Familial Chiding

They go through this every year...

Kim: Mom! Do you have me on speaker!?
Dr. Anne Possible: Sorry, honey, I've got both hands in a sixty-two-year-old male's temporal lobe.
Kim: MOM!

— Kim Possible

People make mistakes. People made the wrong choices, or at least bad choices. And when that happens, those around them have to correct them.

In some cases, this takes the form of a Corrective Lecture or even a "The Reason You Suck" Speech.

But when the people involved are close, either in a familial or romantic sense, then sometimes that correction is couched in an affectionate, and often gentle way.

In fact, the main thrust of this trope is that one can really only do things like this with someone with whom they are familiar, either in a biological sense or a Family of Choice. Amongst strangers or casual acquaintances, the criticisms would come across as more harsh and likely be less well received.

A daughter, for example, might chide her mother and/or father for being Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, or a Bumbling Dad. Parents might discover their children doing something they shouldn't, but also amusing, and have to engage them while Holding in Laughter. Mothers, including Moms-in-spirit, are often able to do this not only with their own children but others in their close circle using The "Mom" Voice.

Between romantic pairings, like boyfriends and girlfriends, or spouses, this can sometimes take the form of Romantic Ribbing.

While the affectionate form of chiding is usually light-hearted and gentle, it can be more severe when someone has crossed major moral lines, or when there are potentially harmful, even lethal, consequences involved. Either way, it can be Played for Laughs or Played for Drama.

Often predicated by Say My Name (or title in the case of a parent). May be a result of Anger Born of Worry.

Compare Teasing Parent.

Contrast Terms of Endangerment. See No Hero to His Valet and No Badass to His Valet for examples from an employee/employer relationship like this.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You:
  • Hakari has a tendency to be annoyed at her mother whenever she does something of an especially perverted nature.
  • Chiyo can hardly stand her father playing Shipper on Deck with her and Rentarou.
  • Kusuri doesn't usually have a problem with her dad, but she's as annoyed at him as Chiyo is with hers whenever their dads argue over whose daughter is the better match for Rentarou.
• BanG Dream!: Afterglow is a band of five childhood friends who are basically a Family of Choice. Tomoe, of Afterglow, is also the older sister of Roselia's Ako. And Roselia's Sayo is the twin sister of Pastel Palettes's Hina. There's a lot of family feeling between the other bands, as well.
  • In one of the manga panels, Moca says that her bandmate Himari is like a mother.
    Himari: I... I am?
    Moca: Really nosy, lots of scolding, and you always seem to pull snacks out of nowhere.
    Tomoe: You always take it too far, Moca!
  • When Himari suggests she'd like to be as cool and reliable as Roselia's Lisa, Moca says she'd have to be able to do all the things Lisa does, like bring cookies ("I already do that. Sometimes."), sew a button that's coming loose, ("Lisa's so cool."), or offer Moca headphones and a blanket when she lies down to take a nap.
    Himari: Aren't you being pampered!? Someone needs to cut you off!
  • In Season 2, as the girls gather for the big concert at Galaxy, Moca is recording and spots Ran eating a croquette from Hagumi's shop. Lisa cheerfully responds, "Look at you two Afterglow buddies." Moca cheerfully launches herself onto the sofa beside Ran, embracing her, saying, "You mean Best Buddies!" Ran, who likes to play it cool, chides Moca.
    Ran: Moca! It's hot!
  • In Season 3, after Sayo collapses from a cold and pushes herself too hard after a loss to RAISE A SUILEN, her twin sister Hina comes into her room to check on her. Sayo shows that She's Back by gently chiding Hina for entering without knocking, but it's done without malice, and Hina smiles to see her sister back to normal.
• Hakumei & Mikochi: In one segment, Hakumei and Mikochi, who are cohabiting, are having fish for dinner, and Hakumei says she bit into something "weird". Mikochi, the more sensible of the two, chides her, "Spit it out, please." only for Hakumei to cheerfully reply, "I swallowed it." This would come back to bite her later, literally, as the item she swallowed was one of Sen's bone transceivers, and it causes an animated fish skeleton to leap out of the water and try and eat her.
• My Love Story!!: Yuriko Gouda starts chiding her husband, her son Takeo, and her son's best friend Suna when they all start being overly concerned about her during her pregnancy, such as when Suna offers to help carry her groceries.
  Yuriko: Oh, not you too!
  Suna: [giving one of his rare smiles] Well, at least I'm not as bad as Takeo.
• Ranma ½: Shortly after Shampoo arrives and starts pursuing boy-type Ranma romantically, Akane is very put out. Soun tries to suggest to her in a loving and fatherly way that she should just admit her true feelings for Ranma. this backfires horribly, as Akane shouts at him, "No way!" Soun ends up crying to his eldest daughter, "Kasumi, she yelled at me!" Akane in turn silently chides her father, "He doesn't have to cry about it."

Comedy

• Jeff Foxworthy says his mother often greeted him at the door when he came home intoxicated saying, "I don't want to know where you've been, what you've been doing, or who you've been doing it with!"
  Jeff: Thank goodness, Ma, 'cause the details are a little fuzzy to me at the moment.

Comic Books

• The Sandman (1989): A large number of Death's interactions with her siblings fall into this category. Especially Dream, whom she is fondest of, but frequently finds exasperating.
  Death: Did it occur to you that I'd be worried silly about you?
  Dream: I didn't think...
  Death: That's exactly it! You didn't think! You lummox! You overgrown, bubble-headed.... OOOOOOOOOHH! Give me strength!
• Spider-Man: Peter Parker's Aunt May has a habit of doing this to him. No matter the incarnation or universe, she's one of the few people who can get away with telling Spider-Man to behave. Even though she's usually lecturing a teenager (or even a grown man), her chiding always comes across as a gentle reminder rather than scolding.

Fan Works

• The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: Alfred, as the butler, usually isn't direct when calling out the children (or man-children) for their behavior (unless they do something really stupid). Usually, if he scolds Peter for anything (like covering his room in spider-webs), it will be in this way.

Films — Live-Action

• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: Eliot is trying to explain the strange creature (E.T.) that he saw. His older brother is trying to say it might have been a coyote or such. Eliot, incensed at being so easily dismissed, shouts "It was nothing like that, penis breath!" His mother, Holding in Laughter, tries to chide him for his language, "Eliot!"
• Star Trek
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Kirk has just taken control of the ship on authorization from Starfleet Command, and is trying to rush a newly refit Enterprise to meet V'Ger before it arrives in the Solar System. When Scotty tries to tell him the warp drive needs further simulations, Kirk gets short with him. McCoy chides him for it.
    McCoy: Jim, you're pushing. Your people know their jobs.
  • Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: McCoy tries to stop Spock from entering the highly radioactive compartment to effect repairs.
    McCoy: Are you out of your Vulcan mind? No human can tolerate the radiation that's in there!
    Spock: As you are so fond of observing, Doctor, I am not human.
    McCoy: [stands between Spock and the core] You're NOT going in there. [Spock then takes matters into his own hands, gently incapacitating McCoy]

Live-Action TV

• Castle: This is all over the place, especially in the early seasons when Castle, his teen daughter Alexis, and his mother Martha are all living under one roof. They all have a very close and loving relationship, even if they have to occasionally remind each other of the rules.
  • In one episode, Alexis is trying on dresses and isn't happy with how anything is looking. Castle, trying to be a supportive father, tells her she looks great. Martha, more practical, tells her she looks awful and hands her a different dress. Castle chides his mother, "Are you trying to give her a complex?" She responds, "She's a teenage girl. She already has a complex." Fortunately the dress Martha chose is well suited to Alexis's complexion and hair color, and she looks wonderful in it.
  • In another episode, Martha finds Castle and Alexis playing laser tag in the apartment. "Richard Castle, how old are you?" He cheekily replies, "Old enough to afford top-of-the-line laser-tag equipment."
  • "Suicide Squeeze" sees Castle eating whipped cream directly from a spray can. His daughter, Alexis, immediately lectures him, "Dad, you'll spoil your dinner!"
    Castle: This is my d...
    Alexis: [sternly] No!
  • "One Life to Lose" has a murder take place on the set of a soap opera Martha once spent a week on. She asks to accompany the team to the site. Castle tells her it's a crime scene and only trained professionals should be there. She calls him out for this, "Richard Castle, you are neither trained nor a professional." He's forced to concede the point.
• Doctor Who: The Doctor and various companions often have this sort of dynamic.
  • After tricking the 11th Doctor into showing her a visual record of all previous TARDIS occupants, Amy playfully does this when she comes across a picture of Leela. "Oi, Doctor, is that a leather bikini?"
  • The two-part segments "Time" and "Space". After an absurdly short skirt inadvertently leads to a dropped thermo-coupler and the TARDIS materializing inside itself, the 11th Doctor has this to say:
    The Doctor: OK. We're back in normal flight, the TARDIS is no longer inside itself, the localised time field is no longer about to implode and rip a hole in all causality, but just in case... Pond, put some trousers on.
• Star Trek: The Original Series: The Power Trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were forever chiding one another, though usually in a respectful and supportive way. In "The Immunity Syndrome" Spock is in a shuttlecraft, adrift, and losing power. Kirk gives the order to bring the shuttle aboard, but Spock, fearing such a delay would endanger the ship, tries to warn them off. McCoy is having none of it.
  McCoy: Shut up, Spock! We're rescuing you! [nods at Jim, who nods back]
  Spock: [fascinating eyebrow] Why thank you, Captain McCoy.

Western Animation

• Bluey: Played for Drama in "Bad Mood" — when Bingo takes a cookie without permission, Chilli jokingly says that she's "being a bit of a cheeky kid". However, Bingo gets sad, since she doesn't like being seen as "cheeky".
• Kim Possible: Kim frequently chides her mother for putting her on speaker phone when she's trying to have a personal discussion with her. Her mother points out that she's a neurosurgeon who often has her hands in someone's cerebellum and needs to go "hands-free".
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: A series that focuses on friendship and how to be a better person, there are a few instances of this.
  • "Gryphon the Brush Off" has Fluttershy, who was recently bullied by Gilda, wonder about the wisdom of Pinkie Pie's plans to throw a party for Gilda.
    Pinkie Pie: Don't worry your pretty little head about mean old Gilda. Your auntie Pinkie Pie's got it all taken care of.
    Fluttershy: [irked] I'm a year older than you.
  • After Discord learns that the Elements of Harmony have been returned to the Tree of Harmony, and he cannot be turned to stone by them again, Fluttershy calls him out on his seeming eagerness to return to his former ways.
    Fluttershy: But our friendship remains. And if you want to remain friends, you'll stop thinking whatever it is you're thinking and help us clean up.
    Discord: Fine. But I don't do windows.
• Peppa Pig: Mummy Pig and her kids like to tease Daddy Pig for having a "big tummy".

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