History Main / ParentalNeglect

* ''Film/{{M3gan}}'': A major theme of the movie. Gemma shirks her parental responsibilities, leaving the bulk of childcare to M3GAN. Brandon's mother is also overly lenient and makes excuses for her son's antisocial behavior.

** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': Madison has been on the receiving end in the five years since her brother's death, as her mother became the {{Workaholic}} whilst her father turned to drinking and divorced Emma. The {{novelization}} confirms Madison coped with the help of her HonoraryAunt Vivienne Graham. Even at the start of the film, Emma retains custody of Madison but is still somewhat distant with her, while Madison and Mark only have sporadic contact[[note]]Mentioned in the novelization[[/note]]. Both parents come to regret the ways they've neglected their surviving child.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': The novelization reveals that Serizawa had a similar WhenYouComingHomeDad parenting style with his son [[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Ren]] to the one his own father had with him, but unfortunately Ren didn't respond to it the same way Ishirō did, instead growing to resent his father. The rift between them got particularly bad after Dr. Serizawa's wife died while he was on an expedition and he didn't find out until a week later, while Ren had to organize his mother's funeral himself at age eighteen. Ultimately, when Serizawa died before he and Ren could reconcile, this created a FreudianExcuse which led to Ren becoming a full-blown EvilGenius and an antithesis to everything that his father and grandfather had stood for.

This can be set up for a FreudianExcuse. Also an excuse for kids who go off to SaveTheWorld not worry too much about their parents, seeing as they don't give two cents about what they're doing anyway. It should be noted that neglect is in no way a less extreme form of [[AbusiveParents abuse]] than the forms on the AbusiveParents page; extreme neglect in the care of infants has been known to put dampers on mental and cognitive development, and in children, it can induce severe psychological damage.

* Present to varying degrees in ''Literature/AccelWorld''- Haruyuki's mother has barely any contact with him apart from giving him his lunch money every day, while Kuroyukihime is estranged from her parents after [[spoiler:threatening her sister with a knife]] and implies that their relation wasn't exactly close before that. Kuroyukihime cynically notes that the Neurolinkers that children wear from a young age (which is a prerequisite for Brain Burst) serve to enable this sort of hands-off parenting.

* ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'': implied to be how Izaya was raised. According to a journal entry by Izaya's father, despite caring for him very much, Izaya's parents were overseas most of the time. As a result, they know very little about their son and appear to be unaware of the majority of the fights he was in post-high school. Also, as his parents weren't around, Izaya was left in charge of his sisters' upbringing. Yes. ''Those'' sisters.

* Gauron from ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' certainly qualifies in relation to [[spoiler:the twins Yu Fang and Yu Lan]]. Not surprising, considering [[AxCrazy his personality]]. He cares little for their physical or mental well-being and is shown to mainly care about using them for his plans. There are hints and implications that his relationship with them also [[WifeHusbandry might not strictly have been a pure, father-daughter kind]]. He also didn't seem to care that, by having them work in Amalgam, they were being raped and beaten by [[PsychoForHire Gates]] (which was apparently happening to them ever since they were young children). Despite all this, they [[HappinessInSlavery still obsessively love him]].

* Yuna of ''LightNovel/KumaKumaKumaBear'' is a 15-year-old [[{{Hikikomori}} shut-in]] and TeenGenius who makes millions off the stock market. She lives alone in a fancy high-rise apartment, playing her favorite VRMMO all day and getting food by delivery. Her parents are only mentioned in one scene when she wires them money so they can continue their traveling abroad before she promptly forgets about them. The only family member who shows any concern is Yuna's grandfather who signed the deed, but even then we only hear about him from Yuna's side of a phone call.

* ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'': DropInLandlord[=/=]SenseiChan Chihiro just dumps her cousin Mashiro on the co-tenant Sorata -- which didn't sound so special, except Mashiro is an IdiotSavant and Chihiro knows Mashiro needs professional help 24/7.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': Episode 94 suggested that Stumpy's mother barely spends any time with her son. However, she at least cares about his safety enough to tell him not to [[JugglingDangerously juggle chainsaws]].

* One of the main points of contention during Wrestling/ReyMysterio's feud with his son Wrestling/DominikMysterio is the fact that, as much Rey loved his children, he wasn't around much thanks to prioritizing his wrestling career over being there for their childhoods. Dominik described one story where Rey promised to attend his eight grade graduation if he got good grades, only to end up missing in order to perform at that year's ''Wrestling/WrestleMania''. While many of Dominik's complaints were unwarranted, this one was acknowledged as the only grievance that was legitimate, and Rey apologized for it.

* One of the main points of contention during Wrestling/ReyMysterio's feud with his son Wrestling/DominikMysterio is the fact that, as much Rey loved his children, he wasn't around much thanks to prioritizing his wrestling career over being there for their childhoods. While many of Dominik's complaints were unwarranted, this one was acknowledged as the only grievance that was legitimate, and Rey apologized for it.

* Ellen from ''[[VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse The Witch's House]]'' is a downright depressing example. Ellen's father ignored Ellen's very existence; downright disregarding her and only paying attention to her mother. Ellen's mother struggled to give her attention but couldn't cope entirely with having a terminally ill daughter, and tried to leave her family for a rich man. Ellen, in a furious rage, killed them both. It's hard not to see it as a good thing. Of course, this is only revealed in the prequel novel; in the game, it's hinted at but not gone into detail.

This can be set up for a FreudianExcuse. Also an excuse for kids who go off to SaveTheWorld not worry too much about their parents, seeing as they don't give two cents about what they're doing anyway. It should be noted that neglect is in no way a less extreme form of [[AbusiveParents abuse]] than the forms on the AbusiveParents page; extreme neglect in the care of infants has been known to put dampers on mental and cognitive development, and in children it can induce severe psychological damage.

* In ''Manga/ACentaursLife'', Manami's father divides his time between his (part-time) work, his painting and his children, thus often forcing Manami to look after her younger siblings. Manami [[CallingTheOldManOut politely but firmly]] tells her father to choose between painting and his job/family, since he can only devote himself to two of those things.

* Gauron from ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' certainly qualifies in relation to [[spoiler:the twins Yu Fang and Yu Lan]]. Not surprising, considering [[AxCrazy his personality]]. He cares little for their physical or mental well-being, and is shown to mainly care about using them for his plans. There are hints and implications that his relationship with them also [[WifeHusbandry might not strictly have been a pure, father-daughter kind]]. He also didn't seem to care that, by having them work in Amalgam, they were being raped and beaten by [[PsychoForHire Gates]] (which was apparently happening to them ever since they were young children). Despite all this, they [[HappinessInSlavery still obsessively love him]].
* ''Manga/FullMoon'' has this as Izumi's background from his life as a human. His father died when he was a small child and his mother was constantly bringing men home,even being physically abusive towards Izumi [[spoiler: or Leo, as his name back then]], which eventually ended in Izumi, as a child, committing suicide by stepping in front of a train. [[spoiler: Goes more into the ParentsAsPeople category, as it's later shown that the mother was mostly stricken with grief and overall realized herself that she just ''couldn't'' be a good mother to Leo… to the point that she thinks she has no "right" to stop him from committing suicide and asking for his forgiveness for failing as a mother.]]

** While Yukiteru's mother Rea maintains a close relationship with Yukiteru, she is rarely at home because of her work as a video game programmer and approves of Yuno as a potential bride for Yukiteru, even remaining oblivious to Yuno's [[{{Yandere}} psychotic and dangerous behavior]]. Really, when your son is on the run from the law, then disappears for a week after being exhonorated and comes back incredibly nervous, you should be at least a little concerned.
** Also, his father Kurou. Initially, he appears in chapter 30 claiming to just want to check on his son, but it turns out that he has only returned to destroy Yukiteru's diary in order to fulfill a deal with the Eleventh. Despite his only clear desire being to free himself from his debts, he does try to save Yukki when the latter almost falls to his death, but takes the parachute away from Yukki before the tower crumbles soon after. He then stabs Rea when she tries to take him to the police and escapes, though is stabbed to death himself two chapters later by the Eleventh's men, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam just when he'd realised the error of his ways and was trying to atone.]] ''Ouch''.

* Out of the girls in ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'', [[spoiler: Jean's charge Rico]], was a victim of this. Her parents simply abandoned her in an hospital due to her very weak health and she languished away there until the Agency took her in.
* Giorno Giovanna from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'' had an extremely bad childhood. First of all, his biological father, [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood a hundred year-old]] [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders British vampire]], didn't even know he existed after having a one-night stand with his mother, and the only reason Giorno even knows he exists is due to a ''single'' photo. His biological mother was an extremely neglectful parent who left her extremely young son alone in the house to party, and later married a man who seemed nice at first, but turned out to be an extremely physically abusive step-father for Giorno, along with being a drunkard. In short, Giorno somehow managed to have ParentalAbandonment, ParentalNeglect AND AbusiveParents ''at the same time.'' Is it any wonder, then, that he looks up to a gangster [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe just for treating him with basic decency?]]
* Hayate of ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' has incredibly neglectful parents--they spend all their money on gambling, and steal from Hayate to fund their habits, eventually selling his organs to some "very nice people" to pay off their debts. They also stole a ring from him when he was a child [[spoiler: given to him by his girlfriend/mentor Athena as a symbol of her love for him. He desperately wanted to trust and love them, but Athena argued that there was no good reason for him to do so, and she eventually dumped Hayate when she found out that his parents sold the ring at a pawn shop.]]
* ''Manga/HoneyHunt'' has the protagonist's (Yura) famous celebrity parents, Yukari and Takayuki. For one thing, Yura is judged a disappointment by others because she is continuously compared to her celebrity parents and she is used to people trying to get close to her for the sole purpose of getting to possibly meet Yukari and Takayuki. For another thing, Yukari is hardly at home and is very selfish. In all of her interviews, she lies and says that she and Yura are close and spend much time together as a result of Takayuki being abroad so often, when in reality, she is a cold and distant parent. Also, immediately after showing up after being away from home for about a half a month, Yukari coldly announces that she and Yura's father are getting divorced before telling Yura that she can go wherever she wants. Also, while Takayuki was having an affair she was having one of her own with Yura's neighbor and crush, Shinsuke. When Yura finds out about the affair Yukari's response is to smile, declare that Shinsuke likes her more than Yura, that she's going to allow Shinsuke to live with her in a mansion she had bought, and that Takayuki had a baby with his mistress so neither he nor Yukari will have time to look after Yura anymore. She then demands that Yura leave the house. It's eventually revealed that she and her husband were only together for the sake of their careers and their images, they didn't love each other. The two of them even agreed on a rule with each other that they would stay married as long as they hid their own adulterous affairs. After she decided to divorce Takayuki because the press found out about his affair, however, it is shown that she has no intentions of taking care of Yura and merely cared about repairing her image in the eyes of the public because they had originally thought she was the "ideal mom". Seriously, [[TheWoobie poor kid]].

* In ''Manga/KotouraSan'', there's Haruka's father. His daughter is having ''serious'' social issues at school caused by her {{telepathy}}, and his wife Kumiko us frantically trying to find a cause to no avail since she doesn't know about Haruka's PsychicPowers. His response? Relegate it as "woman's work" and start rarely coming home. No wonder Kumiko eventually snaps.

* Meiko Akizuki's parents in ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'' only seem to care about themselves and their marital problems/economic deals, fighting all the time when they're at home while almost completely ignoring Meiko's own needs, only showing some concern when it's obvious it will affect their reputation (like [[spoiler: their ParentalMarriageVeto in the anime]]. For worse, they simply ''can't'' get divorced because if they do, the Akizuki wealth will be divided and most likely lost. On top of it, Mrs. Akizuki is a LadyDrunk who is seen [[DrowningMySorrows drowning her sorrows]] on screen while bitching out her much hated husband.

** Kanna's parents took a very hands off approach to raising her, under the logic of "dragons grow stronger by themselves". As a result, she started pulling pranks to get attention, which got her exiled to Earth. This is why she clings to Kobayashi as a ParentalSubstitute.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Enji Todoroki, the pro hero Endeavor, does this. He pretty much abandoned Shoto's older siblings since they lacked the potential to surpass All Might in his eyes. Flashbacks in Chapter 39 show that this actually worked out in their favor, since they were spared the abusive training that Shoto was forced to endure. This did not stop Natsuo from hating him even more than Shoto does, to Shoto's surprise.

** Hiashi Hyuga was the first example shown in the series. Cold and distant to his firstborn, rather than provide her with needed emotional support and stability, he basically discarded Hinata by sending her to the Ninja Academy, using wording along the lines of "The Hyuga Clan doesn't need someone like her"... [[KickTheDog while she was listening]]. While he did wise up after Neji beat Naruto publicly and the clan's dirty laundry with the Cage Bird Seal was aired to everyone, before getting to that point, he had also been indirectly responsible for his nephew Neji nearly killing Hinata in the preliminary matches, by hiding his brother's letter to his son that explained why he sacrificed his life to save Hiashi for ''nine years'' because he couldn't deal with his own grief, which allowed the hatred of his nephew to fester until [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown he took it all out on Hinata]]. And we are only ''told'' things got better in the clan. We have never been shown Hiashi apologizing to his daughter for nearly getting her killed because of his neglect. However, he did allow Hinata to participate in the Fourth Shinobi War and he did not stop her in helping him and Neji protect Naruto during the fight against [[spoiler:Obito and Madara]]. So while he's not the monster often shown in fanfics, Hiashi could never be considered a good father figure at all.

** And previously, in ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'', there's also Karen's parents, though less 'severe'. They're always traveling worldwide as they're famed musicians, and all they could give to Karen was only material stuff, her butler Sakamoto and occasional phone calls. Karen at least tried to be independent and be appreciative of what was given, to not make them worry, but deep down, she's always lonely, only having Komachi as her best friend, until she met Nozomi and the others. Oh and she mentioned that her parents usually came back during Christmas for awhile... but that turns out to be off-screen: They don't even appear in the respective Christmas Episodes of both seasons.

* Rei's father in ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', in the [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] and the [[Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon live-action adaptation]]. Takashi Hino not only is a very highranked member of a leading political party, but he's such a workaholic that he doesn't visit his dying wife Risa ''a single time'' when she's hospitalized. As a result, Rei refuses to live with him and moves with her maternal grandfather to the Hikawa shrine.
* Lain's mother in ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'' acts very detached towards her and often looks at her with disdain. Her father isn't that much better but he does talk to her at least, and his behavior can be explained by him being a busy {{Salaryman}}. [[spoiler:It turns out that they're not Lain's biological parents. Lain [[ArtificialHuman isn't even human]]. Lain's entire family were forced to treat her like their daughter, which explains their uninterested behavior towards her]].
* ''Manga/{{Subaru}}'''s parents have largely paid little attention to their daughter, after their son Kazuma died. They knew for years that Subaru even performed (non-sexually) at a cabaret, they just never cared enough to talk to her about it. It wasn't until Subaru revealed that she isn't planning on going to highschool, that her parents began to really interfere again. The [[Manga/MoonSubaruSolitudeStanding sequel]] shows that her father seems to have absolutely no interest in his daughter anymore, now that he's remarried. Her mother follows Subaru's dancing via articles, though.

** Yugi's mother is hardly ever around during the series, as well as being oblivious to the true nature of the [[SuperpoweredAlterEgo Millennium Puzzle]] or any other activity that her son engages in. Moreover, WordOfGod stated that the reason his father never shows up is because he's away on business (all the time, apparently). No wonder Yugi was a ShrinkingViolet at the very beginning.
** The Virtual World filler arc has Gozaburou Kaiba, who abandoned his real son Noa/[[DubNameChange Noah]], who died in a car accident, after he transferred Noa's soul into a virtual world and realized that it was impossible for Noa to be the heir of the company. Gozaburou, who commited suicide and had his soul also transferred to the virtual world, uses Noa to get revenge on Seto. Also, Gozaburou ignored Mokuba for 98% of the time (the remaining 2% bit him in the ass).

* In ''Anime/MushiShi'' Ginko meets a young boy who became inspirited with the titular creatures when his mother tied him to a tree that was subsequently struck by lightning. (He was about five at the time and she couldn't stand the sound of his crying). As a result, He has NighInvulnerability to lightning and spends most of his time in the trees outside just waiting to be struck by it. Ginko warns the boy that if he keeps up that kind of behavior, he could die. The Boy explains that while he isn't well regarded by his mother or father, the lightning always comes right down to him. Ginko tries speaking with the boy's mother and insists that she tell him that she wants him to live so that he'll stop his reckless behavior but in the end she grabs hold of him and suggests that [[TogetherInDeath they die together]] promising that she'll come back as a mother that knows how to love her son. Just as the lightning is about to strike them both, he pushes her out of the way but even that proves ineffective and after being cured, he is taken in by relatives.

* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': Maruo Nakano, the quintuplets' stepfather, is shown to be frequently absent from their lives, mostly working in the hospital he runs, to the point he doesn't appear in person until at least halfway through the story and only contacts the protagonists via phone call, and their relationship is somewhat distant (and even strained in Nino's case). In fact, at one point he didn't know about a spat that happened between Itsuki and Nino until Fuutarou told him, which prompts him to quit from his tutor job because [[HonorBeforeReason he refuses to work for such a neglectful father]]. That said, given that he provides shelter and money for them, he's quite a few steps above [[spoiler:Mudou, the quints' biological father, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere who abandoned their mother Rena]] [[ParentalAbandonment while she was pregnant with them]], leaving her to raise them alone, and doesn't show up in their lives until they're already teenagers]].

* In the classic ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' by Frank Miller, the new Robin has parents that are never visually seen, but heard off-panel in a state perpetual drug intoxication (their dialogue suggests that they may be ex-hippies who just spend their time now commenting on how the world sucks while [[StonersAreFunny constantly high]]). She leaves them to join Batman.

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Robin III (Tim Drake) was able to explore Gotham as a kid and later become Robin while his parents Jack and Janet were still alive due to their constant travels. Once when Bruce asked where his parents were Tim wasn't even positive what country they were in. Jack compounds the issue by being unattentive, flightly, dismissive and [[HairTriggerTemper easily angered]] when he's stuck at home after Janet's murder, and generally avoids his son as much as possible. Jack only started to try and get to know Tim in the lead up to his own murder. It's telling that Tim adresses his father as "sir" and refers to him as "Jack" rather than "dad", though he does call Janet "mom" and "mommy".

* ''The War at Ellsmere'' by Faith Erin Hicks plays with this. [[LittleMissSnarker Jun]] and [[AlphaBitch Emily]] accuse each other of suffering from parental neglect, i.e. "the reason you're so messed up is because your parents don't love you enough." However neither of really experienced parental neglect, [[LonelyRichKid Cassie]] has. Despite that she is the [[FriendToAllLivingThings kindest]] and [[IncorruptiblePurePureness purest]] character in the whole cast.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Angel's parents refused to deal with their son having massive angel-wings, and left him at a ranch of theirs.

* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': During a conversation with Asuka Misato admits she failed her and Shinji. She was their guardian and the only mother figure they had, but she neglected them during the war right when they needed her the most, and as a result their trauma got worse until they broke down.
* ''Fanfic/LittleBro''--a ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' fanfic--takes a look at Gladstone Gander trying to raise an egg until it hatches. And since this is Gladstone we're talking about..

* ''Fanfic/{{HERZ}}'': Asuka’s father stopped looking after his daughter when she was four. She is twenty-six now and he is still absent of her life. He never shows up, never calls… and Asuka never ever mentions him. It’s telling that she has managed to forgive Gendo but she never talks about her father.
* ''Manga/Evangelion303'': After his wife's death, Gendo distanced himself from his son. Shinji do not ever remember living with him, and grew up thinking that his father was ashamed of him. [[ParentalSubstitute Ritsuko raised him]] until he was old enough, and then Gendo sent him away for school.
** [[http://eva303.smackjeeves.com/comics/1703848/023/ This moment]] is the first time that Shinji has seen his father in over ten years... and Gendo started to lecturing him just like that. Naturally [[http://eva303.smackjeeves.com/comics/1703859/034/ Shinji was not amused]].

* ''Fanfic/TheOneILoveIs'': Misato cared dearly for her wards Shinji and Asuka, but after [[spoiler:Kaji's death,]] she was so wrapped into her grief, rage and thirst for revenge that she completely neglected them while they were going through a break-down. She never helped Asuka while she was going through a severe emotional turmoil or after she got mind-raped, and she was not there for Shinji when he was depressed because everyone [[spoiler:were dying or leaving him.]] Shinji even mentioned she was barely in home those days.
* Isabella, Luso's and Frimelda's mother in ''Fanfic/TheTaintedGrimoire'' was an AlcoholicParent after her husband died. Her dad decided to take away the kids after this has gone on for too long. [[spoiler: Her dad was unable to do this because on the very night he announced his intent, there was a fire and Isabella, in her last act to redeem herself of her neglect, tried to warn her dad and her kids but died trying]].

* ''Fanfic/KyoshiRising''; Fire Lord Mitsuo took his wife's DeathByChildbirth very badly, badly enough that he's still emotionally distant to his children ten years later.
* ''[[Fanfic/InBrightestDay In Brightest Day: The Second Front]]'' gives us Sunset Shimmer, which also covers her reason for being how she is; Sunburst was her older more talented brother and got all their parents' praise, while all Sunset got was "we expected nothing less" or "Sunburst did it better"... until eventually she snapped and cut off all ties to her family after she became Celestia's student. Upon arriving in the Human world Sunset almost immediately ran into her Human family, who were desperately searching for her hoping to make up for their mistakes. Sunset discovered that a similar scenario happened resulting in her counterpart running away and decided to use this development to her advantage, taking her human self's place.
* From ''Webcomic/KillLaKillAU'', we have Ragyou's mother Youko (otherwise known as "Meinu"), who is this, as her she mostly preferred to sit, smoke cigarettes, and watch [=TV=], and, to some degree, [[AbusiveParents abusive]], and left a then child Ragyou to basically raise herself. WordOfGod states Nonon's parents are this and that they only pay attention to her when she goes to jail, in which case they bail her out. One of the fanfics states a lesser version of this with Sukuyo's parents who loved her and were quick to give her what she needed, yet were painfully absent-minded, allowing their daughter to be [[FreeRangeChildren free ranged]], going wherever she wanted to, and the fact that they typically didn't call her by her given name, instead calling her "Turtle".

* In ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry'', Asuka states during [[MindScrew Instrumentality]] that she is resented with her guardian Misato because the older woman neglected her when she was hurt and abandoned her when Asuka needed her the most.
* ''Fanfic/NeonGenesisEvangelionGenocide'': Misato cares about her wards Shinji and Asuka, but her own psychological issues often prevents her from connecting with them, and being obsessed with continuing Kaji's quest for the truth behind NERV, she often up ends neglecting them, though she feels guilty about it. She gets better after a while, though.
* Defied in ''Fanfic/OnceMoreWithFeeling''. When SEELE suggests Shinji that he should move with his grandfather because Misato is too busy to take care of Asuka and him properly, Shinji replies that at the very least she tries to look after them, unlike his so-called blood relatives.
* In ''Fanfic/MyMirrorSwordAndShield'' Suzaku’s biological mother was a Refrain addict who spent all her money getting her next fix instead of feeding or clothing her son. Suzaku noted that after he was five that he had to run the house and take care of her until she died.
* In Creator/{{Lopoddity}}'s Pandoraverse, Tree Hugger and Zephyr Breeze were very bad parents to their natural son Chakra Blossom. Tree Hugger was loving but wildly irresponsible, often leaving her son alone while she went to hippie retreats, while Zephyr never had any real presence in his son's life, feeling parenting would "cramp his style". As a result, Chakra was raised largely by his aunt Fluttershy, and grew up to resent both of his parents. It's also implied his neglectful childhood is part of what led him to become the bitter and manipulative pony he is in the setting's present.

* In ''Fanfic/BlackSky'', the Prince of Sabina became a shut-in following [[TheLostLenore his beloved wife's death]], basically letting his four year-old daughter be raised by the wider family and refusing to attend various events such as her wedding and her son's birth. [[spoiler: And that's not even touching what he did to his toddler son...]]

* ''Fanfic/TheOutside'': While she isn't Ryuuko's parent, Satsuki plays this as a guardian and seems to be a little inattentive and gullible, along with being busy with whatever she might be doing. Because of this, Ryuuko is made a {{foster kid}}, when she didn't question how her sister got hurt from a household fall, nor did she get her attention for her injured leg.

* In ''Fanfic/ConversationsWithACryptid'', Hisashi Midoriya up and disappeared on his family a decade ago. Izuku doesn't really have any emotional connection to him, and doesn't even know what he looks like. [[spoiler: When he returns in ''Kidnapping of a Cryptid'', he does his best to make up for this.]]

** Willow barely interacts with her three children. Weiss has stated that she can literally count the times she's talked to her mother while [[AlcoholicParent sober]] on her hands. When Jacques [[AbusiveParents beat his kids]] as children, Willow would shoo them away because she didn't want to think about the abuse. Willow's neglect only adds onto the Schnee's being a BigScrewedUpFamily.

* ''Fanfic/KitsuneNoKenFistOfTheFox'': Minor character Yukata accuses her mother Yui of being this, citing the fact that when Yukata was wrongly accused of theft by Konoha High School's Hall Monitors' Guild ([[DisproportionateRetribution because she refused to go on a date with one of their members]]), Yui simply took the accusation at face value without even considering Yukata's side of the story; however, Yui counters that Yukata running away from home to join a street gang in another city didn't help her case. [[spoiler:It's soon revealed that Yui never had much, if any, emotional investment in Yukata from ever since the latter was a baby, as Yui wasn't ready to have a child ([[ButWeUsedACondom the condom broke]]) and then underwent a traumatic birthing process when Yukata was born three months premature; the only reason Yui didn't terminate the pregnancy was because neither she nor her husband believed in abortion, plus the husband had always wanted a child and was excited for the opportunity]].

* In the ''VideoGame/PunchOut'' fanfic ''Fanfic/ShiningAndSweet'', Little Mac's biological parents hardly remember he exists, due to their constant fighting. This is to the point where they can't remember his current age (they think he's 15, he's 18) or his middle name (his mother claims it's William, it's actually Hiroki).
* ''Fanfic/ShipsAhoy'': Oprah's adoptive family, comprised of Auntie May, Uncle Chester, and her adoptive cousins Lunette and Molly, never gave her much attention when she was growing up, and in Uncle Chester's case it's straight-out neglect. Although Auntie May was the kindest out of the family, she still never showed Oprah any real loving affection and constantly pressured her into joining Odd Squad, sending Oprah to her room without dinner when she told her that she didn't want to join Odd Squad and wanted to start up a fruit stand instead. How her adoptive family treated her didn't bother her, however, as she had the wits and common sense to make it through life fine and was completely independent.

* ''Film/Europe51'': Young Michele is the single child of a wealthy couple, and their feels extremely neglected due to his parents only caring about their opulent lifestyle of parties and society hobnobbing. In the opening scene, he constantly attempts to talk to his mother and the only time he manages to is when she's in her room getting ready for yet another party. He isn't even able to look at her, since she's getting dressed and she [[NoPeekingRequest has him turn around]]. This ends tragically when his feelings overwhelm him to the point he [[DrivenToSuicide throws himself down a stairwell]] and perishes, causing his mother to realize how awful's she was being.
* ''Film/TheFieldGuideToEvil'': Arnold's parent Chris and Macy in "Beware the Melonheads". His mother Macy is always drinking wine and on her phone discussing business, even when she is supposed to be watching Arnold. His father Chris is slightly better, but is more concerned with being a 'cool dad' than actually noticing what is going on with his son.

* In ''Film/LetMeIn'' one of the major changes to story from the Swedish novel is how the main character's mother is changed from a loving parent who was simply busy with work to an alcoholic who neglects her son. She's seen drinking drunk repeatedly while ignoring her own son whose being horribly bullied at school. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film, after being attacked Owen goes to her for comfort only to discover she's passed out drunk.

* ''Film/SantaClaus1959'' has a family of rich people, with the parents buying their son everything he could ever want... but they're constantly out socializing, leaving him home by himself; they even suggest that he practice his piano lessons if he's ever feeling bored or lonely. His letter to Santa is just him begging his parents to stay home Christmas eve, so Santa meets them at their cocktail party and serves them a beverage which brings their familial love back to the forefront of their minds.

* ''Film/{{Wasp|2003}}'': Zoe lives a sad and lonely life, as a desperately poor single mother of four, and if she weren't so terribly poor or if she had some support, she probably wouldn't make the choices she makes. But still, leaving your kids loitering in a parking lot for hours while you play pool and engage in AutoErotica, until it's dark and they are scrounging through garbage for food, that's parental neglect.
* ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds2005'': Due to his ex-wife having primary custody of them, Ray doesn't see his kids that often and barely knows anything about them. His teenage son Robbie is openly resentful of him and calls him by his first name, while his young daughter Rachel clearly prefers her mother over him. However, Ray still loves his kids and is very protective of them, and part of his CharacterDevelopment is learning to become a better dad, especially towards Rachel.

* ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}.'' Not from the stepmother--that's outright abuse; from her father. While he suffers DeathByAdaptation in just about every version, both the Creator/CharlesPerrault and Creator/TheBrothersGrimm versions make it clear that he's alive; he just goes along with his wife's actions. In fact, in the latter he actually introduces Cinderella to the prince as the kitchen-maid, ''not'' his daughter.

* In ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'', the Possessive Mother (whose name appears to be Pam) was obsessed with her favorite son to the point of utterly neglected the rest of her family, including her other children.

** Harry's real parents are absent due to being dead, Harry's aunt and uncle treated Harry like dirt, giving him lousy birthday and Christmas presents, locking him in a tiny closet and letting Dudley get away with bullying Harry, while lavishing all their attention on their son. Dumbledore called them out on this, implying, interestingly enough, that the Dursleys did more damage to ''Dudley'' than to Harry. That's understandable, since thanks to all of their pampering Dudley grew into a cruel and selfish SpoiledBrat who thought he could get away with ''anything''. [[spoiler: Fortunately, he later gets CharacterDevelopment and reconciles himself with Harry.]] Interestingly, Harry actually ''likes'' that the Dursleys shift towards ignoring him more and more as the series goes on. He can take care of himself fine and thinks it's an improvement to be left alone in his room to do whatever. WordOfGod says that Harry and Dudley were able to mend fences for good and are on friendly terms as adults.

* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'': Turns up in Herald Jakyr's backstory in ''Bastion''. Jakyr's parents belonged to the Valdemaran version of the [[MassiveNumberedSiblings Quiverfull movement]]. They not only couldn't remember their kids' names, but as of the end of the ''Literature/CollegiumChronicles'' still haven't realized that Jakyr no longer works at the family inn. And since he's a senior Herald at the beginning of that series, do the math.

* In ''Literature/{{Radiance}}'', Percy means well, but his obsession with movies and very busy schedule means that he's often not around for his daughter. He does do his best to give her love and attention, but mostly is able to work it in through treating Severin as a part of his movies. One of his wives writes how it's a little creepy watching a child do multiple takes of opening her Christmas presents and thinking nothing of it.
* Mr. Bennet in ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice''. Although he loves and respects Jane and Lizzy, he's completely checked out of parenting the younger three and left it all to his silly, ill-judging wife, with predictable results. Mr. Bennet alternately avoids them or laughs at them and dismisses Lizzy's concerns over young Lydia's flirtatious behavior. When Lydia runs off and brings disgrace on the whole family, Mr. Bennet is forced to acknowledge that his apathetic parenting is a good deal to blame for it.

* The Duke of Visnya isn't much of a father to Irina in ''Literature/SpinningSilver''. He is far and away ''practical'' above everything, and Irina being the very plain daughter of a mother who had no value [[MarryForLove beyond that he loved her]] means that he can't use her for a good political marriage, and with two healthy sons she's not an heir either. As a result, Irina spends most of her time upstairs with her old nurse keeping out of his way. He doesn't take notice of her until he can marry her to the tsar, and only after she proves to be as politically astute as himself does he respect her.

* [[RoyalBrat Cardan]] in the ''Literature/TheFolkOfTheAir'' series was completely ignored by his father, [[TheFairFolk the king]] [[OurFairiesAreDifferent of Elfhame]] because of a prophecy saying [[LonelyRichKid Car]][[SpoiledBrat dan]] would lead the monarchy to ruin. His [[RichBitch mother]] let him be nursed by a cat rather than deal with him, and he essentially grew up running around the palace as a feral child, simultaneously ignored by his family, but still a noble in rank and thus obeyed by any one who wasn't a blood relation.

* In ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'', Emperor Varenechibal neglected his fourth son, Maia, his entire life, leaving him to be raised first by his mother, and then by ResentfulGuardian Setharis and keeping him away from the imperial court. The only time they ever even spoke was at his mother's funeral, when Varenechibal noted unhappily that he looked just like his mother, who he hated.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' gives us Buffy's divorced dad, who starts out okay but then slowly weans himself out of her life, and Willow's mother, who is only interested in her work, sees Willow as a statistic, apparently only ever talks to her to impress political viewpoints on her, and is generally so disinterested that she was surprised to see Willow had cut her long hair when it had been like that for ''months''. The extent of her neglect verges on FridgeLogic when you consider that the episode establishing their neglectfulness came about a half-season after a bookcase had fallen on her and briefly landed her in a wheelchair. You'd think if anything would make her pay attention...Then there's Xander's parents,who are shown to drink to the point where Xander would rather sleep outside in demon-infested Sunnydale on Christmas eve than listen to them fight.
* From what we see during the show, Crystale Bouvier-Montgomery, in ''Series/LeCoeurASesRaisons'' was not interested in her kids at all if not downright dangerous. To name a few, she abandoned her daughter to be raised as a mare in a stables, sent them to the laundry room during their holidays pretending to be a beach vacation, tried to abandon them in the wild and gave them alcohol and cigarettes '''while in their crib'''. Of course, everything is entirely PlayedForLaughs.

* It's implied that ''Series/CriminalMinds''' Emily Prentiss' childhood wasn't that fantastic due to her mother's job as an ambassador. When Hotch asks her if she's leaked information to a local politician, she says that she hates politics and thinks that they "tear families apart and damage people".

* Steve Urkel's [[TheGhost unseen]] parents in ''Series/FamilyMatters'' are a serious example. Many times over the series, Urkel describes his parents' mean actions. Example include as pushing ''back'' in when he was born, a curfew for when he can come home and using exploding candles on his birthday cake. Finally toward the end, they leave for Russia without him. [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood All of it]] is PlayedForLaughs as Laura says that his parent "Took the easy way out" when they moved.
* The elder Tams in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', though unusually it seems that the ''real'' neglect as opposed to their children's implied LonelyRichKid status only started late in life. When their son became worried that his sister was being mistreated somehow at the boarding school she was attending, they pretty much brushed his concerns off, which is bad enough. But even to be scrupulously fair to them and concede that Simon was making some pretty dramatic claims based on not a lot of evidence, what happened when Simon subsequently got himself ''arrested'' for probably the first time in his life trying to get hold of actual proof is impossible to make excuses for. Somewhat competent parents might have either started asking some questions of their own or at least encouraged Simon to go and talk to local psychiatric services, but what does dear old Dad do? Threaten to ''disown'' Simon for ''embarrasing him''. Canon has yet to afford Simon the opportunity of CallingTheOldManOut, sadly.

* It's implied on ''Series/{{Friends}}'' that Chandler's parents were neglectful. His mother was concerned with her career as an erotic novelist, his father ran off to Vegas to become a drag queen, and he was left with the houseboys and later sent to boarding school. When they were around, they worried more about their messy divorce than his feelings. (They chose ''Thanskgiving dinner'' to tell him they were splitting up). As an adult, Chandler specifically describes his mother as a "Freudian nightmare" and he hasn't seen his father in years, and comments he 'should probably tell them' when he gets engaged.

** This sketch is a homage to a similar sketch by Creator/VictoriaWood about a teenage champion swimmer who's attempting to cross the English Channel. Her parents decide to take a holiday on their own rather than go with her, and are oblivious to the fact that she's swimming alone without supervision or adequate provisions. When she hasn't returned more than a week later, they are unconcerned and decide she is just "looking for a nice beach"; they even forget that they have ''multiple'' other children until reminded about it.

* Both Al and Peggy from ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', especially Peggy she isn't just a neglectful mother but a neglectful wife, neighbor and pretty much anything you could imagine. She blatantly refuses to do anything resembling work, including house work, cooking or anything for anyone who isn't herself. Subverted later on when [[CousinOliver Seven]] is introduced and she dotes on him, but ''only'' him.

* ''Series/TheNineLivesOfChloeKing'': The villain's son has dated/been friends with The Girl he's been trying to kill. if he took an half hour out of his busy day of being evil he might actually know this.
* Lampshaded in ''Series/OneTreeHill'' when the group attends a prom in a different, completely normal town. The students listen horrified to the soap-opera-esque description of their lives, and one ventures to ask how their parents can be okay with this. Brooke happily replies that she hasn't seen her parents for months. She, Peyton and Hayley all live without their parents, who are all far away or dead, normally not even returning for weddings, childbirth, near death, major traumas and graduation.

* ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': When dealing once again with serial killer Hoyt, Maura Isles starts looking into his childhood after he says that the two of them are alike. Maura looks back at her own childhood as well, and realizes that, although her adopted parents did love her, they were much more interested in their own things than they were in her. According to Isles, the "less [she] asked for, the less time they had for [her]." Apparently it got to the point that they sent her to boarding school at ten years old. After she ''gave them the brochures for it''.

** God is one too. Only four of his angelic children had ever seen him in the first place (most likely Michael, Lucifer, Raphael and Gabriel) and most of the angels know damn well that Lucifer was the favorite. Where did that leave the rest of them? He's actually gone so far as to [[spoiler: neglect all of the angels, ignoring them as they fight and kill themselves in civil war, and evidently not caring that one of his Archangels is dead, two of them are locked in a cage in Hell, and the last is trying to take control of Heaven through brutal force.]]
* This seems to be the case of Scott's father in ''Series/TeenWolf''. As an FBI agent, it's likely he was a workaholic with little time for his wife and child.

** Frank Sobotka shows little affection and attention toward his wayward oldest son Ziggy, until it's too late for both of them.

* The titular character of the Music/MelanieMartinez ConceptAlbum ''Music/CryBaby'' has two distant parents keeping up a HappyMarriageCharade. Her mother is an AlcoholicParent who has had a poor opinion on Cry Baby from the day she was born, though she seems to like her behind her dysfunctional behavior. Her father is distant in general and has a mistress. [[spoiler:The mother kills both him and his lover, and is implied to [[OffingTheOffspring have tried to kill]] her daughter.]]

* The Shibasaki siblings have this backstory in ''Music/ConfessionExecutiveCommittee''. Their mother was once a happy and gentle person, but following her divorce with their dad and her taking custody of the children, she changed. She's shown going off with lovers every night, and in "Lonely Boy" the children offhandedly mention that they've grown accustomed to her absence. The times she ''is'' present in their lives, it's not very pleasant.

* The Emperor of Mankind's neglect of his sons, the Primarchs, from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' definitely counts. This resulted in the largest, bloodiest war the galaxy had ever seen. Most of them had better relationships with their adoptive parents than the Emperor. Part of the reason is the Primarchs come from very different culture and other other part is the Emperor is '''''[[TimeAbyss old]]'''''. And because of that he no longer has the same concept of time or relationships as everyone else. For example, The Emperor tells his religious zealot of son Lorgar Aurelian to cease his worship of his father as a god. To The Emperor, once should have been enough. To Lorgar, his most holy Father had told him ''once'' in a hundred years. What the Emperor did after, while well meaning, didn't help Lorgar in the slightest.

* ''Theatre/NextToNormal'': Natalie's parents are explicitly neglectful, mostly due to her mother suffering with bipolar psychosis and her father attempting to help her (while also struggling with depression). It is implied that her model behavior and excellent grades were a plea for attention - one that clearly did not work, and she acts out occasionally in anger towards her parents for the way she grew up. When she [[spoiler:purposefully messes up an extremely important piano recital and begins abusing her mother's prescription medication]], her parents barely notice or react. While it does differ from some other tropes in that they both truly loved Natalie and never intended to do her harm, it was most definitely neglect.

* The parents in ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' take the cake for leaving their deaf, dumb and blind son with his abusive cousin and, later, with a drunk child molester. There's also that moment where they attempt to "cure" him by paying a gypsy to feed him acid.
* In [[http://www.mrshawking.com/?page_id=98 Mrs. Hawking]] of the Theatre/{{Mrs Hawking}} play series, the titular protagonist says she preferred when she was neglected by her father, because it meant he left her to her own devices and didn't interfere with her. The first time he actually paid attention to her he forced her into a marriage she didn't want.

* In ''Theatre/JasperInDeadland'', Jasper's father is an AddledAddict, who cares more about his drugs and alcohol than his son. It's implied that Jasper's mother ''was'' there for him, until she decided she'd had enough, and abandoned him and her husband.

* Isaac Clarke from ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' was never priority one for his parents, especially not his mother. [[AllThereInTheManual Data logs]] reveal the reason he hates Unitologists so much is because his mother used the money he was going to use to go to college on the cult. That didn't leave a good impression of Unitology (or his mother) on Isaac.

* ''VideoGame/SilentHillHomecoming'' has this in SPADES. Alex Shephard is practically forgotten by his parents, who are very distant with him, giving him little to no attention at all while absolutely doting on his much younger brother, Josh, even giving the child a family ring that has a great deal of meaning to it. The boy acts like a brat about it to his brother, evidently loving to rub how he's their favorite in his older brother's face. [[spoiler: This ends badly.]] While Alex is jealous, to his credit he does still love his family and does everything he can, even descending into what seems like hell itself, to find and rescue his brother. [[spoiler: It turns out his family had a reason for being so distant-every fifty years, the townspeople had to sacrifice one of their children in order to appease their God and keep all hell from breaking loose. Alex's parents purposely remained distant with him, not wanting him to experience or learn compassion, love or happiness, so the inevitable death of their son would be easier on all of them. Alex's parents seem to realize how wrong this was, however, as they beg for his forgiveness before their deaths-though the realization of how wrong they were seems to only come after Alex accidentally killed Josh out of jealousy brought on by the aforementioned ring.]]

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' has Luke fon Fabre. By the beginning of the game he had been held captive in his own home for seven years, partially by a distant father and doting mother. [[spoiler: The conditions improved.]]
* The manga adaptation of ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' depicts Zelos Wilder's early life as this, with his mother feigning illness simply to get him out of her sight. Being a child, he tries to win her affections. [[spoiler: it doesn't work.]] Colette Brunel's family are also implied to be distant, but that's more because [[spoiler: it's better not to get attached to the [[HumanSacrifice sacrificial lamb needed to save the world]]]] than actual contempt.

* ''VideoGame/YesYourGrace'': Near the end of the game, Ivo rants about his father Talys acting like he doesn't exist. This is supported by Talys' own behavior early in the game, as he can only tell Ivo has royal blood and has been taught by tutors when asked about him... by the father of Ivo's future wife. During the wedding itself, Talys fulfills only the bare minimum of parental obligations and tries to leave the wedding as soon as he can to continue research he's been doing.
* ''VideoGame/{{LISA}}'': During the opening sequence, it is shown that Lisa and Brad's childhood-home was extremely untidy and dirty, being littered with various stains and empty bottles. Brad ends up following in his father's footsteps with Buddy after he relapses, oftentimes ignoring her and remaining unconscious for the majority of the time, only interacting with her when he prevents her from leaving the house.

** Sachi's [[spoiler:parents are the mildest case, as they were genuinely nice and caring people, however they made the misguided decision to bury themselves in work, thinking that their increased income, compared to their previously rather poor finances, would buy their daughter love, while she just wanted to spend time with them. This led to them growing distant to Sachi, who, being fed up with their behavior, ran away on her birthday, which ultimately led to her parents getting run over by a truck and scarring Sachi for life.]]

** Max claims the only reason he's at Camp Campbell is because his parents didn't want to deal with him for the summer. Though [[{{Jerkass}} considering his attitude it's not that surprising.]] [[spoiler:Played much more seriously in the Season 2 finale "Parents Day"; not only did his parents not show up to the titular event, but it's also revealed that they didn't even bother to sign him up for a specific camp. They just wanted him gone. And despite Max's attempts to act otherwise, it becomes clear that [[SourOutsideSadInside their neglect has been very hurtful to him]].]]

* ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo'': The trope is played with. Done straight initially because Richard ignores Sandra's protests that she is hungry to focus on his video game. Then subverted because in order to pacify her Richard hands her money to go out to eat but Sandra protests that he gave her $100, which Richard still waves off. The last panel is Sandra ordering steak and lobster at a fancy gourmet restaurant [[Main/BreakingTheFourthWall as she tells the reader that parental neglect sometimes works our in your favor.]]
* In ''Webcomic/MayonakaDensha'', Hatsune's mother at first just appears to have an over the top case of ParentalObliviousness which seems to be played for comedy, but it is later revealed Hatsune is genuinely emotionally damaged by how much her mother doesn't pay attention to her. She tells Tom a story about how she once broke her leg as a child, had to haul herself up to her apartment, covered in blood, and phone for the ambulence herself, Hatsune's mother simply telling her to be quiet because she was distracting her. [[{{Tearjerker}} Tom's in tears by the end.]]

** Eugene Greenhilt is this to Roy but not Julia, [[ParentalFavoritism favoring her]] because she chose to follow in his footsteps as a spellcaster, where Roy maintains the ''family'' tradition of being a fighter. This neglect goes as far at one point as to not realize he had more than one son. Eugene's epitaph even reads "Devoted Husband, Mighty Wizard, Passable Father."

** Ash'waren was shown to be this, since [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?sid=7618 her reaction]] to hearing that her daughter Faen had returned from exile was a simple "who?" and then asking ''which'' daughter she was, and after being reminded with the year Faen was born only commented that her father was a bad lay. Though not a justification, the reason for this is that she's implied to have dozens if not ''hundreds'' of children due to being TheAgeless, and she's a bit of a {{cloudcuckoolander}} anyway, not to mention that in the above scene she'd clearly been drinking. Ultimately, her family proves to be disloyal, and she is forced to flee her own clan to avoid the same fate as [[spoiler:Diva'ratrika]].

** Rose and her aloof mother only interact in what Rose interprets as passive-aggressive battles of saccharine affection. Her interpretation of her mother, a classy, successful scientist (and [[AlcoholicParent alcoholic]]), seems either partially or entirely true. Though her mother may care (and how can you argue with that pony?) she is very distant. [[spoiler: Averted later. Rose's reaction to her death shows that the passive aggressive stuff was mostly just a charade, and she still considered herself close to her mother.]]

* In ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany'', during [[TheWoobie Elly]]'s homecoming, the crew finds his parents more interested in the newspaper than the return of their long missing son. It helps explain why he is timid, prone to emotional outburst, and clingy. At least his sister was happy to see him.
* Peter of ''Webcomic/PeterIsTheWolf'' is viewed as a disappointment by his parents for being born a runt in a werewolf culture that views size and strength as extremely important. He spent most of his life being openly ''mocked'' by them and generally suffering from every kind of neglect they could dish out. Later, after he is [[spoiler: Nearly ''raped'', dumped by the girlfriend who walked in and mistook it for him cheating on her and a very real chance of being ''executed'' by his pack for this breakup, he has to move back in with them for a few days. They respond to this TraumaCongaLine by making him sleep in the ''literal'' doghouse in their backyard, because they can't be bothered to make room for him.]]
* In ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'' Torbjörn and Siv Västerström are a milder version of this. While they are definitely caring and nowhere near criminally negligent, their children are unruly enough that the woman who was babysitting them while they were out of town is introduced quitting her job. Promising her more money is not enough to convince her to come back. For most of the actual story, their time in taken up by being MissionControl to the expedition. Torbjörn's brother also seems to have made poor choices when it comes to Emil's private tutors and to have been a frequently absent father to him, which may make this a family-wide problem.

** Her irresponsible mother got pregnant out of highschool and died in a car crash.

* ''Webcomic/MyMammaIsInBurnedIsOut'': One of the science lovers states that his mamma sucked because she was addicted to heroin and left him at steps of a science altar.

* ''Webcomic/{{Rebirth}}'': While Noah and Parish were certainly present in Neo's life, they barely paid any attention to him, focusing all of it onto his younger brother, Abel. [[spoiler: This is largely because of Neo being the product of Parish's affair with Noah's brother Ian, leading Noah to neglect him. Parish went along with this as well.]]

** The Critic's mother still lives with her son, but while he calls her his world, she doesn't seem to give a shit when he gets DrivenToSuicide, has a ragey meltdown or gets killed by whoever he's pissed off this time.

* ''WebVideo/TheAutobiographyOfJaneEyre'': Mr Rochester is Adele's biological or legal father in this SettingUpdate. He's rather unconcerned about his daughter other than that he keeps her intellectually challenged because she's an extremely gifted ChildProdigy--so he hires a tutor for her and she has thousands of extracurricular activities. He's probably not intentionally unkind and he might genuinely try to do his best but he comes off as inattentive or bossy, not too mention that he is said to travel a lot and he rarely stays at his home with her. Adele says he always brings her presents and she genuinely likes what she receives in episode 12. She's also rather cheerful in his presence, so he can't be all bad, but the guy has issues.
* ''WebVideo/PositivelyDreadful'': Sideburns' mother is seen brushing him off when he tries talking to her, and flat out ignoring him as he's chased down the street.

** Brian's mom spends all of her time playing games. While [[SeriousBusiness games are a big deal in this universe]] (it's implied gaming is how she makes money, for one thing), she never acknowledges Brian even when they live in the same house. She didn't notice her son got a scholarship to a prestigious high school until the second he left, at one point she promises to come visit but sends the cat instead, and on parents' weekend Brian dismisses the possibility of her coming since it's "double xp weekend" in her game.
** Jenny Matrix's mother Mary is both completely absent and a controlling StageMom dedicated to making sure her daughter is one of the best FPS players in history. This gets worse in the second season, when Mary becomes the FPS coach and still refuses to give her daughter the slightest measure of affection. When Mary gets awarded a parent of the year award, she forces Jenny to give a speech, and while trying to write it Jenny breaks down in tears because she cannot think of a single good memory of her mother. Jenny even says her father had to teach her basic girl stuff like doing her hair and talking to boys because her mother was just ''never'' around.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheCrumpets'', Ma has a tendency to neglect her 142 children due to her devotion on inventing machines and loving her husband, who is tasked to rear the kids. In "Family Secrets", Ditzy, their daughter [[LosingYourHead whose head can float off from her body]], gets her head grounded (from reading a letter that may be proof of Pa having an affair) and approaches Ma for help. Ma, who is busy looking for her missing husband, identifies Ditzy's problem as "very minor", asks her where he is, and leaves before her daughter was going to finish her sentence, possibly on what she suspects on her father.
* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': Danny's parents border on neglectful, especially [[BumblingDad his father]], because they're so obsessive about ghosts (with a yearly fight over whether Santa Claus existed or not during Christmas that resulted in various problems for Danny). Though the series has also taken into great account that family means as much to them as does ghost hunting; going to great lengths to protect their children and to show how much they love them.

** Edd's parents are [[ZigZaggingTrope an interesting case;]] they only seem to communicate with him through numerous sticky-notes pasted all over the house, but the notes themselves have kind, nurturing words and pieces of personal advice. This may just be a result of the show [[InvisibleParents not showing any adults]].

** Philip Fry's parents are at first mentioned to be quite neglectful. Fry is pleased he won't see them again when he arrives in the future, and it is later said they kept him out of school as they thought it a "waste of taxpayer's money". However, we later see them in flashback, and whilst they do have their moments of neglect (Mr. Fry is a ConspiracyTheorist and Mrs. Fry is more focused on watching the game than discliping her sons) they are shown to love and care for both of their sons. The family are upset when Fry "disappears" and do look for him, and never get over his disappearance. It is later explained that Fry knew he would never see them again after waking up in 3000 and tried to convince himself this was a good thing to spare his own feelings.

* Helga's parents, Bob and Miriam in ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' They're not ''bad'' people per se, but Helga was TheUnfavourite growing up (WordOfGod states that her mother Miriam was an alcoholic), and for a while it was her FreudianExcuse to be the school bully. The deal is totally inverted with Olga: the [[StageMom excessive and asphyxiating attention from Miriam and Bob]] shaped her into an insecure, hysteric, overachieving, whiny [[ExtremeDoormat doormat]] who breaks down to a ridiculous degree if she makes a wrong step. In her own words, ''"[Helga,] you're '''lucky''' they don't even notice you."'' To put this in perspective, one episode had Helga change Olga's [[TheBGrade grade in a class to a B+]], causing Olga to lock herself in her room for the better part of a week. She did it expecting to have some attention for herself... but the parents ''still'' flocked to Olga, which spurred her to ultimately confess to Helga how sick she was of the whole deal. This is however played straight when AesopAmnesia kicks in: Both Helga and Olga ''completely forget'' their heart to heart, Olga starts playing the StepfordSmiler ''completely straight'' and Helga ''again'' thinks Olga ''enjoys'' all the attention (since ever since that ''one'' time, she hasn't shown she doesn't like it).
* In ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', Professor Membrane, Dib's superscientist father is portrayed as neglectful, obsessed with his work to the point of not even recognizing his son in one episode. Dib seems to have responded to this by becoming similarly obsessed with his own pursuits and largely indifferent towards his father, while his sister Gaz seems eager for his company and attention. However, more recently in the comic books and in the TV movie ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus'', Professor Membrane has been depicted more positively, trying to do his work as fast he can to spend at least some moments with his children and even assuring Dib that he has always been proud of him despite their differences.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'', Phyllis "Pizzazz" Gabor's MissingMom [[ParentalAbandonment ran off]] when she was a child and the trauma left her wealthy father distant. He rarely payed attention to her which didn't help Pizzazz's attitude. Even as an adult he's very aloof towards his daughter (especially in [[ComicBook/JemAndTheHologramsIDW the comic adaptation]]). The lack of attention growing up [[FreudianExcuse led]] to her AttentionWhore and RichBitch personality.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' shows that that Avatar Aang and Toph Beifong, main characters of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', were neglectful to their kids:
** More specifically, Aang neglected Bumi and Kya, the older son and daughter he had with his wife Katara, in favor of his youngest son, Tenzin, who was the only Airbender child in the family -- albeit this was to make sure the Air Nation would make a comeback and eventually restore balance to the world. This seriously damaged Tenzin's relationships with his brother and sister, since they came to resent and mistreat him for being "the favorite" in their father's eyes.
** Meanwhile, Toph chose to be very hands-off with her two daughters, Lin and Suyin, so that they would have the freedom to do whatever they want, something Toph herself did not have growing up. However, expecting the two girls to basically raise themselves ultimately blew up in Toph's face as it left both girls feeling unloved by their mother and made them more desperate for her attention, which led Lin to becoming a Metalbending police officer like Toph in the hopes of gaining some approval (only to be given a cold shoulder for it), while Suyin became a teenage criminal who ended up scarring Lin's face, albeit accidentally, when Lin broke up a robbery Suyin took part in. Toph covered the whole thing up and sent Suyin to live with her grandparents instead of to jail, which hurt Lin even more and resulted in seriously damaging Toph and Suyin's relationships with her, ultimately causing an estrangement that lasted well over thirty years.

* Gabriel Agreste in ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' manages the impressive feat of combining this trope with KnightTemplarParent. He obsessively micromanages every aspect of his son Adrien's life, but he's never ''there'' for any of it, working through video calls and his assistant Nathalie. [[spoiler: And he spends most of his free time as the supervillain Hawk Moth, causing problems that his son often gets caught up in.]]

** It features the gang's parents in this light. The gang's parents seem to put their happiness before their kids. Velma's mom (as shown in a picture) cares a lot more about her horses than her own daughter, Shaggy's parents think of him as an embarrassment, Fred's dad was thrilled at the idea of his son dying at the hands of the cicada monster, and Daphne's mother told her right to her face that sometimes she wishes they had a boy instead. [[FridgeBrilliance Though if you think of it, this could explain why in earlier series the parents never seemed to care that their kids were mystery solving all over the place]].

** Its been said that Jonas Venture refused to let his son wear anything but shorts until he left for college, so him saying he doesn’t want to go on an adventure was simply out of the question. Even though he writes it off as a phase the fact that he allows Dean to stay home says a lot, like the fact that he has shown a lot more interest in their safety since he can’t clone them anymore ignoring it might just be his way of showing that he does care.

* Analyzed in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Scootaloo's parents ''finally'' show up after at least a three year absence InUniverse. Very much a case of ParentsAsPeople as they're not portrayed as bad parents in the slightest and they and their daughter love each other very much, and it's actually their attempt at averting this that causes problems: they want to bring Scootaloo with them so they can be together[[note]]They claim it's about keeping her safe from all the villains who keep cropping up, but that doesn't hold much water when you consider that she's also living near Equestria's designated heroes.[[/note]] and she is upset that this will separate her from her friends and that her parents are trying to dictate her life after being gone so long. There is, however, the matter that the series was mostly ambiguous on whether Scootaloo's inability to fly was an actual disability, or whether she was just a late bloomer flight-wise. The fact that it wasn't properly resolved in-universe implies that they had never bothered to take her to a doctor about it, which actually ''would'' be grossly negligent.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ElenaOfAvalor'', Carla has been raised by her father Victor for the past ten years after her mother Ash left them in promise of finding a way to turn them all into [[EvilSorcerer malvagos]]. Ash falls out of contact with them after three years, so the lack of communication causes her family to believe she's dead, when in truth, she had just gotten carried away with her malvago training. When she finally returns, she blames her husband for depriving her of watching Carla grow up because the plan was for them to wait for her. Meanwhile, she dotes on her daughter, but there are hints through the next few episodes that she seems to prioritize power over her... [[spoiler:which eventually culminates in Carla almost getting badly hurt from one of her schemes, to which Victor tries to get him and Carla to retire from evil, only for Ash to petrify him for arguing with her one too many times. When Ash asks Carla to come with her, unsurprisingly, Carla tells her to screw off. Though Ash is initially shocked by this, she immediately leaves her behind at the mercy of our heroes.]]

* ''Webcomic/Rain2010'': Emily's mother neglects her constantly and doesn't even bother to visit her daughter's house.

This can be set up for a FreudianExcuse. Also an excuse for kids who go off to [[SavingTheWorld save the world]] not worry too much about their parents, seeing as they don't give two cents about what they're doing anyway. It should be noted that neglect is in no way a less extreme form of [[AbusiveParents abuse]] than the forms on the AbusiveParents page; extreme neglect in the care of infants has been known to put dampers on mental and cognitive development, and in children it can induce severe psychological damage.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': While his sisters suffer Sexual Abuse, Thomas Raith is generally neglected until it's time to insult somebody by having him appear in his father's place. It's implied that if Thomas hadn't used ObfuscatingStupidity to play the [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Airheaded Playboy]] role to the hilt, he would've been offed.

* ''{{Film/Margarita}}'': Ben and Gail are both medical professionals highly focused on their careers. As such, eight years back they got Margarita (a Mexican in Canada who's undocumented) to be their nanny. Margarita basically raised their daughter Mali ever since, who is quite resentful of them for this.

* ''{{Film/Margarita}}'': Ben and Gail are both medical professionals highly focused on their careers. As such, eight years back they got Margarita (a Mexican in Canada who's undocumented) to be their nanny. Margarita basically raised their daughter Mila ever since, who is quite resentful of them for this.

* In "Film/LetMeIn" one of the major changes to story from the swedish novel is how the main characters mother is changed from a loving parent who was simply busy with work to an alcoholic who neglects her son.Shes seen drinking drunk repeadtly while ignoring her own sons who's being horribly bullied at school. In one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film after being attacked Owen goes to her for comfort only to discover shes passed out drunk.

-->''All my Mom and Dad do is fiddle with their tablets! They never play with me! I'm bored!''
-->''Maybe I'm not their real kid... Maybe their tablets are...''

* Present to varying degrees in ''LightNovel/AccelWorld''- Haruyuki's mother has barely any contact with him apart from giving him his lunch money every day, while Kuroyukihime is estranged from her parents after [[spoiler:threatening her sister with a knife]] and implies that their relation wasn't exactly close before that. Kuroyukihime cynically notes that the Neurolinkers that children wear from a young age (which is a prerequisite for Brain Burst) serve to enable this sort of hands-off parenting.

** In ''VideoGame/Persona4'', Ryotaro Dojima (the protagonist's uncle and guardian) is an example of this to his daughter, Nanako. Despite being just 6-7 years old, she was forced to [[WiseBeyondTheirYears take care of herself]] as she was left home alone most days with nobody else to do the housework. Unlike most examples, the reasons for this are explored and Dojima is portrayed as a good guy who just doesn't know how to be a parent. Specifically, his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident, and he's been a workaholic ever since, trying to [[CrusadingWidower solve the case]] while simultaneously running from his daughter because he's afraid of failing her. Fortunately, it's possible for the player to help repair this broken family.

* Giorno Giovanna from ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'' had an extremely bad childhood. First of all, his biological father, [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood a hundred year-old]] [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders British vampire]], didn't even know he existed after having a one-night stand with his mother, and the only reason Giorno even knows he exists is due to a ''single'' photo. His biological mother was an extremely neglectful parent who left her extremely young son alone in the house to party, and later married a man who seemed nice at first, but turned out to be an extremely physically abusive step-father for Giorno, along with being a drunkard. In short, Giorno somehow managed to have ParentalAbandonment, ParentalNeglect AND AbusiveParents ''at the same time.''