History ParentalAbandonment / WesternAnimation

* No word on who Spike's biological parents are. All that's known is that his egg was in the care of Princess Celestia and was hatched by Twilight long before the series began.

* {{Daria}} Morgendorffer's home life is made more interesting due to her needy self-obsessed father - a man who lives in his own unhappy childhood and still has issues to resolve - and her workaholic mother who places job before family for the greater part of the time. This is one of the factors that shaped the Princess of Snark's alienation and mordant cynicism.

* {{Daria]] Morgendorffer's home life is made more interesting due to her needy self-obsessed father - a man who lives in his own unhappy childhood and still has issues to resolve - and her workaholic mother who places job before family for the greater part of the time. This is one of the factors that shaped the Princess of Snark's alienation and mordant cynicism.

** Many fans thought the Season 3 episode "Apple Family Reunion", with a title like that, would finally shed light on the situation. [[spoiler: [[TheUnreveal It doesn't]]. There's a whole ContinuityCavalcade of every single Apple member seen in the series up to that point and even several new members, but if Applejack's parents were there they weren't identified. The closest we get is a pair of shooting stars that show up twice, which a [[WordOfStPaul storyboard artist]] has said is symbolic of their absence, which could mean a great many things.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom's parents are never seen, with their family matriarch, Granny Smith, acting as their guardian. While Applejack and Big Macintosh are at least old enough to live on their own (they stay on their farm due to the family business), Apple Bloom clearly isn't. [[WordOfGod Word of]] [[Creator/LaurenFaust Faust]] and says that she and and her crew tried to come up with an explanation for where their parents were, with ideas such as them [[WhenYouComingHomeDad being travelling salesponies]] or simply [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest being dead]], but they never figured out what to do with them, so it's [[ShrugOfGod left ambiguous]] in the series.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom's parents are never seen, with their family matriarch, Granny Smith, acting as their guardian. While Applejack and Big Macintosh are at least old enough to live on their own (they stay on their farm due to the family business), Apple Bloom clearly isn't. [[WordOfGod Word of]] [[Creator/LaurenFaust Faust]] and says that she and and her crew tried to come up with an explanation for where their parents were, with ideas such as them [[WhenYouComingHomeDad being travelling salesponies]] or simply [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest being dead]], but they never figured out what to do with them, so it's left ambiguous in the series.

* In ''MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Applejack, Big Macintosh, and Apple Bloom's parents are never seen, with their family matriarch, Granny Smith, acting as their guardian. While Applejack and Big Macintosh are at least old enough to live on their own (they stay on their farm due to the family business), Apple Bloom clearly isn't. [[WordOfGod Word of]] [[Creator/LaurenFaust Faust]] and says that she and and her crew tried to come up with an explanation for where their parents were, with ideas such as them [[WhenYouComingHomeDad being travelling salesponies]] or simply [[DeceasedParentsAreTheBest being dead]], but they never figured out what to do with them, so it's left ambiguous in the series.

* In MaxAndRuby, Ruby and Max's parents are never mentioned. They do have a grandmother. Possibly the only character with a parent that's seen in-show is baby Huffington, whose dad runs a shop in town.

** The villains have it no better. Zuko and Azula's mother [[MissingMom Princess Ursa]] is absent (to say the least) and their [[BigBad father]], [[AbusiveParents definitely not]] [[CompleteMonster the overprotective type]], seems to have no problem with sending the kid he actually ''likes'' halfway across the known world to hunt his enemies. [[TheUnfavorite Zuko]] was banished on a SnipeHunt (after being publicly disfigured and humiliated) for [[DisproportionateRetribution speaking out of turn]] when he was no older than fourteen. Mai's parents are seen briefly but seemingly have no interest or no say in her actions (possibly due to Azula's influence, though in "The Beach" Mai says that her mom repressed her a lot to not ruin Dad's high-profile political career) and Ty Lee's apparently did not notice when she ran away to join the circus, due to the 6 identical daughters.

* ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'''s [[BattleCouple parents took off to fight evil]], leaving their kids and Dad's magician brother in charge of Udragoth.

* ''CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': Free room and board on Hope Island is part of the Benefits Package of being a Planeteer, so even the few parents who are still alive are mostly out of the picture.

* ''{{Chowder}}'': The whereabouts of Chowder's parents (and of Panini's and Gorgonzola's parents) are never revealed or discussed.
* ''DaveTheBarbarian'''s [[BattleCouple parents took off to fight evil]], leaving their kids and Dad's magician brother in charge of Udragoth.

* Used excessively and in a variety of ways in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Aang, like all Airbender children, was raised communally by monks. However his father-like mentor, his unknown parents and the rest of his nation were [[DoomedHometown entirely wiped]] out while Aang was [[HumanPopsicle frozen in an iceberg]]. Hence the subtitle of the show. Katara and Sokka's mother was killed when they were young and as of the beginning of the show their father has left to fight in the war. They live with their grandmother who rather blithely sends them off to travel the world with Aang (though [[spoiler: it is later revealed that she ran away from home herself, which perhaps explains her attitude]]). Toph deliberately runs away from her overprotective parents. This trope even applies to Appa.

** The villains have it no better. Zuko and Azula's mother [[MissingMom Princess Ursa]] is absent (to say the least) and their [[BigBad father]], [[AbusiveParents definitely not]] [[CompleteMonster the overprotective type]], seems to have no problem with sending the kid he actually ''likes'' halfway across the known world to hunt his enemies. [[TheUnfavorite Zuko]] was banished on a SnipeHunt (after being publicly disfigured and humiliated) for [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin speaking out of turn]] when he was no older than fourteen. Mai's parents are seen briefly but seemingly have no interest or no say in her actions (possibly due to Azula's influence, though in "The Beach" Mai says that her mom repressed her a lot to not ruin Dad's high-profile political career) and Ty Lee's apparently did not notice when she ran away to join the circus, due to the 6 identical daughters.

*** ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has this tradition continue.

* In ''{{Beavis and Butthead}}'', their parents are sometimes mentioned but never seen, and they seem to take no real interest in the sometimes outrageous lives of their children. (In fact, the only who's ever mentioned with any regularity is Beavis' mother, who is said to be a slut; we find out in the film ''Beavis and Butt-Head Do America'' that the boys are the bastard sons of two heavy-metal roadies, and possibly half-brothers (Mike Judge refers to the two as their "dads", however).

* ''{{Captain Planet and the Planeteers}}'': Free room and board on Hope Island is part of the Benefits Package of being a Planeteer, so even the few parents who are still alive are mostly out of the picture.

* ''{{Dave the Barbarian}}'''s [[BattleCouple parents took off to fight evil]], leaving their kids and Dad's magician brother in charge of Udragoth.

* In ''[[EdEddNEddy Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'', we never see anyone at all in the show except for the children that live in the neighborhood. Sometimes parents and older siblings are alluded to, but they are never actually shown.
* In ''[[{{TheOblongs}} The Oblongs]]'' episode, "Milo, Interrupted", it is revealed that Helga's parents left on vacation a year earlier and never came back... [[spoiler: until the end of the episode, where it is revealed that they survived by eating the other passengers on the plane they took after it crashed.]]

* Dib and Gaz of ''InvaderZim'' have a father that is more concerned with his latest invention and his television show than whatever his children are doing, and a mother who is never mentioned (naturally, EpilepticTrees abound). Zim himself is a borderline example, as while technically he has no parents ([[TheMatrix Irkens are grown, not bred]]), his entire motivation is pleasing the parental figures of the entire species, the Tallest, who hate him and exile him to the far end of the known universe.
* Jade from ''WesternAnimation/{{Jackie Chan Adventures}}'' is left by her parents in the first episode, and although they are alive, they are only referred to twice during the rest of the series. Jackie as well, it is implied, was sent to America to train with Uncle when he was a kid. His parents are never mentioned.

** [[AllThereInTheManual The comic book]], TeenTitansGo, explained that they fell ill after their son (and Star and Black's brother), Wildfire, was sent off the planet and never recovered from it.

* ''{{X-Men Evolution}}'' is worthy of mention for its almost complete aversion of this trope. Despite living away from home, all the teens except Scott and Rogue have a loving family or foster-family to go home to in the obligatory Christmas episode. Kurt suffers from [[spoiler: combined MissingMom[=/=]ParentalBetrayal]], but still notes that his foster parents are great to him. The Brotherhood, on the other hand, have not fared as well -- their parents are all absent for no apparent reason, {{Jerkass}}es, or [[spoiler: the BigBad (Quicksilver does seem to be treated pretty well, though, all things considered)]].

* The title characters of ''PhineasAndFerb'' are missing a [[DisappearedDad biological dad]] and a [[MissingMom biological mom]], respectively. However, their remaining parents are HappilyMarried to each other and have HappilyAdopted their stepchildren, so any issues with this are confined to FanFic.

* In ''StormHawks'', the entire main cast is made up of 14-year-olds, and the show is one of the awkward cases in which nobody even mentions their parents. The closest we ever get is an aunt. And considering how many times they brush death, it's amazing they're allowed out of the house at all. (In fact, the only brothers we see freely admit to hatching out of eggs, leading to much speculation about how exactly the cast are born.)

*** The ''LegendOfKorra'' has this tradition continue,played with for the main character who didn't live with her parents because once discovered as the Avatar, was forced by the Order of the White Lotus to be couped up and safely trained,but she did get to see her alive and well parents every now and then. Mako and Bolin lost their parents to a firebender in a mugging,and Asami lost her mother to a firebender during a raid,...this didn't go over well with [[StartOfDarkness her father]]

** Doofenshmirz's parents couldn't even be bothered turning up for his ''[[BeyondTheImpossible birth.]]''

** The villains have it no better. Zuko and Azula's mother [[MissingMom Princess Ursa]] is absent (to say the least) and their [[BigBad father]], [[AbusiveParents definitely not]] [[CompleteMonster the overprotective type]], seems to have no problem with sending the kid he actually ''likes'' halfway across the known world to hunt his enemies. [[TheUnfavorite Zuko]] of course was banished on a SnipeHunt (after being publicly disfigured and humiliated) for [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin speaking out of turn]] when he was no older than fourteen. Mai's parents are seen briefly but seemingly have no interest or no say in her actions (possibly due to Azula's influence, though in "The Beach" Mai says that her mom repressed her a lot to not ruin Dad's high-profile political career) and Ty Lee's apparently did not notice when she ran away to join the circus, due to the six identical daughters.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': Tom, along with Princess Katherine, The Magus, Tom's mother, Mary, & Finella, fled from the castle of King Kenneth II when he was slain by Constantine, who later usurped his throne. After using the Grimorum to find a way into Avalon, The Magus is forced to give up the magical book because it can't be taken into Avalon. To keep it away from Constantine, so he won't be able to find them, Finella volunteers to protect the book and basically go into hiding from the King of Scotland. Mary volunteers to go with, pretty much deciding that protecting this magic book is more important than raising her only child, who at this point in the story wasn't even ten years old.

* The ''ScoobyDoo'' gang members either have no parents or just very hands-off parents who don't seem to care that their teenagers go all around the world, hunting down villains in Halloween costumes.
** Supremely subverted in the 'Mystery Inc.' series.

* The title characters of ''PhineasAndFerb'' are missing a [[DisappearedDad biological dad]] and a [[MissingMom biological mom]], respectively. However, their remaining parents are HappilyMarried to each other and have HappilyAdopted their stepchildren, so any issues with this are pretty much confined to FanFic.
** As a side-note, some fans have noted that throughout the whole first two seasons, [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Vanessa]] seems to be the only child/teen character with two biological parents; everyone else seems to have a mom but no dad (or in Django's case, a dad but no mom). This recently changed when we finally saw Jeremy's father.

* ''{{Captain Planet and the Planeteers}}'': Free room and board on Hope Island is part of the Benefits Package of being a Planeteer, so even the few parents who are still alive are mostly out of the picture.

* ''{{Gargoyles}}'': Tom, along with Princess Katherine, The Magus, Tom's mother, Mary, & Finella, fled from the castle of King Kenneth II when he was slain by Constantine, who later usurped his throne. After using the Grimorum to find a way into Avalon, The Magus is forced to give up the magical book because it can't be taken into Avalon. To keep it away from Constantine, so he won't be able to find them, Finella volunteers to protect the book and basically go into hiding from the King of Scotland. Mary volunteers to go with, pretty much deciding that protecting this magic book is more important than raising her only child, who at this point in the story wasn't even ten years old.

* The title characters of ''PhineasAndFerb'' are missing a [[DisappearedDad biological dad]] and a [[MissingMom biological mom]], respectively. However, their remaining parents are HappilyMarried to each other and have HappilyAdopted their stepchildren, so any issues with this are pretty much confined to FanFic.
** As a side-note, some fans have noted that throughout the whole first two seasons, [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Vanessa]] seems to be the only child/teen character with two biological parents; everyone else seems to have a mom but no dad (or in Django's case, a dad but no mom). This recently changed when we finally saw Jeremy's father.

* In MaxAndRuby, Ruby and Max's parents are never mentioned. They do have a grandmother. Possibly the only character with a parent that's seen in-show is baby Huffington, whose dad runs a shop in town.

* ''{{X-Men Evolution}}'' is worthy of mention for its almost complete aversion of this trope. Despite living away from home, all the teens except Scott and Rogue have a loving family or foster-family to go home to in the obligatory Christmas episode. Kurt suffers from [[spoiler: combined MissingMom/ParentalBetrayal]], but still notes that his foster parents are great to him. The Brotherhood, on the other hand, have not fared as well -- their parents are all absent for no apparent reason, {{Jerkass}}es, or [[spoiler: the BigBad (Quicksilver does seem to be treated pretty well, though, all things considered)]].

* It has been implied on multiple occasions that the failed science experiment Lemongrab of the show ''AdventureTime'' has issues with this trope, concerning his mother, Princess Bubblegum. Apparently, after he was "born" in her lab, the princess "stuck" him in a castle outside of the castle walls, never appearing to show him any love or respect.

* The titular bunnies from ''YinYangYo'' have Master Yo the panda as their sensei and father figure, but so far their parents have not been mentioned... though some of their friends (and enemies) have parents ("CAAAAAAARL!").

* It's strongly implied that Princess Bubblegum of ''AdventureTime'' abandoned her son Lemongrab shortly after his birth because she couldn't handle the responsibility of raising a mentally unstable failed science experiment. According to Jesse Moynihan, a storyboard artist on the show, PB stuck him in a castle to be raised by servants. She acts like she's ashamed of his existence. This probably didn't do him much good.