Parents As People / Western Animation

• Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: Ickis is often described as the son of the Great Slickis. Many characters, particularly Oblina and the Gromble, gush about how talented Slickis is (in stark contrast to Ickis' struggles to successfully complete his assignments). Slickis is shown to be a very friendly, laid-back monster who is often traveling the world while his son attends a boarding school, so consequently, they don't talk much. The first time they try to reconnect, Slickis honestly cannot remember if his son likes certain activities and Ickis gets mad because everybody else wants to hang out with Slickis, and he wants to spend the day with just his dad. They end up going to the surface world together in an attempt to scare the humans. Ickis messes up, Slickis saves him and then decides NOT to humiliate his son by revealing what happened after they return to the Academy. Ickis is puzzled but pleased, and the episode ends with the two monsters finally having a nice conversation. Later seasons mention Slickis, who Ickis still wants to impress, and he does come to watch his son win a Sewerball game (the monster version of baseball), but mostly he remains too busy with his own career to help Ickis.
• Adventure Time: Distant Lands fills in more backstory about Marceline's childhood, revealing that her mother, Elise, was Secretly Dying and sent Marceline alone to a bunker (unfortunately, making it seem like she was afraid of Marceline's emerging demonic powers). Marceline notes that her mom meant well, but suspects that this incident led to her trust issues.
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • The episode "The Parents" reveals that Daniel and Mary truly do love their daughter, Nicole, the mother of the titular character. Their problem, however, is that their mix of insane logic and ambition for Nicole has caused them to be controlling and put too much pressure on her, unintentionally being abusive to her.
  • Richard's mother Granny Jojo is partly responsible for her son becoming a lazy Manchild, having become smothering and overprotective because of the pain of her husband walking out on the family. Consequently, Richard never really learned how to take care of himself, and this nearly happens again to Gumball, Darwin, and Anais when she comes to visit. A Time-Passes Montage in The Choices also shows that she at some point did a complete 180, kicking Richard out of the house when he was old enough to move out, as opposed to gradually teaching him to be more self-reliant (which, given how extreme Richard's laziness and stupidity can be, is (in the spirit of this trope) understandable if not exactly great parenting).
  • Richard's father, Frankie, genuinely loves his son, but he's also a deadbeat Con Man who is bad at raising him. His abandonment of him didn't make things better, as it contributed to how he turned out, but also shows he didn't want Richard to turn out like him and how regretful he was doing so.
  • Nicole and Richard themselves are also presented this way. They are both loving people at heart who care deeply about their three children, but the latter is a lazy Manchild who's often presented as less capable than his own kids, while the former has serious anger issues, not helped by her being regularly stressed out by the fact she basically supports the whole family by herself and her kids (especially Gumball) often causing trouble, and can be overly controlling and harsh with the rest of the family. But they both still try to be there for their kids at the end of the day.
• In the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise:
  • The parents from Avatar: The Last Airbender are never around (Katara and Sokka's dad, who was off fighting in the war), stiflingly overprotective (Toph's parents, who infantilize their disabled child), overbearing (Mai's family, obsessed with their self-image and prone to ignore Mai's needs to favor her baby brother Tomtom) or were banished (Ursa, banished from the Fire Nation court after killing her father-in-law, Fire Lord Azulon, to protect Zuko). Zuko's Archnemesis Dad Ozai is just an unsympathetic Abusive Parent, however.
  • The Legend of Korra:
    • Tenzin is mostly a good father to his three kids. However, when it becomes clear that his daughter Jinora is much more spiritually talented than him, he ignores that due to both his pride and to avoid feeling inadequate as a spiritual mentor. He gets better after a pep talk from his student.
    • Tenzin's own father Aang spent more time with Tenzin than he did with Kya or Bumi since Tenzin was the only airbender (and thus the only one who could help revive the Air Nomad culture). Kya and Bumi resent Aang and Tenzin for this even in the present day though they get over it in the second season, and when Bumi becomes an airbender in the third season, he takes it in stride. Plus, Tenzin has severe self-esteem problems due to being The Dutiful Son: he loves his father, yes, but for a long time he tends to view himself as "The son of Avatar Aang and the hope for future airbenders" rather than just as "Tenzin".
    • Toph was very "hands-off" with her daughters due to her resentment of her own parents' opposite methods. Her younger daughter Suyin resented the perceived lack of attention and acted out, resulting in her being forced to leave her home, something her older sister Lin took very badly. Suyin in turn tried to keep her own daughter Opal from seeing the world (though she relents in the end), in a manner eerily reminiscent of her grandparents' treatment of Toph. The Bei Fong family in general seem to be prone to making mistakes in parenting despite the best of intentions.
    • Korra's father Tonraq, the chief of the Southern Water Tribe, never revealed to her that he used to be the heir to the Northern Water Tribe, but was exiled due to his recklessness, or that he raised her in near-total isolation and lied to her about the reason for doing it, so Korra is understandably pissed off when she learns about the first from her uncle Unalaq. Of course, then it turns out said uncle was behind his brother's exile in the first place, and in the third season, it's revealed Korra was hidden away because a terrorist group wanted to kidnap her for their own ends.
    • Hiroshi Sato is a Rags to Riches success story and devoted to his daughter Asami ever since his wife was murdered by a firebender. Then when it turns out he's funding the Equalist movement, he tries to kill his daughter when she stays with the Avatar. He realizes how wrong he was and redeems himself later, though, via pulling Redemption Equals Death.
• Batman: The Animated Series: Mayor Hamilton Hill is a competent public official, but he used his son Jordan's birthday as a platform to promote himself, and disapproves of the boy's interest in magic (then again, his son is only ten years old). This eventually drives the kid to run away and be inadvertently kidnapped by The Joker. They do eventually make up.
• In Western Animation/Bluey this downplayed with Bandit and Chilli. They try to be good parents to both Bluey and Bingo and they usually are, but they also are often tired, stressed, and overwhelmed with the rambunctiousness of their two daughters, so they tend to unintentionally hurt the girls' feelings from time on time and make mistakes on how to teach them life lessons.
• In the early seasons of The Boondocks (before flanderization set in), Grumpy Old Man Robert Freeman was a good guardian to his grandsons Huey and Riley, albeit a more violent one than most as he dished out Comedic Spanking and sage advice in equal measure. In the episode "Riley Wuz Here", after beating Riley for spraypainting a neighbor's house he makes him clean up his mess and signs him up for art lessons so he'd have a healthier creative outlet. He had plenty of faults of his own as well, such as his Hair-Trigger Temper and Casanova Wannabe shenanigans following the death of his wife.
• Danny Phantom: Jack and Maddie are sometimes more obsessed with their latest ghost-hunting activities to pay attention to their children—like noticing their son is the half-ghost kid they're hunting. Their older daughter Jasmine actually lampshades this, though her diagnosis is a bit of an exaggeration—when not distracted, they can show plenty of interest in their kids, often to the point of clinginess.
• Parents on Daria tend to be this way. Helen is a Workaholic and Jake is a Manchild who can't seem to move on from his own Hilariously Abusive Childhood, but both clearly care for Daria and Quinn. Jane's Hippie Parents are firm believers in Hands-Off Parenting, thinking that this is nurturing their kids' individuality, but don't seem to realize how dysfunctional her siblings are as a result. Jodie's mom and dad are both Education Mamas, but the Grand Finale shows that they are willing to put that aside when they realize how stressed she has become. Et cetera.
• DuckTales (2017):
  • Della Duck's character arc in season 2 focuses on this trope. She spends ten years stranded far away from her family as a direct result of her own thrill-seeking. Upon her return, she wants to become a good mother to her sons Huey, Dewey, and Louie but has no idea whatsoever how to go about it, acting more like a Cool Big Sis than a mother. This results in things like letting them overload on sugary treats, telling stories that keep them up all night scared to death, or encouraging recklessness not unlike her own. She grows gradually, realizing she was encouraging Dewey the wrong way, helping Huey try to step out of his comfort zone and try new things, or laying down the law on Louie when his antics nearly get everyone lost in time. She even offers encouragement to Webby, who saw Della as Always Someone Better. By season 3, she's grown enough to be a competent parent (or, at least she's on her way).
  • Her brother Donald found himself thrust into the father role at the time of Della's disappearance, at the same time her broke ties with Scrooge. To his credit, he's done the best he can and sacrificed a lot, but it's clear it's been shaky work at best.
  • Mrs Beakley never planned on raising Webby, and her overprotectiveness because she feared F.O.W.L. would be coming for the girl and unorthodox skillset have resulted in the girl growing up sheltered, lacking in real-world experience, and generally being weird. It's only when she meets the nephews and starts getting out of the house and see the world that Webby grows out of it and into a more complete person.
• The Fairly OddParents!: Timmy Turner's parents are silly, affectionate, devoted to each other... and leave Timmy in the care of a Babysitter from Hell while they're off pursuing their hobby of the week. They do make earnest attempts at being good parents (and are always quick to declare You Are Grounded!), but the fact is that Wanda provides the more traditional "motherly" role. In an episode depicting the first time they hired Vicky (which retcons the original shorts that the series was based on), they were unaware it was possible to hire someone to look after your children and were just sickeningly devoted to giving Timmy all their attention.
• Futurama: Fry's parents were odd individuals, with his mother being a hard-drinking sports fan and his father being a paranoid Conspiracy Theorist obsessed with the then-disbanded USSR. Though neglectful at times, the flashbacks showed that they really did love Fry and raised him as well as they were able. They even tried searching for him when he went missing.
• Green Eggs and Ham (2019): E.B. has always felt her mom Michellee (a literal bean counter) was too much of a smotherer throughout her life, thanks to her severely limiting the amount of fun she can have. It gets to the point where she forces E.B. to wear a "friendship bracelet" that remains magnetized to hers so she'll never leave her side. Then E.B. learns about what Michellee was before a bean counter: an amazing artist. But after her husband passed away she gave up on her artistry and took up the bean job just so she can provide support for her daughter. This gives E.B. a new level of respect for her that even the Lemony Narrator lampshades.
• Hey Arnold!
  • Arnold is the "old before his time" result of this trope, despite living with his grandparents rather than his parents. His grandma and grandpa are of the loving-but-eccentric variety (though they both can step up to the plate pretty well when called upon), which means Arnold spends a lot of time alone or with his friends.
  • In sharp contrast to Arnold's absent-minded but loving family set-up, Helga lives in the purely dysfunctional version of a family whose parents have both personalities and serious issues. If anything, the extensive characterization given to her parents, particularly her disillusioned and possibly-alcoholic mother, make her and her sister's situation seem even more tragic: Helga is cynical, bitchy, Tsundere and disenchanted because they pay so little attention to her, whereas Olga is a deluded Shrinking Violet and Stepford Smiler because they give her too much attention.
• Hilda:
  • Being the single parent for most to her daughter, Johanna acts pretty overprotective towards Hilda. But because Hilda constantly gets into life-threatening adventures and can't stand in one place, their relationship has begun to deteriorate during the events of second season, culminating in Johanna grounding Hilda twice, yet being visibly unhappy. Her Tough Love approach is given a depth in Grand Finale, when in turns out her own parents left her when she a little younger than Hilda, but for an extremely good reason, and worse, most of her memories about them were erased by her aunt in a misguided attempt to ease her pain.
  • Speaking of Hilda's father Anders, he's a spontaneous explorer with risk-taking tendencies. While the two are shown to have a loving relationship, Anders' absence from his daughter's life is big enough that she rarely mentions him, while deep down wishing him being in her life more. Becoming aware of how impactful is Parental Neglect truly is, Anders eventually settles in Trolberg to be in her life more.
• Invader Zim: Professor Membrane is a generally-affable and utterly brilliant Bunny Ears Scientist who is entirely too wrapped up in fixing every problem in the world to pay much attention to his children. His relationship with his son Dib is particularly strained because Dib won't get involved in "REAL Science" (he's an eleven-year-old paranormal investigator), while his daughter Gaz's desire to spend time with him is the only time in the series she shows a desire to be around anybody. The movie actually has him and Dib's relationship as its main emotional arc, showing that he's always proud of Dib even when he pursues interests that Membrane thinks are nonsense.
• Kim Possible: Ron's parents — particularly his dad — are relatively pleasant people but show little interest in their son. They barely include him in decisions they make which affect his life, such as moving to Norway in The Movie or adopting a second child. The fourth season does, however, see them become a little more involved in his life, such as the episode in which Mr. Stoppable, who is an actuary, helps bring down a villain whose poweris his ability to do math.
• King of the Hill: Hank loves Bobby and tries to do right by him, but has to deal with the fact that he and Bobby are very different people as well as the fact that Hank has to unlearn everything he learned about parenting from his own abusive father.
• Discussed in Masters of the Universe: Revelation where, after Adam's death, King Randor and Queen Marlena's marriage completely fell apart. They blamed each other for Adam's death, became more and more burned out from constantly fighting over it, and eventually came to despise one another with Marlena even deciding to outright leave Randor and return to Earth (with only the return of Skeletor making her stick around to help). Adam feels incredibly guilty over this when he's resurrected as he feels it's his fault this happened, needing to confide in Teela over how amazed he is to see his parents this way.
  Adam: I think I just learned my parents were people.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • Gabriel Agreste makes it very clear that he loves his son Adrien dearly and only wants what's best for him. Unfortunately, he's also aloof, stern, has very rigid ideas of what's "best" that doesn't take Adrien's opinions into account, is very caught up in his work as a famous designer and social elite, and is also a supervillain routinely threatening Paris. More concerningly, he's eventually revealed to be completely obsessed with bringing back his dead wife at any cost, both for his own sake and his son's (as he believes Adrien needs his mother), but Adrien has long since come to terms with her demise... and her dying wish was for Gabriel to give up his mad quest and just focus on being a father.
• On Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, Miss Spider and Holley aren't portrayed as perfect parents and neither are Spiderus and Spindella once they become parents. As early as "Family Circus," Miss Spider is shown making a mistake when she admits she jumped to conclusions regarding Squirt's actions.
• The Owl House:
  • Camila Noceda, Luz's mother, is shown to genuinely care for her daughter and her strangeness, but when her eccentric behavior keeps getting her into trouble, she quickly starts feeling overwhelmed by the other parents judging them both. Her decision to send Luz to Reality Check Summer Camp was one she felt pushed into by Luz's principal, who tells her Luz is seeking attention to cope with her father's death, and would need to curb this behavior to avoid the bullying Camila herself was subjected to in high school. This made Luz feel like her mom would never understand her, and led to her decision to stay in the Boiling Isles, which Camila blames herself for when she finds out. After taking in Vee and later Luz's friends, Camila shows herself to be a very supportive parent, doing extensive research on her new adoptees' nutritional needs, reading up on LGBTQ+ topics after Luz comes out as bisexual, and even diving straight into a lake to save a Belos-possessed Hunter from drowning. At the end of "Thanks to Them", she decides to go with Luz and the others to the Boiling Isles, seeing it as her duty to get the Hexsquad back to their families, and refusing to let her daughter go up against threats like Belos on her own.
  • Gwendolyn Clawthorne loves both her daughters, but she managed to be the exact wrong kind of parent to each of them. She always gave Edalyn, the younger sister, more attention because her big sister Lilith seemed so capable and she felt like Eda needed her more. After Eda was cursed and Lilith made it into the Emperor's Coven (the pinnacle of the magical regime) she devoted her life to finding a cure for Eda and basically ignored Lilith entirely. She didn't realize that Lilith was actually hugely insecure and desperately wanted her approval and validation, while Eda was a lot stronger and more independent than Gwen gave her credit for and didn't want or need her help. Her attempts at finding a cure for Eda led her to fall victim to scam artists, forcing her to sell family heirlooms to keep buying more bogus remedies. After her latest attempt at a cure goes awry, she acknowledges that Eda is capable of running her own life, and Lilith decides to move back in with her so they can start rebuilding their relationship.
• Phineas and Ferb: After having a Hilariously Abusive Childhood, Doctor Doofenschmirtz is very dedicated to being a wonderful dad to his daughter Vanessa... except he isn't very good at it. When he isn't making the usual 'embarrassing parent' mistakes, conflicts result from the fact that he's sometimes too obsessed with his job of causing evil to care for his daughter. However, he's still overall presented as being one of the Good Parents, and Vanessa clearly loves him even when she's exasperated with him.
  Vanessa: I can't believe you brought work with you!
  Dr. Doof: What do you mean?
  Vanessa: Dad, you've got some guy tied up here.
  Dr. Doof: No, Vanessa. We've got some guy tied up here.
• Ready Jet Go!: While Carrot and Celery are intelligent and loving parents, they also have flaws that help humanize them (no pun intended), and have actual personalities outside of just being the parents of Jet. For instance, Carrot can be rather bumbling at times. This eventually comes to a head in "Mindy and Carrot Bake", where Carrot's cluelessness inadvertently gets them stranded in space. Celery tends to be Innocently Insensitive, as it often seems like she doesn't care about Sean due to ignoring his protests of going to space. She does care about him and just wants him to have a fun time learning.
• Recess: The Gang's parents aren't depicted much, but when they are, they're far more likely to end up making a mess or admitting their own flaws rather than saving the day.
  • The trope is most commonly seen with Spinelli's parents. As the toughest kid on the playground, she frequently makes it extremely clear that she doesn't like cosmetics and fashion, and has a general aversion to all things "girly." Despite Spinelli repeatedly saying this, though, her parents, and especially her mom, have a tendency to baby and treat her like a little princess, which she hates. In "More Like Gretchen," Spinelli recruits Gretchen to come along to a cosmetics museum, as her mother is outright forcing her to go. While there, Gretchen makes a big impression on Mrs. Spinelli with her wide array of knowledge; she does the same with Mr. Spinelli at a family dinner later. The parents are so pleased with her that they constantly wonder why Spinelli can't be more like Gretchen to their daughter's face. Needless to say, this deeply hurts Spinelli's feelings.
  • Gus's father has a similar problem. A lieutenant who calls his son "cadet," he tends to look at the world through a military perspective, which, while well-intentioned, doesn't always come across as particularly wise. In one episode, he responds to Gus's question about a bully by telling a lengthy story about Belgium standing up to Germany during World War One. Gus is impressed at the idea of "little Belgium" defeating the superpower; Lieutenant Griswald then bursts out laughing, explaining that Germany absolutely destroyed Belgium in the war (although the action did prompt the rest of Europe to stand up to Germany, a metaphor for what happens later in the episode regarding the bully). Gus ends up feeling no better than before after hearing this "advice" (though Gus' mom does later chew out her husband for giving their son such terrible advice).
  • In a more minor example, Gretchen's parents often encourage her scientific pursuits to the detriment of her friendships and other hobbies. In "My Fair Gretchen," the young genius gets a perfect score on a difficult test, prompting the school to try to send her to an academy for gifted students. Gretchen doesn't want to go, because it will separate her from her friends, but her parents won't listen (in her own words, "my mom's been turning cartwheels since I told her").
  • During the series, most of the staff play de facto villains for the kids by being too rule-heavy or forcing conformity on the students. Despite this, many of them get various episodes that try to humanize them and show they aren't unstoppable monster adults. This becomes a major thread in the movie where the villain wants to get rid of summer vacation and the staff help the students take them down. TJ gets a strong speech from Prickly while the two are locked up where Prickly explains that he loves summer vacation if only for the memories he had in the past, and the hope that kids can make new memories in his stead as he ages.
• Rick and Morty: Both Jerry and Beth often show concern for their kids and the effect Rick's antics can have on them, however they are continuously hindered by their own psychological problems and their failing marriage. Beginning with Season 4, the two of them have patched up their issues and make an effort to be better parents (even if their attempts aren't always successful).
• Rocket Power: Ray Rocket, Reggie and Otto's dad, is a "cool" dad with one foot firmly in the Competence Zone... so he falls victim to this trope occasionally. One example is in "Race Across New Zealand," where he lets his own macho pride turn into Parental Favoritism, to Reggie's dismay.
• Rugrats:
  • The parents are funny and developed, and their subplots are an important part of what makes the show entertaining for adults as well as kids. However, the entire premise of the show relies on them being completely oblivious to their toddlers wandering off on dangerous adventures.
  • Drew and Charlotte Pickles love Angelica so much, but they both have issues with raising her. Drew tends to be too doting and a tad bit submissive to his daughter, which may be a contribution to Angelica being a Spoiled Brat. Charlotte is a workaholic who tends to focus too much on her job, causing her not to pay much attention to Angelica. Then again, Drew and Charlotte do have moments when they effectively discipline Angelica and show that they do love her.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Out of the three parent-helmed family or family-like units we get in meaningful detail, only one isn't shown to be well-intentioned but flawed (the exception, Shadow Weaver, is "less well-intentioned but flawed" and more "manipulative, dishonest and cruel").
  • Queen Angella means well and loves her daughter, but her overprotective streak poses something of a problem, especially since she's literally a higher being by virtue of being an immortal angel: she spends most of the first season arguing with Glimmer, trying to get her to be more like Angella and less like her Disappeared Dad Micah. Eventually, she comes to accept Glimmer as the person she is, rather than continually trying to reshape her, and their relationship becomes a lot better, but Glimmer keeps her insecurities, and they play a role in some of Glimmer's more foolhardy decisions in the fourth season.
  • Bow's dads love him without reservation, but they've gotten it into their heads that his greatest dream is to be a historian like them, and they didn't listen when he told them otherwise. Bow has constructed an entire fake life to allow him to continue fighting with the Rebellion without disillusioning them. That being said, after the whole thing comes crashing down, they accept his choices and apologise for failing him as parents, but in a Lotus-Eater Machine that gives people some of their deepest desires to keep them quiescent - Catra gets Adora back, Glimmer's family is back together, and so on - Bow is shown as a trainee archivist, rather than the technically gifted soldier he became in the real world.
• The Simpsons:
  • Homer admits he's a terrible parent, and he does try to rectify this (usually), but he's emotionally tone-deaf, he and Bart don't usually get along, he and Lisa are too different despite her being a Daddy's Girl, and with Maggie, Homer sometimes forgets she even exists, or what her name is. At one point he even tries to be a better and attentive father, only for Bart and Lisa to tell him they prefer him being a "half-assed under-parent". Despite all of this, he's often desperate to earn the love and respect of his children, has sacrificed himself for them many times over, and will go full Papa Wolf when the occasion requires it.
  • Marge can be considered a more mundane variant; while she's a more competent parent, she is still imperfect and sometimes vents her personal issues and overbearing nature onto her kids despite her devotion to them.
  • Abe is shown to be this as well. He was verbally abusive, rarely showed Homer any affection, and never encouraged him at anything he attempted. However, he also did the best he could to raise Homer alone when Mona left them and it's been shown that he made multiple personal sacrifices for Homer when he was a child and never told him.
• South Park:The parents of the characters, especially Mr. and Mrs. Marsh, have received a surprising amount of development, even to the point of directly impacting the episodes' plots. Similarly, Kyle's mom Sheila often ends up causing more problems than she solves, both for her son and the town in general, when she starts off on one of her social crusades.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Marco's parents, Rafael and Angie. The two are Happily Married alright, but they act so much like they're still on their honeymoon that they can be a bit neglectful of Marco at times and are oblivious to all the life-threatening adventures he goes on with Star. Despite this, they still show a lot of care for their son, like showing concern for him when he's depressed, becoming lonely when he's gone for long periods, and enjoying those moments they spend with him.
• Steven Universe: A major theme is that all of Steven's parental figures, for all that he looks up to them, are still people, with problems and issues of their own. This is particularly true of the main maternal figure in his life, the local Team Mom Pearl, who has been a neurotic wreck ever since Steven's mother Rose left her for his father Greg and then 'died' to become part of Steven, with resulting projection issues and a huge distrust toward any human that isn't Steven, which she has to gradually grow out of.
  • Steven's Missing Mom is a Posthumous Character, and while she initially seems like an ideal example of Deceased Parents Are the Best, she falls under this trope the more we learn about her, with Steven struggling with her imperfect decisions and the fallout therein.
  • Steven's father Greg is a very loving, supportive, and open-minded parent who dotes on his son as much as he can. However, due to him almost always working just to support him financially and Steven's constant training to become a Crystal Gem, they don't always see each other as much as they want. It even becomes a plot point in one episode where Greg fakes an injury just so they can spend more time together.
  • Greg also gets several flashback episodes including one where he met Steven's mother and another which shows how incredibly immature he was prior to Steven's birth. He may not be perfect now, but Greg had to learn to be better, and the flashback episode where Greg talks about a snowstorm shows he didn't know how to be a good Dad at first, he was just doing what he could because he loved Steven and Rose. Steven Universe: Future dives into this further in "Mr. Universe," where Greg breaks into his parents' house to retrieve a CD. Greg was clearly miserable as a kid with stuffy conservative parents and he was moved by a song on that CD to change his name to "Universe" when he left. He sent his parents letters from Beach City, which logically would have had him telling them about Rose and Steven, letters that they kept but didn't open - meaning he tried but could never reconcile with them. Without their support, and trying to encourage a freedom he never had, Steven was brought up in a much more free range fashion without the kind of stability a sterner upbringing would have brought. Leaving their house, Greg and Steven talk past each other, both unable to relate to the other's difficulty.
  Greg: You grew up with actual freedom!
  Steven: I grew up in a van! I never went to school! I'd never been to the doctor until two days ago! [...] My problem isn't that I'm a Gem, my problem is I'm a Universe!
  • Connie's parents, Priyanka and Doug Maheswaran, began as overly-strict Education Mamas, with Priyanka especially having Control Freak tendencies that made the poor girl terrified of her. The episode "Nightmare Hospital" has her find out about Connie's Gem-related activities and reluctantly starts encouraging her to pursue them. She also decides to start mellowing out after seeing how much emotional damage her parenting techniques are causing and the fear that the rift being created will cause Connie to never ask her mother for help (even when she needs it). Priyanka's appearance in Steven Universe: Future shows that those aspects of her that had appeared as flaws are, when modulated by the Character Development she went through, extremely beneficial - sometimes you need a parent who can dish out Brutal Honesty, and that overprotectiveness, when softened, is just necessary care and worry for people who need worrying about.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): While earlier series had portrayed him as more of a teacher than a parent or a strict but overall good father, here he's shown to be this trope. He's kept the turtles from the rest of the world their whole lives and (upon the reappearance of the Shredder) forced his sons to undergo nonstop intense training for weeks. But it's made clear that this is Anger Born of Worry, as the five's appearance as mutants forces them to remain in hiding, and he worries about the Shredder killing the turtles just like he killed Hamato Yoshi's first family. He does acknowledge, however, when he goes too far, and is willing to trust his sons' judgement at times.
• Tuca & Bertie: Bertie's parents have a nasty habit of brushing serious problems under the rug, such as sending teenage Bertie to an ill-equipped school counselor after she's been molested instead of helping her through the experience themselves. They also are implied to be fairly uptight and put a lot of pressure on Bertie to be successful as a kid, believe that Therapy Is for the Weak, and in Bertie's mother's case, tend to downplay Bertie's accomplishments. However, this behavior affects themselves as much as her, as they suffer a hoarding problem and don't contact Bertie about her father's serious surgery lest they "bother" her. "Fledgling Day" also reveals that Bertie's mother has some hangups about her old age and appearance, and Bertie helps her work that out, improving their relationship in the process. She's also genuinely proud of Bertie's decision not to have kids, even if it means she won't be a grandmother.
• The Weekenders: Tino's dad obviously cares a lot about his son but due to insecurities about being boring, fails to realize that all his son wants to do when he's visiting his dad (or his dad is visiting him) is to spend time with him and just him and is so upset by the latest visit that he just wants it to be over. He eventually fixes it but it takes a full-hour episode to do it.
• Young Justice (2010):
  • Paula Crock, formerly the supervillain Huntress, ex-wife of Sportsmaster, and mother of Artemis and Jade. Following a stint in prison after a job-gone-bad that cost her the use of her legs, Paula gave up the villain life and took sole custody of Artemis (Jade had already ran away to become the supervillain Cheshire), hoping to keep her remaining child from repeating her mistakes. While by most accounts she was a good mother (Artemis's boyfriend Wally noted at one point that he liked her), she was not averse to occasional bouts of emotional manipulation, such as using her disability to guilt Artemis into actions like accepting a scholarship for a better school out of town or giving up her dangerous superheroics to settle down. It's also hinted that she had no problems with her ex putting their daughters through extreme physical training until her accident influenced her change in perspective.
  • M'gann's parents, J'ann and M'aatt M'orzz, are a mixed Green/White Martian couple in a society that heavily stigmatizes such relationships. While they love all of their twenty-nine children, only two (M'gann and her younger brother M'comm) were born White, which not only made them subject to prejudice outside the family, but also within as J'ann and M'aatt struggled to teach tolerance and acceptance when so many of their children were born to the privileged Green caste. The combination of societal prejudice and toxic home environment eventually resulted in M'gann fleeing to Earth with her uncle, while M'comm estranged himself from the family and became a terrorist allied with Apokolips. M'gann still retains a good relationship with her parents, but even she agrees with her brother that they failed to protect both of them in the ways they needed growing up, though she still places value on the fact that they at least tried.

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