Growing Up Sucks / Western Animation

Moments where Growing Up Sucks in Western Animation Television Series.

• C-Bear and Jamal: In "Big", Jamal turns 10 and decides that he's too old to bring C-Bear to school with him. In response, C-Bear invokes this trope by showing Jamal a vision of him as an adult — working under a Mean Boss (who turns out to be C-Bear over an intercom), then coming home to find himself married to his school principal (who demands that he do all of the household chores while she takes a nap). Adulthood might not mean complete freedom to do whatever you want, but it generally does mean having the freedom to refrain from marrying a complete Jerkass. Then again, C-Bear may have been somewhat biased after Jamal wanted to leave him behind.
• The Fairly OddParents!: Timmy will automatically lose Cosmo and Wanda — and his memories of them — when he reaches his eighteenth birthday... if he doesn't screw up before then. This adds a melancholic note to the series by underlining the fact that Timmy, while clearly loved by his godparents, is not unique but rather just one of a long list of godchildren they've cared for.
  • Actually, one episode implies that he is unique. While Cosmo and Wanda have a hallway in their miniature castle dedicated to their past godchildren (good and bad each), they have a room dedicated to Timmy. One could also argue that they may do this for whatever child they're currently caring for, and Timmy will just become another single portrait in a hall.
  • In the Trapped in TV Land movie, Timmy is shown to grow up to be almost exactly like his cheerfully oblivious father, turning the care of his kids over to an insane, Vicky-esque robotic babysitter, though the memory wipe may be to blame for his failure to learn from his father's mistakes. On the bright side, guess who his children's godparents are?
  • The Live-Action Adaptation trilogy of films, starting with A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!, shows him deliberately continuing to act like a child and attending elementary school, despite now being in his early twenties. This is due to a Loophole Abuse he had found, where people with a child-like heart are still allowed to keep their fairies.
  • This becomes a plot point in "Timmy's Secret Wish". It's revealed that he secretly wished that he and everyone else would stop aging so he can keep his fairies forever...fifty years ago!
• This is the core and the major source of Dramatic Irony in Codename: Kids Next Door. Especially ironic is the fact that not only do they grow up and out of their roles as KND operatives, they turn into the enemy (teenagers/adults). If they submit to the mandatory mind-wipe, their best possible future is to become harmless and lose their Competence Zone pass - yet there's always the possibility they'll end up as villains anyway. There are some exceptions, however, as seen in "Maurice" and in the finale, but regular Operatives don't know this. This will happen to EVERYONE, even the main characters. Except for Numbuh One.
  • Many children in the show consider this inevitability and decide to betray them now rather than later.
  • In the Grand Finale, adulthood is stated to be a disease. To hammer the point in even further, the adult versions of Sector V are portrayed as live-action actors rather than animated characters.
  • However, some characters like Numbuh One's dad, the former Numbuh Zero, present the idea that growing up to be good parents to the current children is good and important enough for them to give up their adventures as KND operatives. Likewise, in the finale, the now-adult members of Sector V discover growing up is a lot better than they thought.
• Kaeloo: If you hit puberty, you will apparently be forcibly evicted from Smileyland. At the end of the episode, however, Mr. Cat and Stumpy get superpowers due to puberty, and then lose them again. This is also the focus of the episode "Let's Play Grown-Ups".
• Why Mr. Cuddles the Teddy Bear becomes the Toy-Taker in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys.
• The premise for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is that Bloo, Mac's imaginary friend, can live there and won't be put up for adoption so long as Mac keeps his promise to keep visiting Bloo. In this case the sword hanging over Bloo's head is that, should Mac ever stop coming and/or grow out of needing an imaginary friend, Bloo will be given up for adoption. As fates go, this isn't especially cruel since adults can still see and visit their old imaginary friends (there's even a "class reunion" day for it!), but every adult has eventually put their imaginary friend up for adoption, and since imaginary friends live at least(?) as long as real people, they can end up seeing many different owners. The only exception is Madam Foster, owner and founder of Foster's Home.
  • Though Madam Foster and Frankie both seem to believe that Mac may possess the qualities to stay with his imaginary friend forever as well.
  • At least he won't dissolve into thin air once Mac gives him up, which is often used in series with premises like this.
  • This trope was greatly summed up by Frankie at the end of "Squeeze the Day":
    Frankie: I wish I could be you, Mac. No job, no responsibilities. You will never be a child again. Don't let it pass you by. All that matters is right here, right now. Take advantage of every precious moment. This is your time to do the most awesome of awesome things.
• The fifth season of Daria featured lots of this. Both Daria and Jane explicitly stated in "Prize Fighters" that they were growing up and as such, were worrying about things and doing things they never used to. "Is It College Yet", The Movie which ended the series, also featured Daria, Jane, and some of the other cast members graduating and leaving for college, though they had a bright outlook for the future.
• In Johnny Test, Dukey precisely says it verbatim while explaining pimples.
• Kim Possible really wants to make sure we're depressed about growing up judging by how both Series Finale address the issue. So The Drama deals with Kim and Ron growing up and apart. Ron even starts to go into a monologue about how "Maybe I don't want to grow up". Their Relationship Upgrade at the end makes for an optimistic upswing though. "Graduation" deals with... graduation, and the uncertainties of the future. While dealing with some rough patches there is still an optimistic ending plus positive points from the Word of God. The key theme of the Grand Finale is Ron seeing graduation as "the end of the world". An Alien Invasion seems to back him up on this, but what he's really worried about is Kim shooting off into a glittering future and leaving him in the dust.
• The Loud House:
  • The Loud House:
    • In "Sister Act", Lana and Lola decide to switch places to get out of doing things one twin dislikes but the other enjoys. For a while, it's just simple stuff, like Lana not wanting to take a bath and Lola not wanting to climb a rope for gym class, but after a few days, they decide to switch places so the former can avoid a dentist appointment and the latter can avoid a doctor's appointment. This backfires on both of them the next day: Lana ends up with an abscessed tooth, preventing her from enjoying a massive sundae she won in a recycling contest, and Lola comes down with a nasty case of the flu, preventing her from competing in a pageant. These ailments wouldn't have gotten any worse had the twins gone to their respective appointments in the first place, because their medical professionals would've caught and treated the early warning signs of said ailments right away. When the twins fess up to their parents of what they did so their doctor and dentist don't lose their licenses for negligence, Rita and Lynn Sr. give them a big scolding, pointing out that they're not babies anymore and that part of growing up means having to sometimes do things that one doesn't necessarily like and/or want to do; it also means the twins have to attend the appointments they avoided so they can get healthy again, and the twins promise to go as themselves this time. After the fact, they find out that doing the stuff they don't really like has its perks.
• Teen Titans: Beast Boy has to let go of childhood in the Series Finale appropriately titled "Things Change".
• Recess:
  • The episode "The Legend of Big Kid" had T.J. bonding with the Kindergarten kids. The rest of the main characters remind him that one year later they'll leave this life.
  • Another episode ("Bonky Fever") has Mikey getting obsessed with a Barney Expy and regressing to kindergarten-like behavior so his mother can take care of him longer.
  • Even Principal Prickly has gone through something like this, albeit through hypnotism. The episode "The Hypnotist" has him spend most of the episode thinking he's a first grader and bonding with the Recess Gang. But when they have to bring him back to his normal adult state, Prickly gets scared and cries that he "doesn't wanna go back."
• On Moral Orel, Clay explains adulthood to Orel:
  Clay: Behaving like a grown-up is many things. First and foremost, it's doing things that you hate doing.
  Orel: Like doing what Pop?
  Clay: Like dealing with people who make you unhappy... being stressed about things you have no control over... and working soul numbing jobs.
  Orel: Ooh
  Clay: Then, gradually as we endure these hardships and accept them as normal, that's when we've finally earned the right to get drunk and be emotionally distant from our families.
  • This appears to be averted for Orel in the Distant Finale, as he seems to lead a much happier family life than he did as a kid. Plus Clay...isn't the best person to give advice about adulthood since how his childhood was less then ideal.
• Rocko's Modern Life:
  • In "Cruisin'", Rocko gets stuck on a seniors' cruise with Hiram Wolfe, Heffer's grandfather who is always shown complaining and insulting him, usually calling him "the beaver". At the end of the episode's first act, Rocko fumes about how bitter and misanthropic Hiram is. He then meets another elderly passenger who gives him a speech that reduces him to tears. In a way, call it Tempting Fate when Rocko turns the ship into The Bermuda Triangle, where he experiences just that after dodging ducks.
    "You are going to be old one day, junior, if you're lucky, and then you too are gonna feel the heartbreak of a prune diet or lost memories... the pain and loneliness of losing a loved one. Maybe then you'll understand why old-timers aren't always the bright ray of sunshine you find yourself to be, eh, boy?"
  • As much as Ed Bighead is depicted as a grouchy Jerkass, there are a number of episodes that show a more humble side to him and how he came to be the grumpy old toad he is today. A flashback scene in "Old Fogey Froggy" showed that he was once a happy go-getter. However, after being stuck in the same job for 30 years without a promotion (especially since said promotion was given to someone younger than him), he begins to feel the stress of age and doesn't look like the young toad he once was. He even tries to feel young again by hanging out with Rocko and his friends, but he only ends up getting on their nerves. The old-timer's speech on why seniors are so grumpy can easily apply to Mr. Bighead; he isn't the way he is without reason.
• Rugrats:
  • In the 1991 series episode "Angelica's Birthday", when Drew tells Angelica that she will have more responsibilities now that she's a year older, she begins to worry that she'll never get to have fun again. When she asks Grandpa Lou what it's like to be old, he tells her that getting old has many disadvantages; backaches, needing hearing aids, false teeth, and glasses, having to eat tapioca and get sponge baths, and advises her to enjoy the best years of her life while she can. When Angelica explains her plight to Tommy, he tells her that it's too bad she can't stay little like him and his friends. This gives her the idea to dress and act like a baby since babies have no responsibilities. At first, Angelica enjoys this, but later, she finds out that being a baby isn't as fun as she thought it would be; babies can't eat candy and they have to drink from a bottle and wear diapers.
  • In the 2021 series episode "Mr. Chuckie", Chuckie has a dream that he's an adult, and he takes him and his friends on an outing. On this outing, he finds out that being an adult isn't as fun as it seems; he has to clean up his mess after having lunch, he has to spend his money on toys for his friends to play with, he's too big to fit in the playground tubes and gets stuck in them (requiring the fire department to rescue him), and tending to the babies' needs (Susie losing her socks, Lil wanting him to hold her toys, Phil's crankiness and wanting him to tell him a joke, and Tommy needing a diaper change) proves to be too much for him to handle.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Grandma's Kisses" deals with SpongeBob trying to lay it out to his Grandma that he's an adult and no longer needs kisses after an embarrassing public incident. He and Patrick go to Grandma's house to show her how manly they are with false sideburns. When Patrick starts getting spoiled by SpongeBob's Grandma, she lures SpongeBob back to childhood by feeding him steamed coral while Patrick gets cookies, reading Patrick a kiddie book while SpongeBob is given a boring book on routine active maintenance; the last straw is when she gibes Patrick a sweater with loving in the stitches while SpongeBob gets office supplies... and they weren't even wrapped up. Eventually he breaks down crying that he doesn't want to grow up, but Grandma tells him that no matter how old he gets, she will always love him like she did when he was a baby.
• South Park:
  • The show has "You're Getting Old", where Stan turns 10 and realizes how shitty things are progressively getting to the point of seeing and hearing nothing but shit, a disorder called by a doctor "Being a cynical asshole". This leads to an end of his friendships and with his mother divorcing Randy after not being able to take his shenanigans anymore, moving away from South Park
    • Humorously, Status Quo fixes everything by the next episodes end. Though Stan need a little "help" to get through the days now.
  • "1%" also deals with this by having the entire class tell Cartman how he is immature and needs to grow up because his behavior is causing a negative effect on everyone else. Cartman "kills" his dolls as a response, thinking he has to leave behind his childhood.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In the season 8 episode "Molt Down", Spike goes through "the molt", which is something that all young dragons go through. While he doesn't grow to enormous size and go on a hoarding frenzy like in "Secret of My Excess", Spike does suffer through a host of embarrassing and painful symptoms, like breaking out in a rash called "stone-scale", indigestion that causes him to uncontrollably belch huge gouts of fire, sudden changes in his speaking volume, and emitting a foul stench that tends to attract dangerous magical creatures, like rocs. And according to Smolder, dragon parents tend to kick molting offspring out of the nest and force them to fend for themselves.
• Gravity Falls:
  • This trope is Mabel's character arc. Almost every episode she's in that involves dealing with the changes and responsibilities that come with getting older; In "Summerween", she laments that she and Dipper won't be able to go trick-or-treating someday, and "Boss Mabel" gives her a very good idea of what kind of challenge running a business entails. But the worst comes in "Dipper and Mabel Vs the Future", where's all of Mabel's naive expectations of high school life are shot down leading her to inadvertently cause The End of the World as We Know It when offered the chance to freeze time. "Weirdmageddon Part 2: Escape From Reality" has Dipper point out that the reason Mabel's such a Glurge Addict is because escapism is how she's trying to deal with her fear of growing up.
  • Inverted with Dipper, with his arc being centered around trying to grow up too fast. Several of his storylines involve him trying to act older than he is (his crush for a bulk of the series being a teenager a few years older than him not helping) or otherwise neglect his own childhood, to the point where he seriously considers taking up a chance to spend his whole life being devoted to studying the supernatural out in a secret lab in "Dipper and Mabel Vs the Future." It's not a case of Not Growing Up Sucks, as Dipper is mortal and ages normally; he essentially wants to skip to being an adult.
  • "Soos and the Real Girl" has Soos retreat to a kiddie arcade to relax and ride a train simulator after getting stressed out over horribly botching every attempt at meeting a girlfriend he makes. He meets a lady named Melody who has the same mindset; their first date is at the local Suck E. Cheese's. It goes pretty well, until .GIFfany crashes their date and tries to Murder the Hypotenuse. By the end of the series, he takes over the Mystery Shack and Melody moves to Gravity Falls to be with him, so growing up has its upsides.
• Sabrina: The Animated Series: Sabrina wishes to be older and uses a magic watch given to her by Salem to transport her into the future. She thinks it's great...until she realizes she has to pay bills and can't enjoy things she did as a kid due to getting funny looks. Though more importantly, she realizes she missed out on things like graduation and college before ultimately reversing the spell to grow up naturally and enjoy her childhood while she can. Making this more "Growing up too fast sucks".
• American Dad!:
  • In "Spring Breakup", Roger turns the Smiths' home into a Spring Break resort. Stan is initially against it but eventually comes to like the party life and makes a friend in a college student. Eventually, the week passes, Francine (who was away on a trip) comes home and chastises Stan for allowing it and Stan's friend has to leave. He tries to follow her to keep the friendship going but ends up like a creepy stalker and interferes with her studies. However, the reason he does is that Francine never pays much attention to his stories anymore. And Francine's adopted mother even calls her out on this, telling her that that's what a relationship needs to keep the spark going as they get older and Francine has been taking it for granted.
  • Right after that episode is "1600 Candles". When Steve gets his first pubic hair, Stan and Francine immediately have PTSD flashbacks of Hayley's puberty and decide to use CIA formulas to meddle with his age. However, Francine uses it to keep Steve young just for a few months...and it backfires and turns him into a toddler. Stan gives him an overdose of the formula so that Steve will skip puberty and become 21...and it backfires and turns Steve into an old man. Then when they get a formula that will restore Steve to his proper age, he runs away after overhearing them talk about all the negatives of puberty and growing up. Finally, Steve is administered the antidote so he can do the one thing he wanted to do and prove he's ready for puberty: go to the dance with his girlfriend. But then a drunk Roger (who's jealous that Steve is getting all the attention on his birthday) ruins it by pantsing him in front of all the kids at the dance and revealing his single pubic hair, resulting in him getting grabbed by a group of bullies and given a swirly. Steve unknowingly gets the last laugh, however, when the pubic hair winds up landing on Roger's birthday cake.
    Roger: I hate Steve so much.
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • "The Kids" centered around Gumball and Darwin's voices cracking, caused by their voice actors reaching puberty themselves, and facing the inevitability of growing up while everyone begins treating them differently. Just as they come to accept it and realize that adulthood has its perks, their replacement voice actors take over and it becomes apparent that they're Not Allowed to Grow Up, for better or worse.
  • Gumball and Darwin's song in "The Faith" is both of the "growing up sucks" and "life just sucks" varieties. In it, the brothers try to show Alan how to find the good in life. It starts off pessimistic, however, it ultimately becomes optimistic.
• The Simpsons: The episode "Fat Man and Little Boy" begins with Bart losing his last baby tooth and coming to terms with this trope. Not only does Marge give him a check instead of a dollar bill for his tooth, he notices his childlike imagination beginning to fade. Eventually, he gives his toys a viking funeral.
• In The Owl House, it is technically legal (though frowned upon) for young witches to use multiple types of magic, but upon joining a coven as an adult they have all magic aside from their chosen field permanently sealed away. Although, 50 years of propaganda has convinced most of the population that this is actually a good thing.
• The Great North:
  • In Season 1 "Keep Beef-lievin' Adventure", Moon and Beef struggle with this during the episode. After getting bullied for still believing in Bigfoot, Moon gives up on "unrealistic" interests like cryptid-hunting. Beef tries to support him, but he also sings a musical number with his past imaginary friends lamenting his own transition from childhood to "the grown-up zone" and is clearly sad to see his youngest child growing bitter.
  • In Season 2 "Brace/Off Adventure", Judy learns that adulthood isn't as great as she thinks it is when she learns from Mr. Golovkin that many adults have gone through many disappointments in their life through his song "Brace Yourself".
• Discussed in the Pet Alien episode "The Boy Who Cried "Waaah!"" when Dinko finds Tommy's old baby pictures. Dinko is terrified of the idea of Tommy growing old, while Tommy himself isn't thrilled either but recognizes it as an important part of life. It eventually drives Dinko to try to stop Tommy from aging altogether.
  Tommy: People are babies when they're born, Dinko. We're small and shriveled, then we grow bigger and stronger, before eventually growing small and shriveled again, only with a lot more nose and ear hair.
  Dinko: [horrified Jaw Drop] You will grow old and hairy?! Oh... oh, we must prevent this at all costs!