19 Kids/Teen TV And Movie Parents Who Are Awful

“In general, Dan Schneider show parents are, at best, ineffectual and, at worst, negligent — if they even appear. … Marissa Benson didn’t believe in boundaries when ensuring Freddie’s safety and physical wellbeing.”

—jbmasta

“I absolutely adore Rugrats, but the parents on that show were neglectful as shit. They were always huddled together in one room while their toddlers just roamed free. Awful, awful parenting.”

—egc26

“Finn’s parents from Adventure Time were so bad. Finn’s dad, Martin, was the worst! He is selfish, lazy, and only cares about his son if he could be manipulated. He had no issues abandoning his child when Finn’s arm was getting ripped off. Finn’s mom, or what’s left of her, was a kind and caring person, but she was so controlling.”

—zeilerra

“Jack Fenton is the bumbling dad trope come to life. He may come up with clever inventions, but he’s yet to come across common sense, such as putting a handle on the inside of a door to a sealed room. Maddie treats him as a kid more often than she has to do … with Danny and Jazz combined.”

—jbmasta

“Dora’s parents. [They] literally let her run everywhere without adult supervision.”

—yessirbrebre_26

“And they leave her to watch the twins when she’s like 4 years old.”

—hamhamham4545

“I love Luca, but his parents (specifically the mom) made me so mad. I mean, instead of talking to him about her reasons for being concerned, she instantly went and tried to send him off with a family member he had never seen to a place he had never been. That’s not a loving parent; that’s one seeking control. And then when she went around the town kicking all the children and pouring water on them because she couldn’t recognize her own child? IDK, I just couldn’t stand her in the movie.”

—hamhamham4545

“They forgot her birthday. I’m not talking about presents or a party. They didn’t even acknowledge the day. (Yes, the father remembered at the last minute.) It may not be the WORST thing, but [it’s] still pretty bad.”

—strcar

“How about Judy Hopps’s parents constantly trying to talk her out of her dream of becoming a police officer? They were afraid for her safety because she was a bunny, and they only encouraged her to settle even when she got the job. They were only satisfied once she had given up and come home to work on their family carrot farm and she was miserable.”

—kanight

“The dude literally meets a woman and gets engaged all while his daughter is away at some out-of-state piano recital (that he couldn’t even be bothered to attend or pick her up from), then doesn’t believe his daughter when she tells him the woman is evil! He totally sprang a new relationship and a major life change on his kid with no concern for how she would feel.”

—theformermrsbutterworth

“Mia’s mom never thought to tell her that her grandma was the queen of Genovia? And that she was a princess who’d one day become the queen?”

—chocolate829

“She is SUCH a bad mother! She didn’t tell her anything about her dad and didn’t tell her about the BOMB her grandmother was gonna drop when she was in town!”

—jaladhihpatel

“Seriously, you’re telling me that not ONE of them was able to get a job or help out around the house? We all know Grandpa Joe was dancin’ like his life depended on it once he realized he was going to the factory, but he didn’t appear to be doing shit while Charlie’s mother toiled over a hot stove.”

—christig2

“The parents in Frozen! Lock Elsa up, keep Anna stuck in a castle with no visitors? Then go off and get yourself killed?”

—bethw41d9ffb62

“How messed up is The Parent Trap? Okay sure, they got divorced and each took a kid … but to hide the existence of their sibling is messed up! They each had a picture of their missing parent but never knew of their sister?! Why didn’t their parents just tell them they had a sister?!”

—senpainoticedu

“I know he wasn’t actually there when it happened, but I’d say that anyone who has to say the words, ‘Honey, I shrunk the kids’ is at least pretty darn negligent. They were small enough to ride ants!”

—mollymcduck

“All of the kids in that movie were sent to a conversion therapy boot camp. And plenty of them were told by their parents that if they came back still having ‘untoward’ feelings toward people of the same sex, they would be disowned. … [Megan’s] parents plotted to send her there with her cheerleading squad and boyfriend! WTF?”

—whytetigress13

“She left her five kids alone with someone they’d never even met for three months to go galavanting around Australia! And the babysitter died like 10 minutes into the movie, meaning the mom never once checked in with her to see how the kids were doing, but took the word of a teenager that everything was fine.”

—katies4866f3362

“The mom on Victorious was literally having some sort of affair with her husband’s partner from work.”

—smokeyandvv

“In Victorious, when Tori’s parents made it obvious that they like Tori way more than Trina, and then left Tori (a 16-year-old who couldn’t drive!) to take care of her sister after wisdom teeth surgery and literally ran away from Trina.”

—rachelm4a67703c6

“Parents in Pokémon: Letting their 10-year-old kids wander all over the giant Pokémon world all by themselves? WTF?”

—mudda8139

“How does nobody talk about how neglectful the mother is in Ponyo?! I couldn’t get past the first act of the film where it just showcases how bad she is. The very first scene in the film is the kid playing right next to the open ocean where he could drown at any moment … and this seems to be the norm for him as he’s on his own for a while. … Then there’s a few scenes showing how the mother is bad at driving. She ignores safety rules, nearly crashes into other people, [and] drives like a wild woman with one hand!”

—senpainoticedu