History Main / TheParentProducedProject

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In the book ''Literature/IDontKnowHowSheDoesIt'', Kate discovers a letter from her daughter's school, stating that the children were supposed to make food to bring to a cultural fair. Kate ends up steaming the labels off jars of shop-bought jam and putting new labels on them to pretend that she and her daughter made the jam themselves.

* In ''Literature/TheDevilWearsPrada'', Andy at one point is painting a diorama of the solar system. Her boss, Miranda Priestly, it seems, regularly makes her complete projects for Priestly's twin girls.

* In ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'', Corey tricks his parents into completing his school projects for him by pretending to be too incompetent to complete a project of any quality. But [[SubvertedTrope then subverted]] because his actual project was a report, and in it he was trying to prove that if he messed up badly enough, his parents would always cover him. He got an A and punished in the end.

* On an episode of ''Series/ArchieBunkersPlace'' basically all the employees of Archie's bar pitch in to do Stephanie's science project for her. She feels guilty and the teacher tumbles to it right away.
* This happens in ''Series/AmericanGothic1995'', when Buck (who is actually the devil...or something) does Caleb's science project for him. It becomes AnAesop when Caleb admits in front of his class that he cheated. It turns out that he learned so much about science on his own that he was able to give an impressive speech on the topic anyway.
* Happens in ''Series/{{Reba}}'' with Van building a volcano for Jake's science class (though Van is Jake's brother-in-law, not his father). He and Jake we're supposed to build it together, but Van dislikes Jake's ideas and does the project himself. Van mentions that his father used to do the same to him, with one of Van's projects being a ''dialysis machine''. When Reba points out Van's misconduct, he apologizes to Jake and they both decide to build one together.
* ''Series/TheInBESTigators'': The motivation behind the theft of Pixie's project in "The Case of the Missing Solar System"; the thief's parents always did his projects for him and his own efforts paled in comparison to everyone else's so he tried to pass Pixie's off as his, though Maudie foils it.
* ''Series/TheSopranos'': In one episode, Carmela decides to help AJ with an essay on ''Literature/BillyBudd''. He still only gets a C and she's embarrassed as a result.

* In the short-lived Creator/NickAtNite show ''WesternAnimation/{{Fatherhood}}'', one episode involves a football player whose parents do all of his papers.
* There is an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}: WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' where Tommy tries to stop his dad from finishing his project for him, since his father has done so before.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'', Bobby takes advantage of Peggy’s ego and gets her to write his essay for him. She also ends up writing papers for many of Bobby’s classmates.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy Turner wins a school science fair because his project was so bad that he obviously did it himself, and all of the other students had their parents' help.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': "The Cart Before the Ponies" has a variant; the younger ponies are allowed help from an older pony when building their carts for the Applewood Derby, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders find their respective mentors (Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Applejack and Applebloom, and Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo) get so caught up in doing things their way, they take over the project, to the point of actually driving the carts in the big race instead of letting the younger ponies do so! When their bossiness causes a big crash that nearly spoils the Derby, the Crusaders decide they've had enough and [[WhatTheHellHero call out the older mares for refusing to listen to their mentorees and let them do things their way]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' deconstructs this in the episode "Muffy Takes the Wheel". The episode's conflict revolves around Muffy wanting to build a miniature car on her own for a school project, but she feels like Ed is taking it over. He's genuinely helping and doesn't come off as too pushy, and he had entered a similar contest as a kid. However, Muffy feels guilty about taking what's basically his work and passing it off as her own. In the end, she makes her own car at the last minute rather than using her father's.

* Creator/BrianRegan complains about this during his "Cup of Dirt" routine. "Kid couldn't even tie his own shoes but he brought a volcano!"

->'''Helen''': I've spent two days on his last homework, Laura and do you know what he got? A "D" and something about "Had You Read the Book?". Of course I've read the bloody book!

->'''Helen''': This is exam work Laura! Much more of this and he's going to fail his [=GCSEs=].

-->'''John Rawlinson''': I believe you said he'd been consistently undermarking your son in his English.
--> '''Helen''': All term. He's never given him a decent mark ever.
-->'''Laura''': That's it?
-->'''Helen''': I've spent two days on his last homework, Laura and do you know what he got? A "D" and something about "Had You Read the Book?". Of course I've read the bloody book!
-->'''Laura''': So that's why you drove the car at him? Because he gave you a "D" in English?
-->'''Helen''': This is exam work Laura! Much more of this and he's going to fail his [=GCSEs=].

* On ''Series/StillStanding'', Lauren's parents were making her science projects, only to get her promoted into the [[GoneHorriblyRight honors class]]. In their honors projects, the teacher criticizes "Lauren's" work, and the parents naturally take it personally.

* Creator/DaveBarry mentions several times in his columns.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}'': In "[[Recap/CheersS4E3 Someday My Prince Will Come]]", Carla brings Gino's non-functioning science fair project--an electric generator--into the bar for the guys to fix. Cliff winds up shocking himself.

Related to ScienceFair projects, RidiculousProcrastinator, and LastMinuteProject.

[[folder:Film]]

** In another episode, Marge builds a working model of the human digestive system for Bart the night before it's due. (Nelson destroys it on the bus before they get to school, but that's beside the point.)

** In another episode, Lisa enters an essay contest and while her entry makes it to the top, one of the judges suspects she had help from her father. After talking to Homer for about a minute, she then decides to give her an extra 10 points and thus letting her go to the finals.

* Creator/DaveBarry mentions several times in his columns. In one instance he plots out a usual hectic morning, with "7:39 : Get child in car. 7:43 : Child mentions he has science fair project due that day, which he has never mentioned before. 7:50: Drop child off at school with completed Science Fair project, entitled "Objects found in 1984 Chevrolet ashtray". In another, he sees it as revenge on the teacher's part for putting up with students (and especially parents): "I've got it! Next year we'll have them make a volcano that spews real lava! No, we already did that last year."

When a child needs a school project done, sometimes the parents (usually the mother) would do it for them. This is actually quite common so is a case of TruthInTelevision. If the parent is doing the project for their lazy son the [[LastMinuteProject night before the project is due]] and he gets it in on time, it's a case of BrokenAesop.

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]], or nearly so in ''Film/StVincent'': The big project in Oliver's class is about modern "saints", and in his speech before the presentation he jokes that most of the students probably selected a parent.

** Parodied and played with in an where Lisa and Ralph won special awards for their costumes during a school pagent about the states, as the only two who obviously didn't have parental help making their costumes. (Ralph's costume was a piece of paper he had taped to himself saying "Idaho.") Ironically, Lisa ''did'' have her father's help with it.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'', Timmy Turner wins a school science fair because his project was so bad that he obviously did it himself, and all of the other students had their parents' help. [[/folder]]

* In ''LuckyStar'', Tsukasa recalls a time when her dad did a project for her; it got an award, and Tsukasa told him she thought he was amazing. Kagami thinks she would've been irritated in his position.