History Main / SlidingScaleOfParentShamingInFiction

* ''VideoGame/{{Omori}}'': The entire main friend group is plagued by issues with their parents. [[spoiler:Sunny's father left the family, and his mother has done little to feed him or help him with his depression and anxiety once he isolated himself after accidentally killing his older sister (whose contributing perfectionism is implied to have been worsened by their parents). Kel was TheUnfavorite to his parents for his entire life and is still quite curt about it. Kel's older brother Hero was likely also influenced by them to give up his dream of being a professional cook. Aubrey's parents are divorced, and her mother neglected to keep [[HorribleHousing her house]] livable or even attend to her. Somewhat similarly, Basil's parents are too busy to have seen him in a very long time, giving him issues with abandonment.]]

* ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'': Infamously, Shou Tucker, the Sewing-Life Alchemist. Both his wife and daughter are turned into mere fodder for his alchemical experiments.

The usual examples of said dissonance usually consist of this: mothers [[DoubleStandard tend to be portrayed more sympathetically]] than fathers (unless they have a career); the protagonist [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality will usually]] have [[FreudianExcuse an excuse]] or be [[EasilyForgiven forgiven for]] the neglect that befalls their children; a dad or a mom [[DracoInLeatherPants has a much smaller chance]] to be seen as a villain; the dad who left the mom and the child fending for themselves and died a hero in the war becomes much more beloved than the mother who tries to prevent the child from staying up too late; and [[HandsOffParenting neglectful parents]] who let their children do whatever they want with no ill consequences are usually more popular with a young fandom than a rightly OverprotectiveDad. It also complicates matters if the parents have more than one child (especially if one is adopted and they are treated more as guardians than parents) and treat them on a very different level. Their behavior might belong on a different category depending on the child.

See mild and comedic examples of OverprotectiveDad, KnightTemplarParent, KnightTemplarBigBrother, and HandsOffParenting.

See (usually) examples of OverprotectiveDad, KnightTemplarParent, KnightTemplarBigBrother and HandsOffParenting. May still cause DesignatedVillain complaints, even among people whose views do not get much further from the author's.

* Helen Graham from ''Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall'' is considered this in-universe by her neighbors as she is an OverprotectiveMom who won't let her son drink alcohol or do dangerous things, and even claims that she would rather see him dead than becoming what her neighbor calls "a man from the world" after a stressful moment. [[spoiler: She is actually a combination of BrokenBird and GoodIsNotNice, and tries to avoid the situation in which he would become like her own father and her husband, both alcoholics, neglectful fathers, and generally hedonistic men.]]

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Yui Ikari, the UnscrupulousHero BigGood of the overall narrative, is prevented from being Type IV solely because she did the horrible things she did to her son in an effort to [[WellIntentionedExtremist protect him regardless of the mental toll to him]]. She deliberately made her infant son witness her being absorbed into Unit 01 and refused to leave despite being able to at any time and engineered situations to ensure he would be further traumatized to trigger a reversable version of Third Impact and counter SEELE's and her husband's agendas before leaving him forever.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Yui Ikari, the UnscrupulousHero BigGood of the overall narrative, is prevented from being Type IV solely because she did the horrible things she did to her son in an effort to [[WellIntentionedExtremist protect him regardless of the mental toll to him]] She deliberately made her infant son witness her being absorbed into Unit 01 and refused to leave despite being able to at any time and engineered situations to ensure he would be further traumatized to trigger a reversable version of Third Impact and counter SEELE's and her husband's agendas before leaving him forever.

** Yui herself is arguably a worse parent than Gendo, despite being the UnscrupulousHero BigGood of the overall narrative. She deliberately made her infant son witness her being absorbed into Unit 01 and refused to leave despite being able to at any time and engineered situations to ensure he would be further traumatized to trigger a reversable version of Third Impact and counter SEELE's and her husband's agendas before leaving him forever. The worst part is that Episode 21 reveals that she believed she did all of this ''for'' Shinji's benefit, making her one of the most horrific WellIntentionedExtremist characters ever written.

* ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': Margaret White is a ridiculously abusive [[TheFundamentalist religious nutcase]] who likes to lock Carrie in her horrible "prayer closet" whenever she does something "sinful", including simply ''having her first period''. The book version is the worst in this regard, as it says she sometimes locks Carrie in there for days at a time, and we get a [[SarcasamMode lovely]] flashback where Carrie goes to a summer camp despite her mother's wishes and is bullied so badly (including almost being drowned), that she comes home with her eyes red and swollen from crying. Margaret [[KickTheDog tells her she deserves it because]] [[InsaneTrollLogic summer camps are evil,]] and then locks [[TheWoobie poor Carrie]] in the closet again.

* In ''Fanfic/WhiteDevilOfTheMoon'' Precia [[UpToEleven outdoes herself]] by crossing a line that she never crossed in [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha canon]]. [[KickTheMoralityPet She whips her biological daughter Alicia]], whose death drove her to grief-induced madness and villainy, and whom she successfully revived in this fic, when Alicia tries to stop her from whipping Fate. [[MoralEventHorizon This act]] helps Fate realize just what a monster Precia is, [[SelfMadeOrphan so Fate kills Precia]].

* ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' has a special example. Giving TheScrappy AbusiveParents rarely creates audience sympathy, and can cause cries of SympatheticSue. But Adalind Schade, who appeared like a shallow ManipulativeBastard for seventeen episodes, is an exception to this rule. What she does is mostly supervised by her mom, Catherine. She physically and emotionally abuses her and flirts with her daughter's BastardBoyfriend while encouraging Adalind to pursue him because he's powerful and she's got evil plans to carry out. When [[YouHaveFailedMe Adalind isn't being efficient enough]], Catherine throws her out, and almost shouts : "You're DefiledForever, geddit?". Later on, Adalind keeps audience sympathy even amongst the fans of the ship [[spoiler: she apparently sunk. ]]

* 'VideoGame/{{Omori}}'': The entire main friend group is plagued by issues with their parents. [[spoiler:Sunny's father left the family, and his mother has done little to feed him or help him with his depression and anxiety once he isolated himself after accidentally killing his older sister (whose contributing perfectionism is implied to have been worsened by their parents). Kel was TheUnfavorite to his parents for his entire life and is still quite curt about it. Kel's older brother Hero was likely also influenced by them to give up his dream of being a professional cook. Aubrey's parents are divorced, and her mother neglected to keep [[HorribleHousing her house]] livable or even attend to her. Somewhat similarly, Basil's parents are too busy to have seen him in a very long time, giving him issues with abandonment.]]

[[folder:Off the scale: That was a bad day ]]

No examples, please, as it is too subjective!

See (usually) examples of OverprotectiveDad, KnightTemplarParent, KnightTemplarBigBrother and HandsOffParenting. May still cause DesignatedVillain complaints, even among people whose views do not get much farther from the author's.

** In contrast, Stannis Baratheon receives an AdaptationalVillainy but he loves his daughter, Shireen, and does everything he can to cure her greyscale. When this fails, he refuses to send her to the Doom of Valrynia. But in times of desperation when the Boltons get the best of him, Stannis has no choice but [[spoiler:to agree to allow Melisandre to burn Shireen alive to appease the Lord of Light in hopes it will allow him to defeat the Boltons. However, half of his army abandons him as a result and Stannis is defeated by the Boltons, leaving Stannis deeply grieved over the loss of his daughter and his wife]].

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* [[Literature/HarryPotter Molly Weasley]] is one of the GoodParents in the series and Harry's ParentalSubstitute. However, her "mollycoddling" (as Harry calls it) and overprotectiveness can be annoying to Harry, Hermione and the younger Weasley children in the fifth book, when they're not allowed to attend meetings of the Order. However, she and the rest of the adults are doing what Dumbledore had told them to: that is, keeping Harry in the dark regarding his connection to Voldemort, which resulted in Sirius' death. Dumbledore regrets this.

* Most parents who are involved in Social Links in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' fall into this category. Dojima rarely spends time with Nanako because he's afraid of failing her, Eri has trouble bonding with her stepson Yuuta due to internalizing questionable ideas about being a mother and Shu's mother, by lavishing praise on her son, ends up inadvertently convincing him that he can only please her by doing well at school. What keeps them out of Type II is the fact that they recognize their flaws and work on overcoming them, and that like the rest of the Social Links, they're portrayed as well-intentioned but flawed individuals with the potential to change for the better.

* ''RolePlay/TheDoomyAdventuresOfIrkenDoominess'' showcasts Deef and Alyssa's parents. They are type 2s bordering type 3 because they neglect their children, Deef and Alyssa don't seem all that affected but Deef often comments that his mom "Isn't really a good mom".

** Jun Ushiro's adoptive father adopted him, the son of one of his former students. Both father and son describe the relationship as distant, with the elder Ushiro afraid to get close to his adoptive son, lest Jun reject him. His relationship with his biological daughter Kana is better, but he confesses that his mishandling Jun resulted in his relationship with Kana being damaged. In Jun's last conversation with his father, he apologizes for being a bad son, at which point Mr. Ushiro says that Jun never was a bad son- ''he himself'' was a bad father.
** Akira Tokosumi was often away from home due to his work as a newscaster, resulting in his daughter Aiko(aka [[InSeriesNickname Anko]]) dreaming about becoming an IdolSinger so she could see him, and the two only really began talking in the days leading up to Aiko's battle and death. He gets called out in various ways- his wife's apparently a bit cross with him when he asks about Aiko going to nature school (which got the kids together and kicked off the plot), his boss says he's a great newscaster if not a good father, and Machi is furious when [[spoiler:Akira continues filming Zearth's battle after Aiko lost her legs while saving Machi's life]].

* Yukari's mother in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' was so broken by the death of her husband that she neglected Yukari and began many shallow relationships with men, resulting in mother and daughter being estranged for years. That said, she does see the error of her ways, and promises not to try to get remarried until her daughter forgives her. [[CharacterDevelopment Yukari also gradually comes to understand how her mother felt]], and [[NotSoDifferentRemark realizes that they aren't that different]], ([[spoiler:which is especially true in light of The Answer]]), so she hesitantly decides to reconcile with her mother.

* In ''RolePlay/TheDoomyAdventuresOfIrkenDoominess'': Nel's parents are type 2. They physically abused Nel and her sisters, but after Nel [[TheRunAway ran away from home]], they had a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment. When Nel went to confront her parents, she realized they were no longer mean and forgave them.

* [[Anime/UruseiYatsura Fujinami Ryuunosuke]] is the daughter of a man who demanded a male heir. He decides to raise his daughter as a boy, despite her fervent wishes otherwise, and proceeds to foil every attempt she makes to have a normal life.

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* ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': Eva Ushiromiya loved her son but she's very picky on whoever's in relationship with him. And that's Shannon, who's the family's "furniture". In Episode 6, George reveals that he's going to marry Shannon no matter what and it pissed his mother off which made her turned into Eva-Beatrice in order to beat him into submission with magic. There's also Episode 4 where Eva survived the Rokkenjima massacre and adopted her niece, Ange, who she mistreated her out of grief for losing George and Hideyoshi along with refusing her to tell the truth about the massacre. However, depending on which truth you believe, it turns out Eva's part is deliberate [[spoiler:because Ange's parents (particularly Kyrie) are said to be the culprits of the massacre and Eva is trying to protect her from the AwfulTruth though this is due to Bernkastel's manipulation to make Ange hate her aunt]].

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* ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': Margaret White is a ridiculously abusive [[TheFundamentalist religious nutcase]] who likes to lock her in her horrible "prayer closet" whenever she does something "sinful", including simply ''having her first period''. The book version is the worst in this regard, as it says she sometimes locks Carrie in there for days at a time, and we get a [[SarcasamMode lovely]] flashback where Carrie goes to a summer camp despite her mothers wishes and is bullied so badly (including almost being drowned), that she comes home with her eyes red and swollen from crying. Margaret [[KickTheDog tells her she deserves it because]] [[InsaneTrollLogic summer camps are evil,]] and then locks [[TheWoobie poor Carrie]] in the closet again.

** But that award goes to his daughter, Rosa, who is very abusive to her own daughter, Maria. Her worst actions are in Episode 1 and Episode 4 where she slapped Maria hard for [[BerserkButton saying "Uu-uu-uu!"]] and [[KickTheDog tears up her favorite doll, Sakutaro]]. That part in Episode 4 [[LaserGuidedKarma rips her]] [[HoistByHisownPetard back]] [[CruelAndUnusualDeath though]].

Even the protagonist can indulge in this and remain sympathetic. The author will tell you these are forgivable mistakes, often with no knowledge of the bad consequences on the child, and understandably so: a better alternative could be imagined, but this one isn't this bad. It is really no big deal and will have no consequences even though the BrattyTeenageDaughter will complain about this for a while.

* Frollo from ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' is this to Quasimodo, who he terrifies and manipulates. He accidentally murdered Quasi's mother and tried to murder Quasimodo himself at the beginning of the movie, but took him home because he feared damnation. Frollo is more than ready to kill Quasimodo at the end of the movie.

* Genma Saotome from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'' is a type IV. He raised Ranma to only respect martial arts prowess and have no concept of how to deal with girls. But it is his infamous training methods, especially the Cat-Fist, which make him a complete monster of a parent.

* ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': Margaret White is a ridiculously abusive [[TheFundamentalist religious nutcase]] who likes to lock her in her horrible "prayer closet" whenever she does something "sinful", including simply ''having her first period''. The book version is the worst in this regard, as it says she sometimes locks Carrie in there for days at a time, and we get a [[SarcasticMode lovely]] flashback where Carrie goes to a summer camp despite her mothers wishes and is bullied so badly (including almost being drowned), that she comes home with her eyes red and swollen from crying. Margaret [[KickTheDog tells her she deserves it because]] [[InsaneTrollLogic summer camps are evil,]] and then locks [[TheWoobie poor Carrie]] in the closet again.

* Virtually all of the Warriors of Hope's parents in ''VideoGame/DanganronpaAnotherEpisodeUltraDespairGirls'' abused them to the point at which they [[spoiler:except for Monaca, who was manipulating them]], became suicidal, as well as willing to kill all adults [[spoiler:with a little encouragement from [[BigBad Junko Enoshima]].]] Masaru's father physically abused him and forced him to buy alcohol for him even though the only possible way for Masaru to do so was by stealing it. Jataro's parents [[ParentalNeglect neglected]] him to the point at which he's happy if people hate him, simply because they're paying attention to him. Kotoko's parents forced her into child prostitution. Nagisa's parents used him as a test subject to see how much one could study before breaking as part of a twisted experiment for Hope's Peak Academy. Monaca's father and brother physically abused her for being an [[BastardBastard illegitimate child]] [[spoiler:and while she manipulated them into mass-producing the Monokumas that the Warriors used to take over the town, they were greedy and incompetent enough to let her]], which makes them even worse. All of them perish in the kids' uprising, and [[AssholeVictim no one feels much pity for them]].

* Yukari's mother in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' was so broken by the death of her husband that she neglected Yukari and began many shallow relationships with men, resulting in mother and daughter being estranged for years. That said, she does see the error of her ways, and promises not to try to get remarried until her daughter forgives her. [[CharacterDevelopment Yukari also gradually comes to understand how her mother felt]], and realizes that they're NotSoDifferent ([[spoiler:which is especially true in light of The Answer]]), so she hesitantly decides to reconcile with her mother.

* In the ''ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog'' series, Locke, Knuckles' father, has a questionable parenting technique. When Knuckles was still just an egg, Locke had him bombarded with radiation from a Chaos Emerald. When Knuckles was three, Locke began training him to be Guardian of Angel Island. This upset his wife, Lara-Le, and the two argued on how to raise Knuckles. The two divorced and Locke, being a Guardian, was given full custody of Knuckles. When Knuckles was five, they moved out of the city and into the wilderness, where Knuckles' training continued. Oh, and Locke told Knuckles his mother was ''dead''. When Knuckles was ten, Locke told his son he had to leave, then walked into a wall of fire, leaving Knuckles completely alone so that he would grow up to become independent. Until Knuckles was 15, Locke had him under constant surveillance to monitor his progress. Locke admits that his parenting skills are lacking, but he was more concerned with making Knuckles into a good Guardian than being a good dad.

* In ''Series/VeronicaMars'', Aaron Echols is this.

* ''Literature/{{Touch}}'' is set in a world where magical powers run in families, but only manifest through [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening some form of trauma]]. This has resulted in otherwise decent parents believing that it's okay to harm their children ''just'' enough for them to get superpowers.

* In the Franchise/ArchieComics' ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComicsSonicTheHedgehog Sonic The Hedgehog]]'' series, Locke, Knuckles' father, has a questionable parenting technique. When Knuckles was still just an egg, Locke had him bombarded with radiation from a Chaos Emerald. When Knuckles was three, Locke began training him to be Guardian of Angel Island. This upset his wife, Lara-Le, and the two argued on how to raise Knuckles. The two divorced and Locke, being a Guardian, was given full custody of Knuckles. When Knuckles was five, they moved out of the city and into the wilderness, where Knuckles' training continued. Oh, and Locke told Knuckles his mother was ''dead''. When Knuckles was ten, Locke told his son he had to leave, then walked into a wall of fire, leaving Knuckles completely alone so that he would grow up to become independent. Until Knuckles was 15, Locke had him under constant surveillance to monitor his progress. Locke admits that his parenting skills are lacking, but he was more concerned with making Knuckles into a good Guardian than being a good dad.