History Main / ParentalObliviousness

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': From the time Butch and Cassidy appeared for the second time to the moment it evolved, Ash, Misty, and Brock had no idea baby Togepi knew the Metronome attack that had saved itself and the team on a few occasions on Pokemon. Tracey subverts this by questioning if Togepi really did save them once.

**** Maybe the number of tickets booked under the name "McAllister"?

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** And then of course theres the end of "Christmas Elves," where Fey tells her mother more or less ''exactly'' what a mess they got themselves into . . . and Fey's mom just assumes she was trying out for a TV role. This despite everything Fey has told her mom about her adventures thus far.

* ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has a double example. Toph's parents are so oblivious they think that Toph is still taking baby lessons in Earthbending, rather than being an Earthbendrix supreme. Once they find out, they turn to denial so deep that they hired the guy who had her kidnapped to find said lost little lamb, because they can't handle the truth.
* ''TheBatman'': Although not a strict example, Batgirl is dismayed to discover that Batman knows everything about crime in Gotham city, but wasn't even aware the college they were staking out is the college she now attends.

* ''{{Animaniacs}}'': Mindy's mother is oblivious to the fact that her child is a walking [crawling?] danger magnet, and moreover, she's clueless to the fact that brave and selfless [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter Buttons]] is pretty much the only thing standing between her and Child Protective Services.

* Ichigo's dad in ''{{Bleach}}'' completely fails to notice the {{shinigami}} living in Ichigo's closet, his frequent and lengthy disappearances, or, in the anime filler arcs, as many as four sentient stuffed animals in his room. [[spoiler:Actually a subversion; Isshin is a Captain-level shinigami in his own right and knew exactly what his son was getting up to.]]

** Very true. And there are sections where the mother is interviewed where she said how helpless she felt/was. However, things started when Christiane and her friend went out clubbing all night telling each parent they were sleeping over at each others. That is the sort of thing a parent should keep track of (I'll just phone up your friends' mum to thank her for looking after you). And her fathers strategy to keep Christane off drugs was to give her a responsibility (looking after pigeons) that wouldn't allow her the time to scrounge drugs/money for drugs. Yet he seemed not to check whether or not the pigeons were actually being taken care of (they weren't).

* The lead's parents in ''AwayWeGo'' (one of whom is [[HomeAlone Mrs. McAllister]]) apparently don't consider their son's girlfriend being ''pregnant and and living in a ramshackle house'' a enough good reason to postpone an overseas vacation and let them use their house. Most of the other parents the young couple encounter aren't much better: "Can we talk like this in front of your kid?" "Pfft, it's all white noise to him, see: [[OverlyLongGag Brian. ''Brian''. Brian! Brian!!]]" (the kid is playing a handheld game, but not wearing earphones nor are the usual [[ArcadeSounds sound effects]] heard)

* The Pin's mother in ''Brick'' is apparently unaware that her son is a vicious drug lord, despite most of the deals and scheming going on in her basement, she even starts serving drinks to the members of a rival crime family during what she assumes is a friendly get-together.

* The clueless doofy dad in the tweener comedy Sleepover qualifies enough that he let four teenage girls be out of the house all night without him noticing.

* ''The Great Brain Reforms'': Tom endangers himself and two other boys by sailing his raft in very promising flood conditions. It's not until his brother explains everything that their parents learn that Tom, the boy who is always involved in some money-making scheme and once charged his friends to witness the digging of a cesspool, has been charging for these excursions. You'd think their father would have suspected something when he ''inspected'' the raft, which Tom told him he was building.

* In the ''Crackpot Hall'' novels of Ysabeau Wilce, Buck is completely unaware of the shenannigans which Flora gets up to (mainly because being [[MarriedToTheJob Commanding General of the Califan Army takes up so much of her time]]). Hotspur [[OpenMindedParent is a bit more on the ball]] though.

* This was always a big part of ''Bernard's Watch''.

* Justified in the original {{Series/Batman}} TV show, as Barbara Gordon has pixie-cut brown hair and uses a [[RedHeadedHero red wig]] as Batgirl.
* In H2O -Just Add Water, none of the girls' parents are aware that their daughters are mermaids. In fact, some of the other kids parents seem to be suspecting something, while the parents themselves are clueless.
* Reversed in an episode of the XFiles; (''Lord of the Flies'', season 8?) when the mother keeps trying to tell her son something. It turns out she was not an original member of Pink Floyd... and like the son [[spoiler: is a half-fly monster.]]

** Same for MegaManStarForce. Dr. Hoshikawa practically set up his son to save the world, while Mrs. Hoshikawa doesn't even have any idea her son is Rockman / Mega Man.

* Professor Wakeman, the mother of Jenny in ''MyLifeAsATeenageRobot''. She doesn't seem to get she programmed her daughter to act like a real teenage girl, and is thus mystified when XJ9 behaves like one. Particularly when she shows up at XJ9's school and forces her to assist in science class.

* In ''[[{{Fanfic/Ptitle0028gzjm}} Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', Kyon's parents are told, point-blank, that their son stood in for an schoolmate's fully trained bodyguard with years of experience who got injured in his job. They don't appear to find anything wrong, nor they think why the schoolmate needs protection or how their son got the skills to stand in for the bodyguard without being injured himself.

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* Even ''magic'' can't get the parents from ''FableHaven'' to see what's happening around them.
* Forget about ''FableHaven''! Bandon Mull's other story, ''TheCandyShopWar'' takes this '''past''' its logical extreme (though this time magic is the cause of the obliviousness). At one point an encahnted wooden indian is attacking the main character and his father, who is watching, tells him he's only dreaming and needs to get back to bed!!!

* In the first 'Jade' novel of the WhateleyUniverse, Jade's foster parents not only miss that Jade has superpowers (mild though they may be), that Jade is transgendered, that the 'friend' who doesn't want to come to the house is actually a pile of clothing animated by Jade's powers, that Jade is arranging on her own to go to SuperheroSchool Whateley Academy on a scholarship, but also that Jade has to leave to get tested for admittance to the school.
** And then of course theres the end of "Christmas Elves," where Fey tells her mother more or less ''exactly'' what a mess they got themselves into . . . and Fey's mom just assumes she was trying out for a TV role. This despite everything Fey has told her mom about her adventures thus far.

** They also don't realize that [[spoiler: Ikuto is staying in her room for a few days. Her mum thinks it might be cat or something so she suspects something. I guess she was right in a way...]]

** Ironically, the backstory give a perfect reason she wouldn't notice: Buffy was though to be a troubled kid (she burned down her last school's gym).

* In ''[=~Kyon: Big Damn Hero~=]'', Kyon's parents are told, point-blank, that their son stood in for an schoolmate's fully trained bodyguard with years of experience who got injured in his job. They don't appear to find anything wrong, nor they think why the schoolmate needs protection or how their son got the skills to stand in for the bodyguard without being injured himself.

* ''{{Pokemon}}'': From the time Butch and Cassidy appeared for the second time to the moment it evolved, Ash, Misty, and Brock had no idea baby Togepi knew the Metronome attack that had saved itself and the team on a few occasions on Pokemon. Tracey subverts this by questioning if Togepi really did save them once.

** Same for MegaManStarForce. Dr. Hoshikawa practically set up his son to save the world, while Mrs. Hoshikawa doesn't even have any idea her son is Rockman / MegaMan.

* The lead's parents in ''Away We Go'' (one of whom is [[HomeAlone Mrs. McAllister]]) apparently don't consider their son's girlfriend being ''pregnant and and living in a ramshackle house'' a enough good reason to postpone an overseas vacation and let them use their house. Most of the other parents the young couple encounter aren't much better: "Can we talk like this in front of your kid?" "Pfft, it's all white noise to him, see: [[OverlyLongGag Brian. ''Brian''. Brian! Brian!!]]" (the kid is playing a handheld game, but not wearing earphones nor are the usual [[ArcadeSounds sound effects]] heard)

* ''MoralOrel'' shows an especially glaring example with Orel's parents Clay & Bloberta Puppington. After a second season episode that ended with another family moving out of town, nobody but Orel ever noticed that younger son Shapey and the youngest son the other family were accidentally switched. [[spoiler: Bloberta discovers this only in the third season premiere, ''more than ten episodes later.'']]