History Main / WackyParentSeriousChild

* ''Series/GilmoreGirls'': While Lorelai can handle being a parent when it counts, the show tends to follow this trope. One episode revealed that, while Lorelai was going commando thanks to running out of clean underwear, Rory had been secretly doing her own laundry.
** A more cynical variation with Jess and his mother Liz. For most of Jess's childhood Liz was an unstable, unreliable mess, so by the age of 17 Jess is entirely self-sufficient, and pretty bitter and jaded as a result. He also struggles with suddenly having a reliable, sensible parental figure in [[{{ParentalSubstitute}} Luke.]]

* ''Manga/IganoKabamaru'': Ran Ookuma, despite being fifty, speaks to her school students as if she's one of them, is a foulmouthed woman, and reminsices about her first love to the first-years. Most of them are shocked by her behaviour, including her granddaughter Mai, but Ran doesn't care. And to really ham in that she's a {{womanchild}}, she still has a rivalry with her old friend from childhood because they liked the same boy.

* The ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' Crown Tundra DownloadableContent has Peony and Peonia, as Peony is [[LargeHam excitable and emotional]], in contrast to his more emotionally-reserved daughter Peonia.

-->-- ''Series/{{Castle}}'', "Suicide Squeeze"

* ''Series/{{Castle}}'':

* ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'': With Ozy being more or less the OnlySaneMan, Llewellyn arguably needs his adopted son just as much as Ozy needs Llewellyn.

Subtrope to LikeFatherUnlikeSon. Compare ChildishOlderSibling. Undoubtedly TruthInTelevision. You might have Wacky Parents yourself or Serious Children of your own.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'', this is inverted with Star and her mother Moon. Star Butterfly is an adventurous GenkiGirl, in sharp contrast to her prim and proper mother. It's heavily implied Star got it from her father. It later turns out that Moon [[spoiler: lost her mother when she was Star's age and thus saddled with the responsability of being Queen. As such, she had to grow up quickly and not have much help outside of River, who she would come to marry. Star herself begins feeling the weight during her mother's disappearance in Season 3.]]

Can sometimes be PlayedForDrama, to show how utterly messed up it is when the younger person has to be the more mature one. In psychology, when a parent's immaturity and neediness demands care and regulation from the child, it's a dynamic called "parentification," and is a form of emotional abandonment that can lead to pretty significant developmental trauma in the child. (Of course, this goes beyond the parent merely being "wacky" in temperament, while still appropriately and dependably meeting the "serious" child's practical and emotional needs.)

* ''Film/HeartsBeatLoud'': Once "Heart Beats Loud" gets popular, Frank goes in all about starting an actual band with Sam but Sam repeatedly declines due to her future plans and even chastises Frank for not thinking clearly about their chances of making it. It's indicated throughout the film that Sam is the responsible one and acts far more like the adult while he's relatively a ManChild in comparison with her.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Timmy certainly has his own wacky moments, but he's still a lot more serious than his incredibly weird, ditzy parents. Or godfather Cosmo, for that matter.

** [[CrazyHomelessPeople Old Man [=McGucket=]]] and [[TheStoic Ranger Tate]] are a somewhat tragic example. Before becoming the town kook, Fiddleford Hadron [=McGucket=] [[spoiler: was once a very intelligent computer scientist and engineer. He was called in by Stanford Pines to help create the Portal. However, during its activation, Fiddleford caught a glimpse of what lay on the other side and Bill's plans. Desperate to remove the memories, he invented [[LaserGuidedAmnesia a mindwiping device]] and founded the Society of the Blind Eye, to help townspeople forget the disturbing things they saw. Constant abuse of his memory ray ended up causing [=McGucket=] serious brain damage and memory loss. Presumably, [=McGucket=] was already a dad at the time and one wonders how it was for Tate to see his father descend into madness.]] By the end of the series, though, [[spoiler: Fiddleford has made alot of recovery, including patenting his inventions and becoming wealthy. The series finale credits show Tate and Fiddleford in the pool, showing the two have mended fences.]] It is implied that Fiddleford did have a few eccentricities before these events, but far more subdued.