her not to.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lestat de Lioncourt is the "Do as I say, not as I do" type of parent because his ''very'' harsh lesson to Claudia after she accidentally kills her FirstLove (and Lestat forces her to watch as Charlie's face melts in the incinerator) is that vampires should "never get close to mortals because sooner or later, they end up dead." Yet Lestat spent the ''entire'' first episode being wholly ''besotted'' with Louis when the latter was still human. Lestat stalked, flirted, courted, seduced and harassed Louis over a period of a few months (based on Louis' comment that "It was a cold winter that year, and Lestat was my coal fire"). While Lestat's endgame was to turn Louis into a vampire, he nevertheless fell head-over-heels for a mortal and invested a lot of time bonding with his human LoveInterest before offering Louis the dark gift. Lestat's warning to Claudia rings hollow knowing that he did the very thing he's telling her not to.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotter'', one of the reasons Molly Weasley opposes Bill marrying Fleur is that they haven't known each other very long, and the only reason they're rushing into it is because they know Voldemort's back and they could all die at any moment. Ginny quickly points out that that was exactly what happened with Molly and Arthur. Molly replies with "Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?" before swiftly launching into a tirade about all the other things she hates about Fleur. [[spoiler: Fleur goes some way to proving them wrong by the end of the book, when she stays totally loyal to Bill despite him being hideously disfigured by Fenrir Greyback.]]

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Sylvester is in a tight spot when it comes to parenting his children, as he's a BrilliantButLazy {{Manchild}} and all too aware of the little leeway it gives him to ''not'' fall into this trope's trappings. His wife's solution is to give him a few incentives to be a better example.

* ''Literature/DollangangerSeries'' is a generational saga that spans the protagonist Cathy's whole life. In her late teens and twenties she has lots of ill-advised sex.

* ''Literature/DollangangerSeries'': In her youth, Cathy has lots of ill-advised sex, keeps multiple men on the hook at one time, and every single one of her love interests is deeply questionable in one way or another. In the final book, she tells her teenage daughter she shouldn't be having sex so carelessly. Now in her 50s, Cathy looks back upon with youth with different eyes, finally sees how ill-advised it all was, and wants to protect her daughter from making the same mistakes she did.

* ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza}}'': In Kiryu's backstory, it is shown how he and his [[BloodBrothers sworn brother]] Nishiki got seven shades of crap beaten out of them when they explained to [[ParentalSubstitute Kazama]] that they wanted to join the yakuza... In spite of the fact that they only wanted to be yakuza to ''emulate him''. EvilParentsWantGoodKids was definitely in play here.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': Lestat de Lioncourt is the "Do as I say, not as I do" type of parent because his ''very'' harsh lesson to Claudia after she accidentally kills her FirstLove (and Lestat forces her to watch as Charlie's face melts in the incinerator) is that vampires should "never get close to mortals because sooner or later, they end up dead." Yet Lestat spent the ''entire'' first episode being wholly ''besotted'' with Louis when the latter was still human. Lestat stalked, flirted, courted, seduced and harassed Louis over a period of a few months (based on Louis' comment that "It was a cold winter that year, and Lestat was my coal fire"). While Lestat's endgame was to turn Louis into a vampire, he nevertheless fell head-over-heels for a mortal and invested a lot of time bonding with his human LoveInterest before offering Louis the dark gift. Lestat's warning to Claudia sounds hollow knowing that he did the very thing he's telling her not to.

* Dramatic example in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Endeavor and his eldest son, Touya Todoroki, often got into arguments because the latter was constantly off training his fire powers and burning himself doing so since his Quirk is only resistant to the cold. The boy's obsession with perfecting his powers was a result of him wanting to become a Hero for his father, since he was trained since he was little to be a part of the one-sided feud Endeavor was having with All Might and only stopped when his ice Quirk kicked in. Many people, his wife especially, have pointed out that Endeavor has little right to tell Touya to stop pursuing heroism or give up on himself when Endeavor ''himself'' drowns himself in his Hero job over a petty grudge and as his perceived duty to the people, ignoring the damage this is doing to his family.

* The classic 1987 {{PSA}} where the teen son is being blasted by his dad for taking drugs, asks him where he learned to do that from, and the son starts screaming "It was from YOU, alright?! I learned it from watching YOU!"

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'', the girls learn a cuss word from Professor Utonium, and spend the whole day saying it. Later, he scolds them for doing so, and is ''very'' embarrassed when they tell him, in front of the whole town, that they heard it from him. (He tries to tell everyone watching that it's probably ''really'' because of cable, but he's more honest with the Girls.)

* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', when the sadistic former thief Niles discovers that his daughter Nina has been acting JustLikeRobinHood, he is very upset. Nina insists that she's acting as a righteous thief and berates her father for trying to get in her way. In their [[RelationshipValues C-Support]], when Nina protests that Niles was a thief as well, he is quick to point out that [[StreetUrchin he didn't have any choice]]. It isn't until A-Rank that we learn the real reason for his objection. [[spoiler:Not only did Niles not have any other choice, but he had [[DarkAndTroubledPast many, many unhappy experiences]] (things that he says would shake her to her core) in the course of his life as a thief. Niles doesn't want his daughter to be a thief, even for a good cause, because [[AdultFear he doesn't want there to be even the slightest chance of her going through what he did]].]]

* ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza}}'': In Kiryu's backstory, it is shown how he and his [[BloodBrothers sworn brother]] Nishiki got seven shades of crap beaten out of them when they explained to their foster father that they wanted to join the yakuza... in spite of the fact that they only wanted to be yakuza to ''emulate him''. EvilParentsWantGoodKids was definitely in play here.