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.
Sub-Trope of Youngsters and Teenage Tropes.
Contrast Maturity Tropes.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Parents aren't mature enough to know what constitutes as off-limits discipline.
- Alpha Bitch: The leader of the cheerleader team who bullies social outcasts.
- And Call Him "George"!: You're not mature enough to express your effections to others, so you would rather smother people to death.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Your younger sibling is immature.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness
- 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.
- Basement-Dweller
- 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.
- 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.
- Bullet Seed
- The Bully: Picking on others to mask your insecurities or out of boredom.
- Bully and Wimp Pairing: The Bully is paired with a Fragile Flower.
- Bullying the Disabled
- Can't Take Criticism: You're not mature enough to handle criticism well.
- Carload of Cool Kids: A Cool 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
- Circus Brat
- Class Clown: The kid in class who gets the most attention from teachers and students alike, typically not taking school seriously.
- Comical Nap Drool: Drool being released from the mouth during the process of a nap.
- Companion Cube: Treating inanimate objects like real people.
- Constantly Curious: Curiosity is a major nature of childhood.
- Creepy Child: A child with disturbing and malicious antics for their age.
- Crocodile Tears: Fake-crying to toy with others' emotions.
- Crying Little Kid
- 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.
- Deliberately Cute Child: A child uses their endearing nature to get their way.
- Desk Sweep of Rage
- Dirty Kid
- 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.
- 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.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Immediately brushing off any sympathy you may receive in response to experiencing a tragedy.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Someone thinks it's okay to joke around in inappropriate situations.
- Dumbass Teenage Son: An absent-minded, sex-driven teenage boy.
- Egging: A prank done to property which is also illegal.
- Elder Abuse
- Emotional Regression
- Enfant Terrible
- Entitled Bastard
- Evil Is Petty
- Experience Entitlement, ironically enough.
- Extreme Doormat: You're too immature to stop letting people walk over you.
- Face Doodling
- 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.
- Growing Up Sucks
- Goo Goo Godlike
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Being too innocent to use swear words.
- G-Rated Drug: A harmful food or drink induces high-like symptoms.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Insanely jealous of one's superiorities.
- 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.
- 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.
- Innocent Inaccurate: A naïve or misinformed character tells what they think is the truth.
- Innocently Insensitive: Making mistakes you didn't know would be considered offensive.
- Insufferable Genius
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Acting like you know everything because you've seen movies, oblivious to the difference between fantasy and reality.
- The Ingenue: Someone who is sweet and naïve accidentally causes trouble and inconvenience for others.
- I Reject Your Reality
- I Want My Mommy!: An immature way of longing for your mother.
- Jabba Table Manners: Eating like a pig.
- Jerk Jock: A jock immaturely expresses his insecurities by bullying people.
- Keet: An overly energetic and cheerful male character, typically the Genki Girl's Distaff Counterpart.
- 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
- Large Ham: A character whose overdramatic nature makes it hard for them to be taken seriously.
- Little Jimmy: A young character who lacks any distinguishing trait other than unawareness of the subject at hand.
- Little Miss Snarker
- Lazy Bum
- Manchild: An adult character who behaves like a child.
- Manipulative Bastard: Using manipulation to get your way.
- Military Brat
- Minor Injury Overreaction
- Minor Insult Meltdown
- 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
- Naïve Everygirl: A teenage girl who is frequently targeted by the Alpha Bitch, 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
- Never My Fault: You blame others for your actions instead of taking responsibility for them.
- Ninja Brat
- No Indoor Voice: SPEAKING AT THE TOP OF YOUR LUNGS LIKE THIS 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
- Overprotective Dad
- Parenting the Husband: A wife takes care of her immature husband.
- Parking Payback
- 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 Sick: Pretending to be sick so you can have an excuse not to attend an event.
- 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
- Psychopathic Manchild: An unstable adult character who possesses a slight touch of innocence that makes them charming.
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Using your cute eyes to get your way.
- Puppy Love: Kids who fall in love.
- Pushover Parents
- Revenge
- Royal Brat
- Sarcasm-Blind: You're too oblivious that someone said something sarcastic to you.
- Skilled, but Naïve
- Skip of Innocence: Skipping rather than normally walking.
- Snooping Little Kid
- Sore Loser
- Spill Stain Sabotage
- 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.
- 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.
- Teens Are Monsters: Teenagers who are rebellious, sociopathic, and even go as far as to break the law.
- The Slacker
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Someone who will not leave you alone no matter how hard you try to get them out of your life.
- Toilet Humor: Jokes about bodily functions.
- Toilet Paper Prank: Throwing toilet paper on one's property, typically known as TPing.
- Troll: Provoking others in pursuit of an annoyed reaction.
- "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
- 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.
- The Unapologetic: You lack maturity because you don't apologize for your actions.
- Ungrateful Bastard: You never thank anyone.
- Valley Girl: A teenage girl stereotype.
- Wangst: Endlessly complaining about the minor things makes you immature.
- You Meddling Kids
- Your Mom: Making jokes about another's mother is a common trait of immaturity.
