History Main / DelusionsOfParentalLove

* ''Webcomic/DadVillainAU'': In both the original reality and the new one created by Gabriel's selfish Wish, Adrien attributed his father's ParentalNeglect and ControlFreak tendencies to him simply having a harder time expressing his love compared to his mother. The truth is far worse: not only is Gabriel an [[TheUnapologetic unrepetant supervillain]], ''Emelie'' is a BitchInSheepsClothing who views her son as nothing more than an adorable ''accessory'' she crafted for herself, whom she's been raising to be [[MyBelovedSmother completely dependent upon her]] as a way of bolstering her own ego. She's every inch as abusive and controlling as his father, and it hits Adrien HARD when he learns [[BrokenPedestal just how bad both of them are]].

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'': Fate Testarossa seems completely incapable of comprehending that her mother Precia does not see her as anything but a tool to achieve her goals, despite Precia's repeated verbal, emotional, and eventually physical abuse, which Fate dutifully blames on her own failures. This is because a) Fate is 9 years old, b) she has no other parental figure in her life, and c) she [[spoiler:is actually a clone of Alicia Testarossa, Precia's late biological daughter, whom she had ''actually'' loved and whose memories she had implanted in Fate's head in an attempt to create a ReplacementGoldfish]]. Even in adulthood, her view of Precia comes off as rather rose-tinted compared to reality implying she never did get completely over this.

Since children are almost completely dependent on their parents' care to survive, they are practically hardwired to love their parents, especially their mothers. As such, they might not be able to comprehend that the only caregiver they know would actually despise, abandon, or intentionally abuse them. Often, they would make excuses for why their supposedly loving parents might do things that hurt them: they'd believe that their neglectful parents are simply too busy and/or tired after working hard to take care of them, physical abuse are attributed to justified discipline and ToughLove, and that outright absent parents [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou have a good reason for being away for so long]].

The sad fact is, not all parents love their children. Maybe the child is born "defective" in some way (e.g. being ugly, sickly, [[WantedASonInstead having the wrong gender]], etc.). Maybe the child's achievements just don't measure up to the [[EducationMama parents' standards]]. Or maybe [[AMistakeIsBorn the parents never wanted to have a child to begin with]]. Either way, the parents [[ResentfulGuardian don't want to have anything to do with their child]], and [[AbusiveParents go out of their way to harm them]], if they don't just abandon them outright. Don't tell that to the child, though, who would insist that their parents are the kindest, most loving people around, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.

!!Examples

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': Tony goes [[ZigZaggedTrope back and forth]] between insisting to his therapist that his parents were noble, upstanding people who did the best they could raising him and defending them against the (completely true and accurate) accusations that they were [[AbusiveParents terrible people in reality]], and begrudgingly admitting that they're a lot of the reason he's a psychological mess as an adult. A lot of this has to do with his Italian Mafia career indoctrinating the importance and value of family above all, making it very hard for him to admit [[BigScrewedUpFamily his family sucked]], despite the fact he struggles to think of even ''one'' pleasant childhood memory when asked.

* ''Series/TheSopranos'': Tony goes [[ZigZaggedTrope back and forth]] between insisting to his therapist that his parents were noble, upstanding people who did the best they could raising him and defends them against the (completely true and accurate) accusations that they were [[AbusiveParents terrible people in reality]], and begrudgingly admitting that they're a lot of the reason he's a psychological mess as an adult. A lot of this has to do with his Italian Mafia career indoctrinating the importance and value of family above all, making it very hard for him to admit [[BigScrewedUpFamily his family sucked]], despite the fact he struggles to think of even ''one'' pleasant childhood memory when asked.

* Tashir in the ''Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy'', after becoming the SoleSurvivor of a massacre of his family, is taken to sanctuary on the Ashkevron estate, where he does his best to convince new friends that he had an idyllic and loving family life. Vanyel, aware that this was in no way the case, sees these claims as malicious BlatantLies and angrily confronts Tashir and uses Truth Spell to make him reveal otherwise.

** Downplayed. Haru's father in the past was a kind and loving parent to her, but became so corrupt with greed and ambition that he began to neglect her, and planned to marry his daughter off to an abusive man to further his political career. Despite his actions, Haru refuses to oppose him and even takes a long time to fully awaken her Persona until her father's Shadow finally pushes her over the edge.

* Tia's parents in ''Literature/TheShipWho Searched'' are quite loving to her when they're present, but they've decided to have their child without changing their lifestyle - spending months at a time doing archaeology on airless planets with no one else around. They leave her alone in the habitat while they work - and whenever they find something exciting they don't return and [[ParentalNeglect interact with her at all for weeks on end]], and punish her if she dares contact them. The start of the book involves a strawman from the DepartmentOfChildDisservices protesting this situation and being defeated. It's ''fine'', she's a ChildProdigy, happy alone and uninterested in other children. Then their neglect leads to Tia being paralyzed from the chin down at the age of seven, at which point they make a doctor her guardian so they can return to work. Somehow, even as an adult she regards them as GoodParents.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'': Fate Testarossa seems completely incapable of comprehending that her mother Presea does not see her as anything but a tool to achieve her goals, despite Presea's repeated verbal, emotional, and eventually physical abuse, which Fate dutifully blames on her own failures. This is because a) Fate is 9 years old, b) she has no other parental figure in her life, and c) she [[spoiler:is actually a clone of Alicia Testarossa, Presea's late biological daughter, whom she had ''actually'' loved and whose memories she had implanted in Fate's head in an attempt to create a ReplacementGoldfish]].

* ''Manga/OshiNoKo'': [[spoiler:Sarina Tendouji is a 12-year-old girl with cancer whose family had pretty much abandoned her, never bothering to visit her at the hospital even during her final moments. Despite this, Sarina still believes that her mother loves her, and was simply too busy to come. This deep denial causes her severe problems when she is reincarnated as Ruby Hoshino -- especially she was asked to play the role of Ai, who was similarly unloved by her mother, for a film.]]

* Tia's parents in ''Literature/TheShipWho Searched'' are quite loving to her when they're present, but they've decided to have their child without changing their lifestyle - spending months at a time doing archaeology on airless planets with no one else around. They leave her alone in the habitat while they work - and whenever they find something exciting they don't return and [[ParentalNeglect interact with her at all for weeks on end]]. The start of the book involves a strawman from the DepartmentOfChildDisservices protesting this situation and being defeated. It's ''fine'', she's a ChildProdigy, happy alone and uninterested in other children. Then their neglect leads to Tia being paralyzed from the chin down at the age of seven, at which point they make a doctor her guardian so they can return to work. Somehow, even as an adult she regards them as GoodParents.

* Tashir in the ''Literature/LastHeraldMageTrilogy'', after becoming the SoleSurvivor of a massacre of his family, is taken to sanctuary on the Ashkevron estate, where he does his best to convince new friends that he had an idyllic and loving family life. Vanyel, aware that this was in no way the case, sees this as malicious BlatantLies and angrily confronts Tashir and uses Truth Spell to make him reveal otherwise.

Since children are almost completely dependent on their parents' care to survive, they are practically hardwired to love their parents, especially their mothers. As such, they might not be able to comprehend that the only caregiver they know would actually despise, abandon, or intentionally abuse them. Even if the child does acknowledge that the parents had hurt them, they would rather blame themselves for being "bad" and making their otherwise nice parents angry, and continue to do everything in their power [[WellDoneSonGuy to do "right" with their parents and finally earn their approval]].

Sometimes, the abuse/neglect is bad enough that other people have to intervene, but the child might continue to cling to the delusion that their parents do love them, even after being removed from their care. Although, if the child finally gets to experience genuine love from other people, or if the parent goes too far with the abuse, they might finally come to terms that their parents are [[BrokenPedestal not]] the saintly paragons they used to see them as.

* ''Webcomic/{{Muted}}: Avaline has thought since her childhood that her mother Athalie loves her and wants only the best for her, despite Athalie never shown her even a shred of anything remotely resembling love. She gets over this after she learns that [[spoiler: Athalie never wanted her]].

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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->'''Nishikawa:''' But that girl... She sure is sticking up for her mom even though she killed her [...] Is this called love?
->'''Shimuro:''' No. That's just brainwashing.

* ''Anime/PrincessTutu'': Rue/Princess Kraehe has been raised to believe her abusive father, the Raven, and the Prince are the only ones who can ever truly love her, as she is a raven in an "ugly" human girl's body. The Raven is actually only using her so he can eat the Prince's heart [[spoiler:and isn't even her birth father -- Rue discovers she is a fully-human girl stolen in infancy and given the Raven's blood so she would have some of his powers.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[Characters/TheOwlHouseTheGoldenGuard Hunter/The Golden Guard]] genuinely sees his ParentalSubstitute, [[Characters/TheOwlHouseEmperorBelos Emperor Belos]], as a good man and a caring parent, despite the fact that Belos abuses him repeatedly, and he always tries to justify the Emperor's actions. As the show continues, it becomes clear that Hunter has just [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror learned to live with his poor treatment]] at Belos' hands, and therefore justifies everything he does out of unconditional love for his "uncle". [[spoiler:It takes a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind and seeing that he's the latest in a long line of [[ExpendableClone expendable clones]] of Belos' long-dead older brother ([[SiblingMurder whom Belos killed]]), and Belos deciding Hunter has outlived his usefulness, for Hunter to finally get wise to the fact that the Emperor doesn't love him ''at all''. ]]

* ''Jinrui-Shoku: Blight of Man'': Hayato lives with an alcoholic mother whose moods constantly [[MoodSwinger switches between kind and affectionate to angry and violent]] at the drop of a hat. However, she would always apologize and tell Hayato that she loves him after violently lashing out at him, and this convinces him that she really does care about him. Later, when a police officer directly asks him if his mother had abused him, Hayato angrily denies it and insists that people just misunderstand the relationship between him and his mother. [[spoiler:Complicating things is the fact that Hayato's mother has been possessed by a monster, and as her body dies, her departing spirit tearfully asks Hayato's friend Seita to take care of her son. The police has discovered that those possessed with the mummy tends to have a co-dependent relationship with someone they live with, but it is unclear whether this dysfunctional relationship is caused by the mummy, or if the mummy are drawn to such dynamics when looking for a new victim to possess.]]