Good Parents

"You'll be in my heart. Always."

"We didn't give up on our dreams! We changed our dreams into your dream! That's what parents do! That's what family does!"

— Akio Furukawa, CLANNAD

In fiction and Real Life, parents are either dorky, busy, abusive, embarrassing, evil, overbearing, overprotective, neglectful, squicky, lost, too submissive, forbidding, too involved, too hands-off, or just plain useless - and that's assuming they bother to be in their kids' lives at all. But what about parents who get things right? The parents who are always there. The ones who support their children no matter what they do and attend all their events. They tell them how proud they are of them. They give out useful advice and help them on their homework. They keep their children safe without being overprotective. They punish them when they're bad and award them when they're good, but they will always love them. Through good times and bad, these parents are always there for their kids. They will sacrifice just about anything for their children, even their own lives.

These parents can be the Mama Bear or the Papa Wolf, and can even be the Action Dad, Action Mom or Battle Couple, although there is no need for this. Sometimes they may play good-natured jokes on their children, but would never hurt them. They are often found in a Nuclear Family so will often consist of a Happily Married couple. They can even be a part of a Badass Family. They are also not against using Tough Love when necessary. They can also turn out to be an Open-Minded Parent.

One reason that they are rarer than one might expect in fiction is probably that in many cases, responsible and competent parents can be more difficult to write about. With the parents taking an interest, explanations are needed for why they can't (or won't) help solve the story conflict, potentially leaving the child protagonists with little to do.

This trope does not mean that good parents are perfect. As a trope it's by no means mutually exclusive with Parents as People, especially in stories where well-meaning parents learn to do better or are doing their best in difficult situations.

When the Good Parents aren't the actual parents of the character, it's Parental Substitute. When the Good Parents are the adoptive parents, it's Happily Adopted. If they were good parents at one time, but forcefully removed from this realm of existence, then it's Deceased Parents Are the Best. When the Good Parents aren't against doing illegal or morally questionable acts to protect their children, they are the Knight Templar Parents.

Truth in Television, of course.

noreallife

---

Example subpages:

• Anime & Manga
• Comic Books
• Fan Works
• Film
• Literature
• Live-Action TV
• Video Games
• Western Animation

Other examples:

Advertising

• A German commercial that shows that a Goth girl getting alienated by everyone, from her peers to random strangers...except, for her father who shows that he'll always stand by her.
• A 2001 commercial for My Size Sugarplum Princess Barbie shows the parents happy to present the doll to their daughter. Later, the daughter pulls the dad into her game, and he dances with her while the mom films a home video.

Asian Animation

• In Happy Heroes, Doctor H. is not the biological father of the Supermen, but still cares deeply about them and will provide them with advice and comfort when it's needed.

Comic Strips

• Phoebe's parents in Phoebe and Her Unicorn. Word of God is that they were deliberately written this way in contrast to usual bickering Parents as People in other comic strips. They're involved in their daughter's life, support her in her unusual magical adventures, but do also set limits... and force her to take piano lessons.

Puppet Shows

• Mr. and Mrs. C, Chica’s parents, from The Chica Show. They’re more realistic than the parents on most preschool shows.
• In The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Horton the Elephant cares a lot about Morton, his elephant bird son from Horton Hatches the Egg. Many episodes show him teaching Morton welcome life lessons and trying to make him happy.

Music

• Luther Vandross had a song, "Dance With My Father", about how wonderful his father was and how much he wished he was still alive.
• Robbie Williams portrays himself this way in his song 'Go Gentle', which is a song to his daughter warning her about the kind of guys she'll probably meet in her life. He encourages her to find love, but also to be careful about who it is she picks.
  And when you go giving your heart,
  Make sure they deserve it.
  If they haven't earned it,
  Keep searching, it's worth it.
• Kanye West has a song called "Hey Mama," dedicated to his mother and how good she was to him.
• Ashanti has a song called "Mother." She sings about her mother and how she thanks her for being wonderful to her.
• "My Dad", by Ray Stevens:
  My Dad could beat up your Dad, but he wouldn't
  Yes, my Dad could beat up your Dad, but he wouldn't even try
  He's got the greatest laugh, he's not afraid to cry
  I really can't imagine that he ever told a lie
  He forgets so fast when you do something you shouldn't
  My Dad could beat up your dad, but he wouldn't
• Christina Aguilera has a called "Oh Mother," dedicated to her mother and thanking her for being a great mother for her.
• Backstreet Boys have a tune called "The Perfect Fan". The lyrics of "You showed me how to care / And you showed me that you would always be there" pretty much give the gist of the whole thing.
• HoneyWorks has a few, despite its major focus on teenagers:
  • The narrator of "Mama" is a very kind and supportive mother who unconditionally loves her daughter no matter how rebellious she gets.
  Sad words, hurtful words, I heard them so often
  But it's alright, I still love you. I couldn't possibly come to hate you.
  [...]
  Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you are my child,
  And I will always say I love you. I don't need to have a reason.
  • In the Confession Executive Committee universe, we have Sena Narumi's parents, who are just as crazy about their daughters as they are about each other.

Radio

• Max and Karen Wilson from New Dynamic English can be this. They would go lengths to make sure their son John is happy.
  • Max spent most of his energy to buy things for John's birthday party while Karen even baked two cakes.
  • Karen bought a history book for John while Max and Karen agreed not to tell him about it otherwise he'd be too lazy to read.
  • Max brings John to many places including the dentist and a rock concert.

Roleplay

• Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
  • Ivy's parents, while a little embarrassing, are supportive of their daughter and try their best to be understanding when she reveals to them that she has superpowers.
  • Dana's relationship with her daughter Zia is shown to be strong and trusting. When Zia hides her telepathy from her, she grows concerned and urges her daughter to let her know what's wrong.

Theatre

• In Allegro, Joseph Taylor Sr. does push his son to become a doctor, but he's an excellent role model. Marjorie Taylor always keeps her son's best interests in mind, and goes on advising him even after she dies.
• La Cage aux folles: Albin and Georges are a gay couple and they're loving, competent parents. Their son Jean-Michel loves them both dearly. Jean-Michel informs them about his engagement to his girlfriend, Anne Dindon whose father happens to be a notoriously homophobic, hyper-conservative politician. A lot of the drama stems from Albin's hurt over being asked to pose as an uncle, instead of the father that he's been all these years.

Visual Novels

• The protagonist of Daughter for Dessert is this to Amanda, giving her a helping hand and providing for her as best as he can, but teaching her some often hard life lessons all the same.
• In Katawa Shoujo, Emi's mother Meiko is kind, supportive and friendly, although Emi's personal issues cause her to try to rely on herself. Despite this, Meiko understands her daughter quite well, and if you stay behind to talk with her at her house, you will get the good ending.
• Natsumi from Spirit Hunter: NG is shown to be a great mother to both her actual daughter Ami and her nephew Akira, with his only complaint being that she's sometimes too motherly. After Ami is kidnapped, she spends all of her time at the police station trying to help track her down.

Webcomics

• The Dupont Family in Balderduck comprises two parents who are willing to accept all of the misfits their daughter brings home for dinner.
• Masako and Genza in Beneath the Clouds work together happily and they've travelled together since she could walk.
• In Bloodand Smoke, Detective Carson is this. Despite being extremely busy with his work, he tries to make as much time for his son as possible.
• In Blue Yonder, while a little hands off about their children's squabbles, Albatross and Nimbus were clearly think in the Flashbacks.
• Rowan's parents in Boy and Dog seem like decent parents.
• Charby the Vampirate: Maro is an adoring father and good husband to boot. On the other hand most other parents shown have serious failings or are outright abusive so his cheerful family provides a nice contrast.
• Dominic Deegan: Donovan and Miranda Deegan. Happily Married, and loving parents.
• Dumbing of Age: As demonstrated on Parents' Weekend, most of the parents are manipulative, controlling, embarrassing, and in some cases actively abusive. And even the decent parents have flaws that can hinder their ability to be good parents (Stacy being unable to deal with Amber's mental issues, Richard's womanizing, Hank's blind spot in seeing Carol's abuse until the end of the first semester, anyway) There are, however, three exceptions:
  • Dorothy's parents raised her areligiously in order to give her the maximum amount of choice, are very proud of her ambitions to become president but insist they would be supportive even if she aimed lower, and are unfailingly kind to her boyfriend because they can tell she loves him.
  • Dina's parents are as quiet and as socially awkward as she is and accidentally let Amber's abusive dad into the dorm since they don't know any better, but they want nothing more than for their daughter to be happy. When Dina tells them that she has a girlfriend, their response is to simply wire her some money for a nice date. A Patreon only strip shows them expressing excitement for their daughter before going back to their stoic demeanors.
  • Carla's parents are said to be completely supportive of their daughter, to the point of spending copious amounts of money to block anti-transgender legislation, and making custom merchandise of her favourite show. She openly acknowledges that her parents are an exception in the Dumbiverse.
• Elliot and Ellen's parents in El Goonish Shive are very Open Minded Parents but they must be doing something right as Elliot turned out pretty well adjusted. Tedd's father, and even Raven's treatment of Noah are also great examples of good parents.
• Erma: Erma's parents are very loving and supportive of their daughter, and while Emiko is violently protective of Erma against her side of the family, she has very good reason to be. Sam, to his credit, is uncommonly patient with the ghoulish antics of both his wife and daughter^note It probably helps that they inspire his horror novels, and Erma in turn is very much a Daddy's Girl.
• Erstwhile: The mother and son in "The Little Shroud".
• In his own way, Klaus qualifies in Girl Genius. He's a tough parent, but he is trying to raise a future ruler of a continent, as a single father who has to deal with would-be assassins for having kept Gil alive in the first place. Klaus has expressed genuine pride in his son, and will not hesitate to take on anyone foolhardy enough to threaten Gil, even The Other.
• Kat's parents in Gunnerkrigg Court. Especially when compared to Annie's lot in parenting.
• Homestuck: Dad. Fricking. Egbert. He may embarrass his son sometimes, but pretty much everything about this man results in a heartwarming moment.
  • His post-Scratch iteration, Dad Crocker, is shown to be just as much a loving parent to Jane. To make things even better, she's a few years older than John was at the start of the comic, and has matured to the point that there's no Wangst whatsoever about his doting on her.
• The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!: Bob and Jean love their adoptive daughter Molly the Monster very much and try their best to do right by her. She's a generally happy and well-adjusted one-year-old 5'8" fuzzy pink lab accident. Her clone sister, Galatea, meanwhile stands as living testimony to what a mess Molly might have become without good parents.
• Luk and Hala River from Irregular Elis. They are a special parents, too.
• Commander Badass from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: raw machismo, pretty much made of testosterone... and an awesome dad to his small children and Parental Substitute to Jared.
• Penny and Aggie:
  • Nick D'Amour. His intelligence, attentiveness, easy-going nature, and patience have helped Aggie cope with the death of her mother Melody prior to the beginning of the series.
  • Penny's parents also count. Especially with how they handled Penny after the Rich incident. She was punished accordingly, but they love her none the less and are giving her the opportunity to earn their trust back.
• Believe it or not, usually the USA from Polandball depending on the strips. Majority of his former colonies seem to adore him.
• Marten's parents from Questionable Content are at times strange or embarrassing, but he loves them a lot and acknowledges that his childhood was pretty great, despite their divorce (his dad was gay, but both parents have a good relationship with each other throughout the story.)
  • Jim, Sam's dad, is this and more. First, he finds out Sam has been working part-time at Faye and Bubbles' robot repair shop as an artist, something he disapproved of because Sam had already been hurt once after being left poorly supervised with a power tool there. He then find out Sam has roped May, a foul-mouthed, aggressive and porn-obsessed AI who spent an extended stretch in Robot Jail after trying to and nearly succeeding in stealing enough money to swap her body for a fighter jet, into being her assistant. He then breaks down crying with pride, because his little girl has not only found a job and is making good money as a creative, she is also using her job and new-found wealth to help a disadvantaged ex-con.
• Sandra and Woo features several.
  • Richard seems to be doing a great job of raising Sandra as a single parent. A bit of a workaholic, he gives her a lot of freedom but is always there when she needs him. He's also very protective of Sandra and her friends. Just ask Woo's abusive former owner...
  • Sandra seems to have very fond memories of her late mother as well.
  • Ye-Thuza may delight in teasing Cloud, but she's clearly a loving mother to him and Yuna. And may the gods have mercy on anyone who threatens them. Former Burmese freedom fighter Ye-Thuza won't.
  • Landon's father strives to protect him from the worst of his mother's religious zealotry. Landon is very happy to stay with his father after his parents' divorce.
• Davan's parents, Fred and Faye, in Something*Positive, more or less fit the trope. They're examples of Parents as People, but they truly love their children (including Monette, whom they adopt as an adult) and all of their children's friends as well. They're also extremely Happily Married. Faye's death is the biggest Tear Jerker in the entire comic.
  • Later, Fred is a good grandfather to Rory; the boy is not Davan's son biologically, but Davan takes on the role due to Rory's father having mostly Disappeared Dad status. Davan is genuinely committed to being the best father he can be, which makes him this trope too.
• Realmwalker has Thor and Sif, who love their 4 children to bits.
• Transcendent has this for most of the parents, but special note goes to Olive and Owen's parents, who take their daughter's transition in stride and advocate for her heavily, support her getting a griffin (in this universe a cat/songbird hybrid), dote on their kids, and do everything in their power to give their kids the best life possible.
• The Witch's Throne: Agni's mother is very supportive of her daughter, and takes great care of her. That is, while she's still alive.

Web Original

• The only parents we see in Hector's World are Sprat's dad and Ming's mum, and both seem relatively good: the former lets his son use his computer and is forgiving, and the latter cheers her daughter up when she gets cyberbullied.
• Frankie Stein's parents from Monster High are just about the most loving, fair parents you could ever hope to find. The twist? They're Frankenstein's Monster and his Bride.
• Blastoise Dad from the "Pokeparents"◊ meme. On similar notes, there's also the supportive Lugia Mom, the fun-loving Pikachu Dad, and the big-time Papa Wolf Mewtwo Dad.
• RWBY:
  • Yang describes her and Ruby's mother Summer Rose as a "supermom", clearly having an extremely high opinion of her. It was only after Summer's disappearance (or possible death) that Yang found out that the woman she had believed to be her mother was actually her step-mother; Yang's birth mother abandoned her and Ruby's father shortly after Yang was born, and is absolutely not an example of this trope.
  • Ruby and Yang's father, Taiyang Xiao Long, finally appears in the Volume 3 finale. He stays by both girls' bedsides as they heal from a coma and an amputation respectively, bringing them meals, and is immensely relieved to have them back at home. He promptly panics when he discovers Ruby left for Haven. Volume 4 expresses this even further by having him show giddiness at getting an Artificial Limb for Yang, watching over his eldest daughter with a look of helplessness over her Heroic BSoD, staying by her side even though he wants to go find Ruby and even gives her a small Rousing Speech. In fact, his bond is so strong with his kids that he's essentially Vitriolic Best Buds with Yang. However, this is a rather complicated case: while the above is all true, he also neglected his kids for sometime after his second lover's death, burying himself in work to cope.
  • With regards to Blake, her mother Kali is a sweet woman who greets her daughter with a cuddle after not seeing her for many years and also supports her friendship with Sun, much to Blake's embarrassment. Her father Ghira meanwhile, though he is overprotective, he also very clearly cares about his daughter a lot.
• Most of the parents of Team Kimba in the Whateley Universe. Chaka's and Tennyo's families. Lancer's dad and Generator's mom. Fey's parents were separated, but having a son become a female mutant Faerie seems to be bringing them back together. Even Phase's parents were loving... right up to the second he manifested as a mutant and things went wrong.
• Damien of Wolf Song: The Movie has the interests of his pack take priority (all but two of whom he essentially adopted, those two in question being his own biological children) and is highly competent at what he is doing. He will go so far as to put himself in danger if it means his kids will be safe. He does have some flaws, but he will acknowledge them as well. Arguably the fact that he is a pretty good father compared to a good many dads in media is why he is liked by the fans, although his son Alador does get more fan attention. The only big mistake he made in his parenting was abandoning his own kids at an early age due to a hard breakup, a mistake that haunts him throughout the movie and one where he seeks to properly reconcile himself with Kara, his daughter.
• Of the families we see in the Worm universe, the best by far is Taylor's. Even though her mother is dead and her father is distant, they genuinely care for one another and do their best to reconnect over the course of the series. By comparison, the parents of the other major characters are: dead, abusive, mind-controlling supervillain, or exploitative.

---