Exactly What It Says on the Tin, an index for tropes, pertaining with just about any form of immaturity.
Please note that not all tropes about children automatically qualify under this index, as some tropes may revolve around their precociousness.
See also Youngsters and Teenage Tropes.
Contrast Maturity Tropes.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Parents aren't mature enough to know what constitutes as off-limits discipline.
- Adults Are Useless: Adults, who are expected to be perpetually knowledgeable and influential to the youth, openly engage in impulsiveness, deliver heartless advice, and are generally portrayed as spiteful.
- All Take and No Give: Being demanding and not repaying with respect.
- Alpha Bitch: The leader of the cheerleader team who bullies social outcasts.
- And Call Him "George"!: You're not mature enough to express your effection to others, so you would rather smother people to death.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Your younger sibling is immature.
- Are We There Yet?: Persistently questioning if the driver has reached their destination, often in an antagonizing matter.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: You're easily distracted by something.
- Attention Whore: You desperately seek attention.
- The Baby of the Bunch: A child or childlike member of a group who is often treated as such by their peers.
- Babysitter from Hell: A sociopathic or incredibly mean babysitter who shows little-to-no discipline.
- Baby Talk: Talking in a cutesy manner to cater to someone outside of the infantile phase.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: People hurt animals for fun.
- Basement-Dweller: A grown man who still lives with his parents.
- Beauty Is Bad: A pretty character behaves condescendingly.
- Beta Bitch: The Alpha Bitch's Dragon.
- Big Brother Bully: Your older sibling bullies you.
- Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Character makes childish insults.
- Blinded by Rage: You make bad decisions based on your unstable emotions.
- Blowing a Raspberry: Phhhbbtt!
- Brats with Slingshots: Children in fiction are typically given slingshots as weapons.
- Bratty Half-Pint: A child who acts whiny, self-centered, and demanding.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Since your teenage daughter's brain hasn't finished developing, expect her to be immature and self-centered.
- Breath-Holding Brat: Someone holds their breath until their demands are met.
- The Bully: Picking on others to mask your insecurities or out of boredom.
- Bullying the Disabled: Harming the disabled population when they mean serious business.
- Can't Take Criticism: You're not mature enough to handle criticism well.
- Carload of Cool Kids: A car with the windows down passes by and the students inside make harassing remarks to passerbys or their less fortunate schoolmates.
- Cheerful Child: A prepubescent child who is incredibly energetic and enthusiastic.
- Childish Pillow Fight: A sleepover tradition is a group of two or more people playfully hitting each other with pillows.
- Children Are Innocent: Children are unaffected by the world's cruelty.
- Chuunibyou: Coolness is rooted for in loner reputation and awkward middle school experience.
- Circus Brat: A temperamental circus affiliate.
- Class Clown: The kid in class who gets the most attention from teachers and students alike, typically not taking school seriously.
- Companion Cube: Treating inanimate objects like real people.
- Constantly Curious: Curiosity with large doses of naivete.
- Creepy Child: A child with disturbing and malicious antics for their age.
- Crocodile Tears: Fake-crying to toy with others' emotions.
- Culture Justifies Anything: Letting your background go to your head without thinking twice.
- Curious as a Monkey: Someone's persistent curiosity about subjects they are naïve to.
- Cute and Psycho: Someone who is endearing and unstable at the same time.
- Cute Critters Act Childlike: Adorable animals behave like children.
- Deliberately Cute Child: A child uses their endearing nature to get their way.
- Delinquent: Teenagers who break the law in mischievous ways because they want to have fun in non-malicious ways.
- Desk Sweep of Rage: Sweeping everything off your desk in a fit of rage.
- Dirty Kid: A child with perverted interests.
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: "I'm disabled so I can behave however the fuck I want!"
- The Ditz: Lack of intelligence is often a sign of immaturity.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Immediately brushing off any sympathy you may receive in response to experiencing a tragedy.
- Double Standard: Violence, Child on Adult: A child physically attacks an adult as a means of revenge.
- Drama Queen: Making a big deal out of minor mishaps.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Someone thinks it's okay to joke around in inappropriate situations.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: An absent-minded teenage boy.
- Egging: A prank done to property which is also illegal.
- Elder Abuse: A monstrous individual or population purposely harms the elderly.
- Emotional Regression: Reverting back to an immature emotional state.
- Enfant Terrible: A child who is evil.
- Entitled Bastard: Expecting the same person you insulted and bullied to save you when you're in trouble.
- Evil Is Petty: The villain will do cruel things over insignificant slights just because they can.
- Experience Entitlement, ironically enough. People will often try to justify their immature behavior based on a tragic back story of theirs.
- Extreme Doormat: You're too immature to stop letting people walk over you.
- Face Doodling: Drawing on a person's face is considered immature.
- Flipping the Table: Throwing your desk across the room in a fit of rage.
- Food Fight: A fight performed by pelting food at each other, wasting money in the process.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish sibling being the immature one.
- Fragile Flower: You're oversensitive over the smallest things.
- Freudian Excuse, especially when the person using it attempts to justify their unprovoked actions with one.
- The Gadfly: Provoking others for fun.
- Gasshole: Having the tendency to purposely burp and fart doesn't make you mature.
- Genki Girl: A female character who is extremely cheerful and energetic.
- Girls Have Cooties: Boys refuse to hang around girls on account of them possessing a "virus".
- Goo Goo Godlike: An all-powerful child who doesn't know any better.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Being too innocent to use swear words.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Insanely jealous of one's superiorities.
- Growing Up Sucks: Children who believe that growing older is no fun because of the things they could do as children that they won't be allowed to do anymore.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: You're not mature enough to control your temper.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Laughing at an Accidental Innuendo or inappropriate word in one's speech.
- High School Hustler: Using rebellion to get through high school.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: A teenager who's ruled 24/7 by their sex drive.
- Hotel Hellion: Bratty little kid who terrorizes the hotel.
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Acting like you know everything because you've seen movies, oblivious to the difference between fantasy and reality.
- Imaginary Friend: Treating a figment of your imagination as your friend.
- Immortal Immaturity: Being immortal doesn't stop you from behaving like a child.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: A character fakes a big ego to cover up their insecurities or lets someone else's reputation take advantage of them.
- The Ingenue: Someone who is sweet and naive accidentally causes trouble and inconvenience for others.
- Innocent Inaccurate: A naïve or misinformed character tells what they think is the truth.
- Insufferable Genius: An intelligent person who smugly looks down on everyone with a lower I.Q.
- Internet Tough Guy: A cowardly online identity that tries to act tough to the more experienced when in reality they're societally inept.
- It's All About Me: You act as though the world revolves around you.
- I Reject Your Reality: A character can't take "no" for an answer and just has to have it their way.
- I Want My Mommy!: Desperately longing for your mother when you're in an undesirable situation.
- Jabba Table Manners: Eating like a pig.
- Jerk Jock: A jock immaturely expresses his insecurities by bullying people.
- Just a Kid: A character is denied certain privileges on account of their childlike state.
- Keet: An overly energetic and cheerful male character.
- Kiddie Kid: A child character acts younger than their stated age.
- Kids Are Cruel: Kids are not only immature, but also cruel, insensitive, and sociopathic.
- Kids Hate Grownups' Conversations: Children reject involvement in adult-held conversations.
- Knight Templar Parent: An extremely overprotective parent.
- Large Ham: A character whose overdramatic nature makes it hard for them to be taken seriously.
- Lazy Bum: Showing immaturity by refusing to be responsible and deal with the tasks you're expected to take care of.
- Little Jimmy: A young character who lacks any distinguishing trait other than unawareness of the subject at hand.
- Little Miss Snarker: A little girl delivers sarcasm.
- Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: You seek affection in places least appropriate.
- Manchild: An adult character who behaves like a child.
- Manipulative Bastard: Using manipulation to get your way.
- Men Are Childish: Men are called out on their childish behavior by women, their wives in particular.
- Military Brat: A character whose experience with the military contributes to their immaturity.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: Crying over getting hurt when it's something you can easily and quickly recover from.
- Minor with Fake I.D.: A minor presents a fake ID to be granted permission into an adults-only place.
- Mocking Sing-Song: Teasing someone in a sing-song voice, typically about their crushes.
- Mouthy Kid: When the child behaves as though they know better than the adult, except this time, they actually do.
- Mr. Imagination: Someone who pursues ideals, especially unrealistically, using their own imagination.
- Mustache Vandalism: Defacing portraits by drawing childish facial hair on them.
- My Beloved Smother: An overprotective, clingy mother.
- Naïve Everygirl: A teenage girl who is oblivious to the culture of adolescence and adulthood and is characteristically innocent.
- Naïve Newcomer: Newcomers are typically inexperienced and have trouble fitting in.
- Narcissist: You think so highly of yourself that it often leads you to disregard others.
- Never Grew Up: Physical maturity does not stop emotional immaturity.
- Never My Fault: You blame others for your actions instead of taking responsibility for them.
- Ninja Brat: A child tries to act like a ninja without experience.
- No Indoor Voice: Speaking at the top of your lungs does not make you mature.
- No Sense of Personal Space: You get all up in other people's personal space.
- No Social Skills: You're not socially adept.
- Not Good with Rejection: You're not mature enough to handle rejection.
- Not So Above It All: A mature character partakes in immature behavior.
- One of the Kids: An adult hangs out with children to signify their immaturity.
- Outhumbling Each Other: Romantic bickering.
- Overprotective Dad: A father acts overprotective towards their children, inferering with their world view.
- Parenting the Husband: A wife takes care of her immature husband.
- Parking Payback: Getting revenge on someone with poor parking lot skills.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: A teenager who is obsessed with their phone.
- Ping-Pong Naïveté: Someone who should know better from past experiences, but doesn't.
- Playing the Victim Card: Victimizing yourself in a quandary to get out of responsibility, often to get the real victim in trouble instead.
- Prank Call: Messing with a company or person via a phone call.
- The Prankster: Someone who lives to pull pranks on others.
- Precocious Crush: A child's innocent crush on an adult or adolescent.
- Psychological Projection: A character who unwittingly projects their own negative traits onto another.
- Psychopathic Manchild: An unstable adult character who possesses a childlike demeanor.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Using your cute eyes to get your way.
- Puppy Love: Kids who fall in love.
- Rage Quit: Quitting a game in a fit of rage.
- Revenge: Someone or something hurt you? Retaliate!
- Royal Brat: A spoiled rich kid (or young adult) misuses their power of royalty.
- Sarcasm-Blind: You're too oblivious to realize someone said something sarcastic to you.
- Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers!: An idealist can't think of a creative comeback.
- Skewed Priorities: You're immature if you care about minor things more than important events.
- Skilled, but Naïve: A full-fledged badass when they set their mind to it, but a Naïve Newcomer by default.
- Skip of Innocence: Skipping rather than normally walking.
- The Slacker: You're an unmotivated bum who does nothing.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: A teenage girl with an obsessive and nonsensical crush on a certain guy.
- Snooping Little Kid: Sneaky kid eavesdrops on suspicious or villainous sights.
- Sore Loser: Whining and complaining when you don't win a competition.
- Spill Stain Sabotage: A prank involving hiding a stain with a novelty gag.
- Spoiled Brat: Characters (and not just kids, but adults as well), who are arrogant, selfish, and entitled.
- Stalker with a Crush: Stalking someone to express your affection.
- The Stool Pigeon: You're a tattletale.
- Stop Copying Me: An immature way to go about being imitated.
- Super Gullible: So oblivious that you go along with whatever you're told.
- Tagalong Kid: A child tags along The Team's adventures and often comes off as a nuisance to them.
- Tantrum Throwing: Things don't go your way? Throw random things around.
- Teenage Wasteland: Kids now have adult power and rule over society.
- Teens Are Monsters: Teenagers who are rebellious, sociopathic, and even go as far as to break the law.
- Toilet Humor: Jokes about bodily functions.
- Toilet Paper Prank: Throwing toilet paper on one's property, typically known as TPing.
- Torment by Annoyance: Deliberately annoying someone in pursuit of an enraged reaction.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Acting on impulse to a traumatic fate.
- Troll: Provoking others in pursuit of an annoyed reaction.
- The Unapologetic: You're immature because you don't apologize for your actions.
- Ungrateful Bastard: You never thank anyone.
- Valley Girl: A teenage girl stereotype with a very naive demeanor.
- Wangst: Endlessly complaining about minor things makes you immature.
- "Wash Me" Graffiti: You see a dirty car or window, and write "wash me" on it.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: You're not mature enough to understand that the world isn't all that pleasant.
- Wild Card Excuse: Using the same excuse over and over again.
- Wild Child: A feral child with the mannerisms of an animal.
- Wild Teen Party: A rebellious, rambunctious party full of teenagers.
- Wiki Vandal: Vandalizing a wiki, typically when one is bored and has nothing better to do in their life.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, especially if the person didn't think twice about reaching out for professional help.
- You Meddling Kids: Teens get away with their malicious behavior on account of their legal minor status.
- Your Mom: Making jokes about another's mother is a common trait of immaturity.
