Regarding Goof Troop's Father of the Year:
"His rare Pet the Dog moments seem more like the show trying to compensate for his far more frequent unpleasant side."
This makes it sound like Pete wasn't supposed to come off as awful, but he very clearly was. In fact, most of said Pet the Dog moments are downplayed by the show itself, if not outright subverted like in "Axed by Addition."
- To a lesser degree, Eddy is also implied to have issues with his parents. At one point, his father grabbed him by the arms wordlessly and dragged him away after seeing his report card, apparently abused him afterwords.
- YMMV on that- it's implied Eddy is in BIG trouble for failing every single class and then trying to "edit" his grades, but abuse/punishment aren't the same thing.
- To a lesser degree, Eddy is also implied to have issues with his parents. At one point, his father grabbed him by the arms wordlessly and dragged him away after seeing his report card, apparently abused him afterwords.
Examples Are Not Arguable. It sounds like it probably doesn't fit, but I don't actually remember this episode, so I can't say for sure.
Pulling this because I don't think it really fits the trope.
- In Rugrats, the main kids parents (and in Tommy's case, grandparents as well) are Criminally Neglectful of their infant children. Even though they love their children...they NEVER watch them properly, endangering their lives so many countless times.
They are neglectful and that goes under Parental Neglect (where they're already listed). It's also true that they would likely need to have their children taken away for their welfare (or at least get looked into), which is a related but separate trope to both of these, Social Services Does Not Exist (where they're also already listed).
But look at the other entries on this page. There is a variety of degree and method, but there is a consistent pattern in this trope's entries, and that is that the parent is active and intentional in what they do. They may not believe they're harming their kids, or they may be doing it on purpose, but the action of what they're doing to harm their kids is intentional and active. The Rugrats parents are just incompetent.
I didn't think the Sterns seemed abusive at all. In the Christmas episode they were a little harsh, but it didn't seem "abusive" at all. I saw another episode where Ulrich was trying to earn their pride by excelling in soccer, and his parents weren't cruel by any means. They seem to me like normal (if somewhat emotionally withdrawn) parents.
(P.S. is this how discussions happen? I'm kinda new here.)
I've edited the section that The Simpsons has. So much that was mentioned in it came from after season 8. It's fine to mention the newer seasons, but shifts in characterisation need to be acknowledged.
There were also far more points than necessary.
Please let me know if you think I have been unreasonable. I honestly want to do things properly.
Edited by RoseWithThorns