History Main / ParentalObliviousness

* Franchise/{{Batman}}:

** Likewise, Commissioner Gordon wavers between being totally clueless his daughter was Batgirl, or (in more recent continuity) knowing the whole time and just keeping it a secret.
** ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': It takes a ridiculously long time for Tim Drake's father to find out he's Robin, especially considering that at one point Tim got sent on an unplanned extended trip in space, keeps busy working in Gotham and Bludhaven and on ComicBook/YoungJustice and later the ComicBook/TeenTitans, and has traveled all over the world for training and to chase down leads. It helps that Jack was never really involved with his son's life even before Tim took on the role of Robin.
** In ''Comicbook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Carrie Kelly's parents completely fail to notice that their daughter is sneaking out to become Robin, because they are rather ambiguous drug users. They’re so bad that one point, they forget they even ''have'' a child.
* Franchise/TheFlash Wally West's biological parents Mary & Rudy West fall into this category, especially during Creator/MarkWaid's run. This is why he feels closer to [[{{Nephewism}} Iris and Barry later on his life]].
* Just before Comicbook/GreenArrow's ward Speedy is [[VerySpecialEpisode revealed to be a junkie]], he gives an explanation of why someone would turn to drugs in which he stops just short of saying "[[IHaveThisFriend And by someone, I mean me.]]" GA misses the point entirely.
* More a case of parental-figure obliviousness, Molly's parents in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' keep dismissing her when she tries to tell them she has superpowers (they think she wants TheTalk).

* In ''FanFic/{{Cinderjuice}}'', both [[WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}} Lydia and Beetlejuice]] comment on the fact that Charles and Delia are often profoundly guilty of this. It makes Charles attempting to be an OverprotectiveDad all the more amusing to Beetlejuice.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': Most parents (beside Joyce) are oblivious to the supernatural going-ons related to the Upside Down, but Ted and Karen Wheeler take the cake. Not only do they fail to realize that their daughter Nancy is hunting a monster from an AlternateDimension, but even worse is that their son Mike successfully [[BatmanInMyBasement hid his super powered girlfriend Eleven in their basement]] for nearly a week. The only reason Ted and Karen found out about Eleven at all is because the MadScientist hunting her when she EscapedFromTheLab thought it was a better idea to talk to them to see what they know (which is absolutely nothing) rather than let his [[AxCrazy borderline insane underling]] kill them when they start annoying her. At one point, Nancy allows Steve to spend the night in her room, meaning that ''both'' Wheeler children are simultaneously hiding people in the house, and their parents are none the wiser about any of it. To her credit, Karen is at least trying to have a relationship with her children, and just assumes that Mike and Nancy's odd behavior is due to the disappearances of their respective best friends [[RightForTheWrongReasons (which isnt entirely inaccurate, even if she hasn't noticed the supernatural side of the story)]]. Ted, however, is just completely checked out on everything regarding his children.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': Most parents (beside Joyce) are oblivious to the supernatural going-ons related to the Upside Down, but Ted and Karen Wheeler take the cake. Not only do they fail to realize that their daughter Nancy is hunting a monster from an AlternateDimension, but even worse is that their son Mike successfully [[BatmanInMyBasement hid his super powered girlfriend Eleven in their basement]] for nearly a week. The only reason Ted and Karen found out about Eleven at all is because the MadScientist hunting her when she EscapedFromTheLab thought it was a better idea to talk to them to see what they know (which is absolutely nothing) rather than let his [[AxCrazy borderline insane underling]] kill them when they start annoying her. At one point, Nancy allows Steve to spend the night in her room, meaning that ''both'' Wheeler children are simultaneously hiding people in the house, and their parents are none the wiser about any of it. To her credit, Karen is at least trying to have a relationship with her children, and just assumes that Mike and Nancy's odd behavior is due to the disappearances of their respective best friends. Ted, however, is just completely checked out on everything regarding his children.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'', most people are oblivious to the supernatural going-ons related to the Upside Down, but Ted and Karen Wheeler take the cake. Not only do they fail to realize that their daughter Nancy is hunting a monster from an AlternateDimension, but even worse is that their son Mike successfully [[BatmanInMyBasement hid his super powered girlfriend Eleven in their basement]] for nearly a week. The only reason Ted and Karen found out about Eleven at all is because the MadScientist hunting her when she EscapedFromTheLab thought it was a better idea to talk to them to see what they know (which is absolutely nothing) rather than let his [[AxCrazy borderline insane underling]] kill them when they start annoying her. At one point, Nancy allows Steve to spend the night in her room, meaning that ''both'' Wheeler children are simultaneously hiding people in the house, and their parents are none the wiser about any of it. To her credit, Karen is at least trying to have a relationship with her children, and just assumes that Mike and Nancy's odd behavior is due to the disappearances of their respective best friends. Ted, however, is just completely checked out on everything regarding his children.

* ''WesternAnimation/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. Her father actually gets worse in the [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheRift comic continuation]]. While he's apparently accepted he will never be able to force Toph to come back home, now he just insists she cannot be the daughter he raised, and Toph isn't about to be something she's not to get him to pay attention to her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}}'', Lydia's parents are even worse about this than they were in the original film. She's constantly slipping away for adventures in the Neitherworld, some of which appear to last for ''days'', and there's never any indication that they have any clue she's missing. It's even worse when Beetlejuice invents a human persona, Mr. Beetleman, who is clearly several years older than Lydia; the fact that this somewhat skeevy thirtysomething character spends a lot of time with their daughter doesn't seem to faze them in the least.

* Herb and Binkie Muddlefoot of ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' fail to notice Honker's long absences and ability to get kidnapped. This could possibly be excused by the entire Mallard household running interference and Honker being nothing in bad-guy bait compared to Gosalyn. However, the writers seem to frequently abuse Honker's mostly Stab-Worthy older brother Tank right under their bills without either batting an eye, most egregiously in "It's a Wonderful Leaf." Yet, they do appear to be genuinely loving parents...

* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/ElTigre'': Manny's parents are both well aware that he is a superhero. His father is a little overprotective about it. His mother can't handle it at all; she hyperventilates, and actually left because she couldn't handle it when her ''husband'' superheroed [[spoiler: (this is the result of her having been a danger junkie during her own superhero days)]]. In fact, Manny's grandfather is a super''villain'' and is often trying to convert Manny to evil.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' does this in spades. Aside from being unaware of all of the magical stuff going on in Timmy's life, Timmy's parents are completely unaware that Vicky is a BabysitterFromHell, even when the evidence is right in front of their faces. It gets worse in later episodes where Vicky doesn't even make any attempt to hide her evilness. Taking the worse factor a step further, in "Vicky Gets Fired", Timmy shows his parents incriminating evidence of Vicky torturing him, but they don't even bat an eye. In fact, they only get upset at Vicky and fire her because she erased their reality tape.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' is the SecretKeeper variety. Mac's mother doesn't notice that Mac goes to Foster's EVERY DAY. Her having "a million jobs" partially justifies this, but there was a reason the show's writers got TheUnintelligible Coco to explain how he convinced his mother to let him go on a TRIP TO EUROPE with people she's never met.
* Not only do Dexter Douglas's parents in ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' fail to notice Dexter's superhero alter-ego, but when his older brother talks about "the blue guy," their StepfordSmiler mother cheerfully attributes it to psychotic delusions on his part.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''. The twins are staying with their Great-Uncle Stan for the summer. Throughout the first season, the kids get into all kinds of crazy adventures involving unicorns, dwarves and magic books, while Stan never seems to notice any of it. But as we see at the end of the first episode, Stan has some secrets of his own -- he is seen descending a secret mysterious staircase behind the vending machine [[spoiler: at the end of Season 1. In the first episode of season 2, Stan reveals that he knew what the kids were up to all along -- he just didn't want to reveal his own involvement.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' hasn't got a clue that his niece Penny is the one who's always saving the day.
* [[WesternAnimation/JimmyNeutronBoyGenius Jimmy Neutron]]'s father seems to have a selective denial variation of this. He went through an entire episode seemingly unaware that his son had accidentally swapped heads with a gerbil. (His mother, though... well, Jimmy's genius genes had to come from ''somewhere''.)

* ''WesternAnimation/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 (and Christina, Orel's DistaffCounterpart from the other family) ever noticed that younger son Shapey and Block, the youngest son of the the Posabules, were accidentally switched. [[spoiler: Bloberta discovers this only in the third season premiere, ''more than ten episodes later.'' The parents don't accept Block back. When Clay sees both Block and Shapey playing together, he writes it off as an effect of his being perpetually inebriated.]]
* Professor Wakeman, the mother of Jenny in ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot''. She doesn't seem to understand that 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.
* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', pictured above. Justified, as [[ContrivedCoincidence contrived coincidences]] always serve to remove all evidence of the titular boys' outlandish creations before their mother can actually see it (or in some cases, just the evidence that they were the ones responsible). At one point Candace uses this to their advantage by trying to tell their mom about something she ''wants'' gone. Sure enough, it disappears the second before their mom would have seen it. Their father, though more likely to notice what the boys are doing and has sometimes actively participated in them, seems to be oblivious to most things going on around him.

* The entire show ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' is based around this. The parents are always too busy or don't care what the kids are doing. And when the parents ''do'' notice, they tend to over-react in one way or another.
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/SquirrelBoy'' has the main characters spend the day with the resident bullies. The Bullies threaten them by explaining that their parents believe they are angels and that it's going to stay that way or else. Rodney and Andy agree but the parents end up witnessing their mistreatment... [[SubvertedTrope only to be absolutely thrilled that their son was cruel rather than kind.]]

The flip side is OpenMindedParent, where they figure out what their kid is up to... And seem strangely untroubled by it. Compare and contrast with MamaBear, who knows what's happening in her child's life, and nothing will hurt her child. Then there's the ReasonableAuthorityFigure, who may not believe everything they hear, but will invariably hear them out and humor them. Parental Obliviousness is often required for a DontTellMama situation to work, or at least helps it along. This trope has an older, more senile relative in GrandparentalObliviousness.

* ''Series/StrangerThings'', most people are oblivious to the supernatural going-ons related to the Upside Down, but Ted and Karen Wheeler take the cake. Not only do they fail to realize that their daughter Nancy is hunting a monster from an AlternateDimension, but even worse is that their son Mike successfully hid his super powered girlfriend Eleven in their basement for nearly a week. The only reason Ted and Karen found out about Eleven at all is because the MadScientist hunting her when she EscapedFromTheLab thought it was a better idea to talk to them to see what they know (which is absolutely nothing) rather than let his [[AxCrazy borderline insane underling]] kill them when they start annoying her. At one point, Nancy allows Steve to spend the night in her room, meaning that ''both'' Wheeler children are simultaneously hiding people in the house, and their parents are none the wiser about any of it. To her credit, Karen is at least trying to have a relationship with her children, and just assumes that Mike and Nancy's odd behavior is due to the disappearances of their respective best friends. Ted, however, is just completely checked out on everything regarding his children.

* Just before Comicbook/GreenArrow's ward Speedy is [[VerySpecialEpisode revealed to be a junkie]], he gives an explanation of why someone would turn to drugs in which he stops just short of saying "And by someone, I mean me." GA misses the point entirely.

** Benigna Rossi is very busy with her work at the embassy, and does not notice that her daughter Lila is a [[ConsummateLiar dishonest]] [[TheSociopath sociopath]], to the point of failing to fact-check the girl's BlatantLies.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Tywin Lannister is practically a modern flagship for the trope; between longstanding political duties and a fanatical obsession with his own idea of family - rather than the actual members of that family - he never realized that his twin children had been conducting an incestuous affair for the better part of 20 years.

* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'''s mother has no idea he's a criminal mastermind who consorts with faeries. His father kind of suspects the criminal mastermind part, but knows nothing about the faerie part.
* Even ''magic'' can't get the parents from ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' to see what's happening around them.

* Brandon Mull's other story, ''Literature/TheCandyShopWar'' takes this '''past''' its logical extreme (though this time magic is the cause of the obliviousness). At one point an enchanted 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 ''Literature/EndersGame'', the Wiggin children plan and carry out a plan to take over the world under their parents' noses. Subverted in the sequel ''Literature/ShadowOfTheHegemon'', which reveals that the parents let them go on with their "secret" online politicking partly because they are [[OpenMindedParent open-minded]] and partly because they know what the kids are doing and agree, or at least respect that the kids know what ''they'' are doing. In fact, when Peter finally learns that his parents have known all along that he is Locke, his father chides him, asking him where he thought his brilliant mind came from if not from his parents?
* In the ''Literature/FloraSegunda'' 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.
* Aunt Petunia in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is completely oblivious to the fact that her little "Duddykins" has become a smoking bully that runs with a group of other malcontents, and thinks he just goes to a friend's house to have dinner every day. She also somehow overlooks him gradually turning into a miniature humpback whale (not literally) for 15 years.

* In ''Literature/HushHush'', Nora's mother seems blissfully unaware that her daughter is being stalked and nearly murdered by multiple parties. This reaches dizzying heights of stupidity when one of said parties visits Nora in the morning, grabs and shakes her, and shouts that he won't let her go until she does what he wants. Nora's mother walks in on the middle of this and is only mildly concerned, buying that he just wanted to copy Nora's homework, and not pursuing the issue at all when Nora brushes it off (ignoring that Nora collapses on the ground and nearly cries after he leaves).
* From the ''Literature/{{Kadingir}}'' series: [[TheHeroine Ishtar's]] parents are a pair of happy bohemian artists who live and breath their craft, and fail to notice most of the bizarre adventures their children get into. To name but a few: their daughter being spirited away into another dimension; their son fighting against and later making friends with an eight-inch tiger-man; a huge laboratory in their own basement; one of their guests being a giant chicken; ''two different'' demonic teddy bears roaming the corridors; a squadron of TheMenInBlack invading their home; and an increasing number of packages that may very well come from a different planet.
* The narrator of ''Literature/TheLostThing'' has to point out to his parents that it's even in the room, despite the fact that it's bright red and HUGE.
* Ayoola and Korede’s mother in ''Literature/MySisterTheSerialKiller'' has no idea that the former has murdered three of her boyfriends or that the latter covers up for her.
* The [[TearJerker horribly depressing]] children's book, ''Literature/NotNowBernard'' is the epitome of this. Bernard sees a monster in the garden. He tells various adults, including his parents. They all say, "[[NotNowKiddo Not now, Bernard]]." The monster eats him. The monster goes inside. The parents say, "Not now, Bernard." [[ShootTheShaggyDog The end]]. [[ParanoiaFuel It's every child's nightmare.]] Then [[CrossesTheLineTwice the story's ending]] turns ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice hilarious]]''. The parents are so oblivious that they actually ''mistake the monster for their son'' and the monster is so utterly confused by the turn of events that he just sort of goes along for the ride. The look on his face at the end after they ''tuck him into bed'' is priceless.
* In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', despite both being world renowned super-geniuses, neither of Penny's parents connect her and her friends to The Inscrutable Machine. The protagonist's realization that they literally cannot make what she considers the obvious connection (because they're laser-focused on dealing with the potential threat her alter-ego ostensibly poses to her real identity) is actually a major plot point that shifts her behavior substantially.
* In ''Literature/RaceToTheSun'' [[TheProtagonist Nizhoni]] and her younger brother Mac are brought up by their father. And he is never there for them, for their school plays or matches. Nizhoni is positively surprised when he manages to come and pick her up from school after her sports injury--but then, in the car, he is constantly talking on his phone or texting, anyway. And he never seems to notice that Mac is constantly bullied, even when he sports a black eye.
* Sarah Heap in ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' refuses to believe that [[spoiler: her eldest son Simon Heap has turned evil]] in ''Flyte''.
* In ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'', Valkyrie's parents are completely oblivious to their daughter leading a whole double life. This is explained by her using a magical Reflection that takes her place at school and home whenever she needs to be away (which seems to be most of the time), and by Valkyrie managing to lie convincingly whenever the parents do notice there's something odd going on.
* In ''Literature/SnowCrash'', Y.T.'s mother is apparently quite unaware how dangerous her daughter's part-time job as a Kourier actually is.
* Danny Hebert from ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' is oblivious to his teenage daughter's career as a rising supervillain in Brockton Bay, first because he feels the need to give her space after her mother's death and later because she [[TheRunaway runs away]] to keep him from finding out. By the time he discovers something's wrong, it's far too late.

* In ''Film/TheHairyBird'', Tinka's mom, while talking to her, is not even paying attention what Tinka is doing, and doesn't even notice her [[spoiler: running off with Snake]] at the end.

* Duchess Lettie from ''[[Webcomic/AMagicalRoommate]]'' actively deludes herself about practically everything, attempting to retreat into the fantasy world in which she believes magic users live. Aylia, her elder daughter, finally stuck it to her when she legally became an adult by out and out walking away from her plans... and she STILL thought she could maintain some level of control!

* Jodie's mother in ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'', as seen [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160308202502/http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/98 here]].

* [[Webcomic/AMagicalRoommate Duchess Lettie]] actively deludes herself about practically everything, attempting to retreat into the fantasy world in which she believes magic users live. Aylia, her elder daughter, finally stuck it to her when she legally became an adult by out and out walking away from her plans... and she STILL thought she could maintain some level of control!
* Although Miranda's father in ''Webcomic/ButImACatPerson'' is one of the world's foremost Being researchers, it doesn't take much effort to convince him that her Being is [[http://erinptah.com/catperson/comic/chapter-eighteen-page-11/ an ordinary human boyfriend]].
* In ''Webcomic/CobwebAndStripes'', Charles and Delia Deetz are just as guilty of this as they were in [[Film/{{Beetlejuice}} the movie]]. Charles does at least make some small effort, and clearly loves his daughter even if he doesn't understand her, but Delia is a lost cause.

* This trope is {{deconstruct|ion}}ed in ''Literature/FunnyBusiness''. The protagonist's parents are completely unaware that she is a RealityWarper, because [[spoiler:she herself is using her powers to prevent them from ever finding out, fearing their reaction. When they finally ''do'' learn of this, [[OpenMindedParent they take the revelation surprisingly well]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'' hasn't got a clue that his niece Penny is the one who's always saving the day - depending on [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation your interpretation]], of course.

* ''WesternAnimation/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 (and Christina, Orel's DistaffCounterpart from the other family.) ever noticed that younger son Shapey and Block, the youngest son of the the Posabules, were accidentally switched. [[spoiler: Bloberta discovers this only in the third season premiere, ''more than ten episodes later.'' The parents don't accept Block back. When Clay sees both Block and Shapey playing together, he writes it off as an effect of his being perpetually inebriated.]]

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls''. The twins are staying with their Great-Uncle Stan for the summer. Throughout the first season, the kids get into all kinds of crazy adventures involving unicorns, dwarves and magic books, while Stan never seems to notice any of it. But as we see at the end of the first episode, Stan has some secrets of his own- he is seen descending a secret mysterious staircase behind the vending machine [[spoiler: at the end of Season 1. In the first episode of season 2, Stan reveals that he knew what the kids were up to all along- he just didn't want to reveal his own involvement.]]

** Admittedly, at this time drugs from marijuana to heroin were something many people didn't even know existed, let alone how to recognize someone under their influence or what to do about it.
** 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 other's. 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 father's strategy to keep Christiane 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).

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', Crono can bring home a talking frog, the ancient master of evil that tried to destroy the kingdom, the princess, a cavewoman, and a robot from the future in a time-traveling jet and his mom will only get slightly surprised. Not to mention the fact that she doesn't seem to notice or care that you were away for several days while being held in the castle for execution...
* ''VideoGame/CliveBarkersUndying'': Joseph Covenant has no idea what has befallen his children until Jeremiah finally breaks down and confesses. Even though he tries hard to find some way to break the curse, he ultimately fails.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Tobias, Lindsay, and Michael have no idea that not only is Maeby [[spoiler: is a movie studio executive]], but also that George-Michael and Maeby [[spoiler:not only have crushes on each other, but are married.]]

* ''Series/BernardsWatch'': Always a big part of the series.

* ''Series/TheCosbyShow'': Borderline example. More like parents were portrayed as dumb. In one scene Clair is mad at Vanessa for going to Maryland to a concert, she tells her a question but shuts her up when asking a question. But it was a dumb moment rather than the parents being stupid. Cliff is dumb for pretty much going along with this.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Tywin Lannister is practically a modern flagship for the trope; between longstanding political duties and a fanatical obsession with his own idea of family - rather than the actual members of that family - he never realized that his twin children had been conducting an insestous affair for the better part of 20 years.

* ''Series/SchittsCreek'': Johnny and Moira were completely oblivious to their daughter Alexis's wild adventures including run-ins with Thai drug lords, Saudia Arabian princes and at least once romance with a famous soccer player. They didn't even realize she had dropped out of her posh Swiss boarding school, and they attended her graduation.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The Uncle Devil Show", Joey's parents are entirely oblivious to him using the spells that he has learned from his ''Tim Ferret and Friends'' video to change the world around him, including giving them the heads of a lizard and a wolf.

* The Serendipity Singers' "Beans in your Ears" has a father issuing a grave warning to his children about doing exactly what is mentioned in the song title. It is obvious from the children's reply that they have no intention of doing anything so bizarre (even giving perfectly sensible reasons), but the end of the song reveals the parent has not listened to a word.

* In ''Film/IrreconcilableDifferences'', Lucy has no idea where her daughter Casey is most of the time. She is surprised to hear that Casey spends most of her time at the housekeeper Maria's house.

* The [[TearJerker horribly depressing]] children's book, ''Literature/NotNowBernard'' is the epitome of this. Bernard sees a monster in the garden. He tells various adults, including his parents. They all say, "[[NotNowKiddo Not now, Bernard]]." The monster eats him. The monster goes inside. The parents say, "Not now, Bernard." [[ShootTheShaggyDog The end]]. [[ParanoiaFuel It's every child's nightmare.]] Then [[CrossesTheLineTwice the story's ending]] turns ''[[CrossesTheLineTwice hilarious]]''. The parents are so oblivious that they actually ''mistake the monster for their son'' and the monster is so utterly confused by the turn of events that he just sort of goes along for the ride. The look on his face at the end after they ''tuck him into bed'' is priceless.
* Aunt Petunia in ''Literature/HarryPotter'' is completely oblivious to the fact that her little "Duddykins" has become a smoking bully that runs with a group of other malcontents, and thinks he just goes to a friend's house to have dinner every day. She also somehow overlooks him gradually turning into a miniature humpback whale (not literally) for 15 years.
** This trope is pretty much the Dursleys' entire parenting strategy, at least when it comes to Dudley. When he gets bad grades in school, Petunia insists he's a gifted boy and his teachers don't understand him. When Dumbledore comments on the horrid way they've mistreated Dudley (i.e. letting him grow up to be a spoiled bully), Vernon and Petunia are both bewildered.

** As of ''Time Paradox'', Angeline does know about the fairies, but that might not last. Every time one of the elder Fowls has gotten close to the truth before, either Artemis or Holly has mind-wiped them.
* From the ''Literature/{{Kadingir}}'' series: [[TheHeroine Ishtar's]] parents are a pair of happy bohemian artists who live and breath their craft, and fail to notice most of the bizarre adventures their children get into. To name but a few: their daughter being spirited away into another dimension; their son fighting against and later making friends with an eight-inch tiger-man; a huge laboratory in their own basement; one of their guests being a giant chicken; ''two different'' demonic teddy bears roaming the corridors; a squadron of TheMenInBlack invading their home; and an increasing number of packages that may very well come from a different planet.
* ''Literature/TheGreatBrain 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 that Tom told him he was building.

* Brandon Mull's other story, ''Literature/TheCandyShopWar'' takes this '''past''' its logical extreme (though this time magic is the cause of the obliviousness). At one point an enchanted 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 ''Literature/SnowCrash'', Y.T.'s mother is apparently quite unaware how dangerous her daughter's part-time job as a Kourier actually is.

* In ''Literature/HushHush'', Nora's mother seems blissfully unaware that her daughter is being stalked and nearly murdered by multiple parties. This reaches dizzying heights of stupidity when one of said parties visits Nora in the morning, grabs and shakes her, and shouts that he won't let her go until she does what he wants. Nora's mother walks in on the middle of this and is only mildly concerned, buying that he just wanted to copy Nora's homework, and not pursuing the issue at all when Nora brushes it off (ignoring that Nora collapses on the ground and nearly cries after he leaves).

* In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', despite both being world renowned super-geniuses, neither of Penny's parents connect her and her friends to The Inscrutable Machine. The protagonist's realization that they literally cannot make what she considers the obvious connection (because they're laser-focused on dealing with the potential threat her alter-ego ostensibly poses to her real identity) is actually a major plot point that shifts her behavior substantially.

* In ''Literature/RaceToTheSun'' [[TheProtagonist Nizhoni]] and her younger brother Mac are brought up by their father. And he is never there for them, for their school plays or matches, Nizhoni is positively surprised when he manages to come and pick her up from school after her sports injury--but then, in the car, he is constantly talking on his phone or texting, anyway. And he never seems to notice that Mac is constantly bullied, even when he sports a black eye.

** In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', Shinji and Asuka evolved, transformed, gained new powers, and also were making out the whole time... and Misato never noticed. [[RunningGag Once again]]. Apparently, fanon thinks Misato is the most oblivious person on the face of the Earth.

* In one scene of ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' it's painfully obvious that Hiro is trying to hide something, yet Aunt Cass doesn't notice at all. WebVideo/CinemaSins called this out: "Aunt Cass apparently has never seen anyone act suspicious before."

* ''Film/TheRing'': Aidan knows not to help Samara, but his mother is horrified when he flat out tells her she wasn't supposed to help her, even though ''she knows her child is psychic.'' Part of that was Aidan's fault, since he didn't tell his mother anything helpful about Samara. His mother did precisely what nearly anybody in her position would have done: give Samara's body a proper burial.

* The lead's parents in ''Film/AwayWeGo'' (one of whom is [[Film/HomeAlone Mrs. McAllister]]) apparently don't consider their son's girlfriend being ''pregnant 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 clueless doofy dad in the tweener comedy ''Film/{{Sleepover}}'' qualifies enough that he let four teenage girls be out of the house all night without ever noticing.
* In ''Film/TheHairyBird'', Tinka's mom, while talking to her, is not even paying attention what Tinka is doing, and doesn't even notice her [[spoiler: running off with Snake]] at the end.
* Implied in ''Film/MysteryTeam'', although they may just be happy that their kids are spending time with more people than just each other.

* Lydia has to endure this in ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''; among other examples, her father doesn't seem to understand that his daughter does not care for her stepmother and doesn't appreciate his [[InsistentTerminology insisting on calling her "your mother."]] It's not hard to understand why she eventually latches onto the Maitlands as {{Parental Substitute}}s, although by the end of the film both her father and stepmother do seem to have improved at least a little.
* In ''Film/IrreconcilableDifferences'', Lucy has no idea where her daughter Casey is most of the time. She is surprised to hear that Casey spends most of her time at the housekeeper Maria's house.
* ''Film/AmericanPsycho2AllAmericanGirl'': The appearance by Rachel's parents makes clear that neither of them has any idea as to her [[SerialKiller true]] [[TheSociopath nature]], or that she's using a fake name (Rachel Newman) while at college.

* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Chloe's father, Professor Cerise, is completely oblivious to all the reasons why his daughter dislikes Pokémon. Namely, the fact that his research takes up so much of his time and attention, the fact that he has ''forced'' her to work as his assistant after school, and the general assumption that she will [[FollowInMyFootsteps follow in his footsteps]] despite her lacking interest. Add in the fact that he only pays attention to her when Pokémon are involved, and you have one of the biggest factors that drove her away from home and onto the Infinity Train.

* In ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling'':
** Even though Shinji acts strangely and knows things he shouldn’t know, his guardian Misato doesn’t suspect that he’s a time-traveller.
** Gendo knows his son isn’t at all what he was expecting, and Ritsuko constantly brings to his attention that Shinji keeps doing things that make no sense, but Gendo keeps thinking it doesn’t merit his attention.

** In ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'', Shinji and Asuka do all the above and ''also'' hide that they're time-travelers from Misato for months.
** In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', Shinji and Asuka evolved, transformed gained new powers, and also they were making out the whole time... and Misato never noticed. [[RunningGag Once again]]. Apparently, fanon thinks Misato is the most oblivious person on the face of the Earth.

* In ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling'':
** Even though Shinji acts strangely and knows things he shouldn’t know, his guardian Misato doesn’t suspect that he’s a time-traveller.
** Gendo knows his son isn’t at all what he was expecting, and Ritsuko constantly brings to his attention that Shinji keeps doing things that make no sense, but Gendo keeps thinking it doesn’t merit his attention.

* PlayedForDrama in ''Fanfic/InvisibleSun''. Dexter's parents are oblivious to the point of ParentalNeglect. They ignore him and don't take him seriously. Even when he was a baby, [=DeeDee=] acted more [[PromotionToParent a parent]] to her little brother than their actual parents did. This leads to the Utoniums becoming Dexter's FamilyOfChoice.

* In ''FanFic/{{Cinderjuice}}'', both [[WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}} Lydia and Beetlejuice]] comment on the fact that Charles and Delia are often profoundly guilty of this. It makes Charles attempting to be an OverprotectiveDad all the more amusing to Beetlejuice.

* In ''Fanfic/IfThemsTheRules'' [[PeggySue Harry]] doesn't realize that Tom is simply hiding his sociopathic tendencies and taking him away from his [[OrphanageOfFear previous environment]] only met that he didn't have a reason to express them.
* In ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'', Shinji and Asuka kept their SecretRelationship and their time-traveler status from their guardian Misato for months.
* In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', Shinji and Asuka spent several months making out behind their surrogate mother's back. As the same time, their bodies evolved, transformed and gained new powers... and Misato didn't know about that, either.

* ''Fanfic/AdviceAndTrust'': Shinji and Asuka got together and after a short while started sleeping together... and Misato kept thinking they were stuck on the BelligerentSexualTension phase. When they finally came clean about their relationship several months later, Misato thought they were pulling a prank on her because she did not believe they could get together without her noticing anything (to be fair, they deceived nearly everybody).
* ''Fanfic/GhostsOfEvangelion'': Misato was completely oblivious to her wards' feelings and their increasing mental and emotional instability. As a result of it, they spent their whole lives trying to get over their issues.

* In ''FanFic/{{Cinderjuice}}'', both [[WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}} Lydia and Beetlejuice]] comment on the fact that Charles and Delia are often profoundly guilty of this. It makes Charles attempting to be an OverprotectiveDad all the more amusing to Beetlejuice.
* In ''Fanfic/ThousandShinji'', Shinji and Asuka spent several months making out behind her surrogate mother's back. As the same time, their bodies evolved, transformed and gained new powers... and Misato didn't knew about it, either.
* In ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'', Shinji and Asuka kept their SecretRelationship and their time-traveler status from her guardian Misato for months.
* In ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'', Misato was pretty oblivious to her wards’ complicated and quickly-changing relationship.
* In ''Fanfic/LastChildOfKrypton'', Misato had no idea what her young ward and assistant was Superman. She only found out when another person told her.

* Franchise/{{Batman}}: Depending on who's writing him, during Dick Grayson's formative years, he was so absorbed in the mission that he was completely unaware of Dick's neglected emotional needs unless Alfred pointed it out.
* Comicbook/{{Batgirl}}:
** Commissioner Gordon still seems to have no idea his daughter was the original ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}. At the time, he just seemed to be clueless; a ''ComicBook/BoosterGold'' story suggested he was so far in denial he would leap on the flimsiest evidence she wasn't, without even admitting to himself ''why'' it was so important that the woman in the Batgirl costume he saw talking to Babs was the real one.
** It depends on the writer. In one comic where Babs, now an adult, tells her father she's [[KnowledgeBroker Oracle]] and is happy to find him pretty accepting, she goes on to tell him that she was Batgirl as a teen.
--->'''Jim Gordon:''' Now that, I knew.
** It's outright stated in the ComicBook/New52 that he doesn't want to know anyone's secret identity due to PlausibleDeniability.
* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|Series}}'': It takes a ridiculously long time for Tim Drake's father to find out he's Robin, especially considering that at one point Tim got sent on an unplanned extended trip in space, keeps busy working in Gotham and Bludhaven and on ComicBook/YoungJustice and later the ComicBook/TeenTitans, and has traveled all over the world for training and to chase down leads. It helps that Jack was never really involved with his son's life even before Tim took on the role of Robin.
* More a case of parental-figure obliviousness, the characters in ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' keep dismissing Molly when she tries to tell them she has superpowers (they think she wants TheTalk).
* In ''Comicbook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'', Carrie Kelly's parents completely fail to notice that their daughter is sneaking out to become Robin, because they are rather ambiguous drug users. They’re so bad that one point, they forget they even ''have'' a child.
* Just before Comicbook/GreenArrow's ward Speedy is [[VerySpecialEpisode revealed to be a junkie]], he gives an explanation of why someone would turn to drugs in which he stops just short of saying "And by someone, I mean me." GA misses the point entirely.

* Sandra in ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns'' is totally oblivious to the fact that her perfect new husband is [[spoiler: beating and raping her teenaged son nearly every night.]] However, we find out later that [[spoiler: she knew all along and chose to ignore it. Jeremy finds out when he reads her diary, resulting in a massive FreakOut and eventual [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]]].