History Main / HandsOffParenting

** They started out like this in [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce Ben 10: Alien Force]], but then became significantly stricter.

* ComicBook/SpiderMan: During the first years, Spider-Man was a classic example. Peter Parker was a teenager living with his Aunt May, he had super-power, a secret identity, a Spider-Man costume, works in the newspaper taking photos of Spider-Man, stayed out of home at any hour or during any time needed, get back home hurt... and May never suspected anything. Subverted in the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' comic book, where May actually enforced some discipline (up to the point when she knew what was going on and Gwen Stacy, Iceman, and the Human Torch moved to live with them; then it became an even greater "Lane house" than the original Spider-Man)

* Moira Queen in ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' seemed to have this issue with both her children, Oliver and Thea, giving them too much freedom and learning little responsibility. It got to the point what [[spoiler:when Oliver got a woman named Samantha pregnant, Moira thought that the best course of action was to pay her so she would disappear from Oliver's life so he wouldn't have to assume the responsibilities of a parent]]. Both Oliver and Thea were forced to mature largely due to their own experiences.

** In another episode, Dharma finds out that her parents are planning to have another baby, and she begins to wax nostalgic about her own childhood, and such beloved toys as "shoeboat". Then she finds out they plan to raise the baby more conventionally than they did Dharma, and she suddenly realizes how many of her beloved memories were probably motivated just as much by the benefit of not having to spend any money on her as they were her parents' "let the butterfly go free" parenting strategy (shoeboat, as the name might suggest, is in fact an ordinary shoe which Dharma was encouraged to think of as a boat at bathtime). Eventually her parents manage to convince her they really did, and still do, love her, just like they're going to love this new child.

* In ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' Carly's father is in the military (so a partial aversion) and so is always away, her mother is never mentioned and her adult brother is OneOfTheKids. Freddie's mom however goes to the opposite extreme.

-->'''Ms. [=McCall=]:''' "Don't either of you care that there's a POLICE-ENFORCED CURFEW?"
-->'''Scott and Stiles:''' "...no."
-->'''Ms. [=McCall=]:''' ''(walks away)'' "All right, that's enough parenting for tonight."

-->'''Ms. [=McCall=]:''' "It's not like you're on drugs, right?"
-->'''Scott:''' "Right now?"
-->'''Ms. [=McCall=]:''' "RIGHT NOW? Have you ever been on drugs?"
-->'''Scott:''' "Have you?"
-->'''Ms. [=McCall=]:''' ''(walks away)'' "Get some sleep."

* This is what ComicBook/GreenArrow amounted to when he took in Roy Harper. While they spent plenty of time fighting bad guys together, out of costume Ollie had barely any presence in Roy's life and was pretty oblivious to what was going on with him, including the crippling sense of abandonment and loneliness building up inside Roy that led to his heroin addiction.
* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tim Drake was the result of some incredibly hands-off parenting by his globe-trotting parents. They loved him, and he them, but he often didn't even know what country they were in and his father at least had no idea what his son even liked. This neglect enabled him to wander about Gotham as a kid and figure out ComicBook/{{Batman}} and Robin's identities, though presumably his parents assumed Tim was safe in one of the many boarding schools they consigned him to.

* Toph Beifong in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' adopted this parenting strategy, partly in response to her own stifling upbringing and partly due to a demanding career. Unfortunately, she went too far in that direction (among other things, Lin and Suyin don't even know who their respective fathers are) leading to a myriad of issues in her children. Lin assumed responsibility from a very young age (as a teenager she was Suyin's father figure essentially) while Suyin rebelled and fell in with the Triads. Her two daughters ended up estranged with her and each other for over 30 years until they finally reconciled.

With this level of benign neglect, the kids usually somehow turn out all right... or at least self-sufficient, if not a bit cynical. Bonus points if the mother is an artist.

** At the start of the book a strawman from child services questions this arrangement and is treated like a representative from the DepartmentOfChildDisservices, who's sent packing by her high test scores, her disinterest in other children, and the logic that she spends more time with her family than most children (although most children have ''someone'' else around). When Tia is seven she gets sick in a way the medical AI can't diagnose and by the time her parents return home she's paralyzed. After taking her to a hospital, her parents transfer guardianship to one of her doctors so they can return to their dream job. ''Despite all of this'', Tia [[DelusionsOfParentalLove remembers them fondly]] as GoodParents.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Were Willow Rosenberg's parents ''ever'' home, except when it was convenient for the plot - like the time Willow's mom and the other parents nearly burned Willow and Amy at the stake?\\
\\
Her mother basically seems to be far more interested in studying teenagers than actually interacting with her teenage daughter. She doesn't know Willow's best friends' names, views Willow as a demographic rather than an individual, and is surprised to see Willow's change of hairstyle when it's been that way for months. All we know about her father is that his name is Ira and he won't let her watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special ([[InformedJudaism they're Jewish]]).
** Excepting Joyce, were any of the teen characters' parents around outside of plot-relevant reasons? Cordy's parents were often mentioned but never seen. Oz's were never mentioned, nor were Xander's. The only adult figures of any parental importance who were around consistently were Giles, Joyce, and Wesley. And maybe the Mayor, if you consider him as a sort of evil father figure.

** In Henry VIII's case it wasn't so much hands-off as remote control. Henry didn't spend much time with his children but he was a micro-manager of their household regulations, especially those of Prince Edward.

Might be a consequence of a parent who is AllergicToRoutine or DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife. Polar opposite of (and '''never''' confuse with) HelicopterParents and MyBelovedSmother.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': The Lane family are the alternative {{Trope Namer}}s. The parents are both artists and spend long periods of time away from home; their five kids are each a bit dysfunctional, though [[TheSlacker Trent]] and [[CoolLoser Jane]] a bit less than the others. Trent once lived in a tent in the backyard for six months; his mother saw it as letting him find his own path, while he [[spoiler:was waiting for someone to invite him back in]].

** It's implied that the super-serious Kanae "Moko" Kotonami is the product of such a style of parenting, leaving her as the de facto adult at her home... despite the fact that she has at least two older, married siblings, if only because they are repeating the same hand off style with their respective families.

* In ''Manga/PenguinRevolution'', Yukari's father is like this, just before the full fledged parental abandonment.

* While it is a far cry from neglect, Yotsuba Koiwai of ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'' spends a lot of time unsupervised, considering that she's only five. Can be justified due to different culture values. Japanese children are allowed to go around unsupervised more commonly, usually when walking to school or taking the subway.

* ''Anime/{{Noein}}'': Haruka's parents are divorced and she lives with her mom, who's like this. She isn't spacy or detatched or self-involved, though, she's just really lazy, especially by stereotypical anime mom standards, and sleeps all the time.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': The Desmond couple appear to be this way towards their two sons, with one of Melinda's friends even flat-out saying that she's got a rather hands-off style of parenting. And that hands-off style comes in the form of both of them ignoring their children in favor of their own hobbies or position, but having great expectations of them that honors the Desmond family name. Between the two of them, Melinda does seem to at least ''care'' about her children, as she's genuinely worried when Damian was in danger at one point [[spoiler:until he mentions his father, at which point her conflicted feelings of loving her son, but hating him for apparently being a reminder of her unhappy marriage to that man, make her appear colder]].

* Masaomi Kida's parents in ''{{Literature/Durarara}}'' apparently take this view and seem entirely unconcerned about their son going out late at night, dropping out of high school (and before that [[spoiler:becoming a gang leader]]) to the point that his friend Mikado pulls a LampshadeHanging on it. Ironically of his three friends Masaomi is the only one whose parents are actually around, as Mikado's parents rent an apartment for him closer to his school and Anri's are dead, but you'd never know it by how he acts.

* ComicBook/SpiderMan: During the first years, Spider-Man was a classic example. Peter Parker was a teenager living with his Aunt May, he had super-power, a secret identity, a Spider-Man costume, works in the newspaper taking photos of Spider-Man, stayed out of home at any hour or during any time needed, get back home hurt... and May never suspected anything. Subverted in the ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' comic book, where May actually enforced some discipline (up to the point when she knew what was going on and Gwen Stacy, Iceman and the Human Torch moved to live with them; then it became an even greater "Lane house" than the original Spider-Man)

* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tim Drake was the result of some incredibly hands off parenting by his globe trotting parents. They loved him, and he them, but he often didn't even know what country they were in and his father at least had no idea what his son even liked. This neglect enabled him to wander about Gotham as a kid and figure out ComicBook/{{Batman}} and Robin's identities, though presumably his parents assumed Tim was safe in one of the many boarding schools they consigned him to.

* While [[ManipulativeBastard Granny Hina]] insists that she's helping the tenants at the Hinata Inn, much of ''FanFic/AnAlternateKeitaroUrashima'' revolves around [[DeconstructionFic showing the consequences]] of her inaction. Rather than addressing their various neuroses, she gives them a place to stay where they don't have to deal with the consequences of their actions. When others don't show them the same leniency, she teaches them to [[NeverMyFault blame everyone but themselves]], and complains incessently when ''she'' has to deal with the fallout as well. She doesn't appreciate [[CallingTheOldManOut having this pointed out]], or getting taken to task for [[spoiler:pawning her duties off on Haruka instead and continuing her World Tour]].

* Mob's parents in the ''Webcomic/MobPsycho100'' gender swap fanfic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13226631/1/Shigeko-Kageyama-AKA-Mob Shigeko Kageyama AKA Mob]]''. As a girl Mob faces more scrutiny from her mother and she can't measure up. Her mother is both ashamed of how strange her daughter is and afraid of her because of her powers. Early in the store Mob's mother reaches her breaking point when she catches Mob and Ritsu fighting and she vents her frustrations at Mob. Mob then decides to run away from home and live with Reigen, a man that they have only met once before. As of the latest chapter her parents still have no intention of telling their daughter to come back home, or to parent Mob in any way, even after many people on the internet begin to speculate that Reigen's relationship with Mob may be inappropriate.

* In ''Film/LetMeIn'', Owen's mother is clearly completely detached from his life due her own alcoholism and despondency over her failed marriage. She is completely unaware that Owen is being physically and emotionally tortured by bullies every day at school and is developing psychological quirks at home due to his sheer loneliness. She thinks everything is just fine and dandy with him. Owen's father, meanwhile, hasn't even seen him for an undetermined amount of time and is also oblivious to his plight. It's an ironic point that Abby, a vampire, shows more genuine concern for Owen's well-being than either of his parents. It makes [[spoiler:Owen's decision to leave with Abby at the end of the film completely understandable]].

* In ''Film/PacificRim'', this pretty much sums up Hercules Hansen's parenting-style. After his wife's death in Sydney and the rapid rise of the {{Kaiju}}, Herc spent all of his time working for the [[CreatureHunterOrganization PPDC]] or fighting in a [[HumongousMecha Jaeger]], leaving his young son to all but raise himself. And it has come back to bite him in the ass. ''Big time''. When Herc claims that he doesn't know who Chuck is anymore, his son says that Herc ''never'' knew who he was in the first place since Herc never spent any time with him.

* In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', Dr. Henry Jones Sr. tells his son that he deliberately adopted this parenting style in reaction against his own strict upbringing and is astonished when Henry Jr. (aka Franchise/IndianaJones) makes it clear he did NOT appreciate it.

* ''Literature/PointCounterPoint'' features Elinor's mother, Mrs Bidlake, who has retreated so far into her ideal world of art and fantasy that she refuses to acknowledge 95% or what goes on around her. She only got involved in Elinor's upbringing when there was a possibility of her artistic taste being affected.[[labelnote:Note:]] Ironically, her insistence that Elinor only see the best that culture had to offer made Elinor cynical about all high culture.[[/labelnote]]

* In ''[[Literature/TheOldKingdom Sabriel]]'', Abhorsen loves his daughter Sabriel dearly, but due to the nature of his job hunting down the Dead, he's had to send her to grow up in Ancelstierre, so that she sees him only a few times a year (when she started having her period, she had to summon up the ghost of her dead mother to give her TheTalk, because Abhorsen wasn't available.) After he goes missing, necessitating her travelling into the Old Kingdom and taking over his job, she frequently resents how his absence from her life has left her naive of things that she really should have known.
* [=MudWings=] in ''Literature/WingsOfFire'' don't raise their dragonets. They mate in groups, so [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe almost no dragons know who sired their kids]], and then they leave their eggs alone. The first hatchling has a natural BigBrotherInstinct. The siblings work together as a SiblingTeam with their "bigwings" sibling as their leader. Clay, who was raised in a cave until he was almost an adult, is very disappointed. He always dreamed of coming back to a family who missed him. While, it turns out that Clay is a bigwings himself, he had hoped to find his parents. When he meets his mother, she barely takes note of him. Clay is horrified to learn that Cattail [[spoiler:sold his egg for a couple of cattle, which they ended up just eating instead of breeding]]. By her logic, [[spoiler:he wasn't needed since she had six backup eggs anyway]].

** Dharma actually has a rather interesting neurosis regarding this. Since her parents never married, she always had the fear that they'd split up and go their separate ways. So when Abby and Larry decide to get married, she is really into it, but when her dad basically backs out to "play the field", Dharma has a meltdown confessing her fear. By episodes end they do get married, but Larry has an (if I really want to, I can still play the field) clause thrown in... even though only Abby will put up with him by this point.
** In another episode, Dharma finds out that her parents are planning to have another baby, and she begins to wax nostalgic about her own childhood, and such beloved toys as "shoeboat". Then she finds out they plan to raise baby more conventionally than they did Dharma, and she suddenly realizes how many of her beloved memories were probably motivated just as much by the benefit of not having to spend any money on her as they were her parents' "let the butterfly go free" parenting strategy (shoeboat, as the name might suggest, is in fact an ordinary shoe which Dharma was encouraged to think of as a boat at bathtime). Eventually her parents manage to convince her they really did, and still do, love her, just like they're going to love this new child.

* In ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' Carly's father is in the military (so a partial aversion) and so is always away, her mother is never mentioned and adult brother is OneOfTheKids. Freddie's mom however goes to the opposite extreme.

* Nearly all of the parents in ''Series/TheSecretLifeOfTheAmericanTeenager'' in that they hardly ever give their kids any rules to follow, and enforce them even less.

* In ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' Lindsay and Tobias are sufficiently oblivious that Maeby got a job as a studio executive and produced several movies without them even noticing. One time when feeling neglected she tried to make them think she was running away, and was frustrated when she couldn't get them to realize. The much more controlling Michael tries to get Lindsay to pay more attention, but she maintains that he's stifling his son (she may have a point) and refuses to get involved unless forced to. At one point she decided she had to punish her for her failing grades, and was disappointed this involved more than ''telling her'' she was punished.
* In ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' Jenna fills this role to Elena and Jeremy. She was supposed to be their cool young aunt, but when their parents died she became their guardian, and is not suited for the role. She doesn't particularly seem to mind if they don't come home, or if they do come home if they bring someone else with them. Few guardians would react to their teenage niece having her boyfriend over for the night by admonishing them in the morning to keep the noise down.
* Nana Mary of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' was this to Bev. Bev becomes the opposite, partly out of resentment. Roseanne herself strikes a nice balance, but is briefly upset that she didn't turn out to be as permissive as she always intended to be when she was a teenager.
* A grandparent example occurred in ''Series/MamasFamily'' when the Harpers are complaining about the Reverend's bratty grandson, and his grandmother who refuses to discipline him. They are horrified to discover that they had to babysit the boy overnight while the the Reverend was in the hospital for a broken leg. The next day, when they come over to pick him up, Mama was at the end of her rope and about to spank him, but the Reverend, having just been kicked in his already busted leg, stepped in to do the job himself. Mama only stopped him to inform him that he missed a spot.

* In the pilot of the sitcom ''Series/{{Abbys}}'', bar regular Beth brings a dartboard in because she got it for her sons but they just started throwing darts at each other. Later in the episode she talks about being freaked out that they expect her to hug them and make them food.

* In ''Radio/OldHarrysGame'' Satan finds a household like this when trying to find a perfect home for the baby that got sent to Hell by mistake. There's also another home where everything is regimented, and the children have no freedoms at all. Both won good parenting awards ... sponsored by [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers The Guardian and The Daily Mail]] respectively.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'': Ness' parents are surprisingly cool with their little boy heading out to fight monsters on his own without any form of escort or weaponry. They just like it when Ness calls them every once in a while to say hi. They also are just as cool with giving Ness hundreds and thousands of dollars as allowance.

* Bud's parents in ''WebComic/{{Precocious}}''. His dad spends all his time in the basement working on art and hydroponics, while his mom is always in the city managing the apartment complexes she owns. As a result Bud is a much better cook than either of them. It gets to the point where Autumn even forgets at one point that he even has parents.
* Mr. and Mrs. Dunkel of ''WebComic/ElGoonishShive'' aren't exactly irresponsible as parents (though they do tend to be absent most of the time), but they definitely [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-02-10 aren't very strict]]. A RunningGag with them is that they take the most bizarre things in perfect stride, such as when their daughter[[note]]who is an OppositeSexClone of their son and just came into their lives - and into ''existence'' - at age 17[[/note]] [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-03-12 turns herself into a cat]]. They don't seem to find this odd at all, and are only interested in whether or not she's able to turn back.
* Ash's dad in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}'' lets her foreign boyfriend and her boyfriend's brother live at their house (despite the fact that he didn't know the boy existed until he came home to find him on the couch), and lets her go out and race, despite the fact that he knows it's dangerous. The justification is given quite early on: He was a control freak with Ash's mother, which led her to abandon them both when Ash was three, and doesn't want the same thing to happen again. He does lay the law down a few times, one example being when Ash got drunk and even told off a rather vicious associate of the brothers when it seemed he could be dangerous to the teens. He didn't know the guy was an angel, granted, but he could tell the guy was trouble.

* {{WebVideo/Idiotsitter}}: Ken Russel, Gene's father is shown to be a very bad parent, because he makes no attempt to discipline his daughter. As a result, Gene has ended up on house arrest because of her crimes, and poor Billie has to be hired to babysit and tutor Gene. In episode 3 "Father Daughter Talk", Billie has to cope Ken through punishing Gene, as he has no idea what he's doing.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents,'' Timmy Turner once made a wish for his parents to be like this. It didn't take long before being allowed to watch violent tv shows, eat nothing but candy, and not bathe devolved into disaster.

* ''WesternAnimation/KevinSpencer'': Percy and Anastasia, the parents of the title character on the Canadian cartoon, are like this, being more concerned with getting more booze, welfare cheques and smokes than Kevin's welfare. Kevin would disappear for months at a time, and they were never particularly worried, simply noting that the boy would eventually come home on his own, which he always did. Of course, Percy and Anastasia often wouldn't be around either, given that they spent so much of their time in prison and rehab.
* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Hank Hill has to deal with parents like this on occasion, which serves as a good contrast to his own firm-but-loving view on parenting. In one episode, he had to deal with two parents who would put their children in neglectful situations like concerts or giving them alcohol just because it made them "cool," and seemed more interested in having a good time then being good, loving parents. Another had a pair of see-no-evil parents who outright refused to discipline their son in spite of mounting evidence that he was a horrible, insufferable brat. Interestingly, he deals with them by having Bobby act ''exactly like their son'' towards them, and it is there that they start acting more disciplinary towards him.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheMightyB'': Bessie's ex-hippie mom isn't really neglectful, but her idealistic worldview is rarely a help in solving her kids' problems.
* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' had a [[HippieParents hippie father]] who lived in a van and was mostly raised by his surrogate moms/big sisters the Crystal Gems into a KidHero. ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseFuture'' dives into the negative effect this had on him, particularly in "Mr. Universe." Much of what we hear about Greg's family presents them as stuffy and overly-conservative, which is why he lost contact with them and [[ShedTheFamilyName changed his name]] to "[[AwesomeMcCoolname Universe]]." However, Steven gets into a fight with him and argues that he would have ''preferred'' the sort of childhood that Greg hated.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has plenty of this. Kenny and Cartman in particular considering that their parents are crack heads (and in Cartman's case a whore) and thus really don't seem to heed much mind to the antics their kids get into. And strangely that seems less dangerous than Randy's involvement in his son's life.

* In the memoir ''Literature/TheGlassCastle'', Jeannette, Brian, Lori, and Maureen have parents like this. Ditzy, artistic, neglectful to the point of borderline abuse, and so on. An interesting case, since this is implied to have a somewhat beneficial effect in the long run. The kids are incredibly self sufficient, helping each other survive their childhood, supporting themselves financially, and fleeing one by one to make a life for themselves in New York.

* Among European royalty and nobility this happened relatively often, in no small part because of resentful mothers (and occasionally fathers) who felt that they fulfilled their entire obligation to their arranged marriages by having an heir - and maybe a spare. Of course it helps that they had governors and nannies to hand the kids off to. However, the stereotype that aristocrats in the pre-modern era always delegated their children's upbringing isn't true and there were exceptions even in the heyday of monarchy and aristocracy, like the monarchs Charles I, George III, and Victoria of England, King Henri IV of France (who so harshly disciplined his son, the future Louis XIII, that even his seventeenth century contemporaries who didn't disapprove of corporal punishment to say the least noted it), and Marie Antoinette. But there are notable examples as well, like Henry VIII, who had little to do with the upbringing of even his much desired male heir; Marguerite Louise d'Orleans, who after giving her much hated husband, Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany, three children returned to France and barely communicated with any of them even when they grew into adulthood; and Marie Eléonore de Maillé de Carman, mother of the notorious Marquis de Sade.
** In Henry VIII's case it wasn't so much hands off as remote control. Henry didn't spend much time with his children but he was a micro-manager of their household regulations, especially those of Prince Edward.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'': An early example is Eustace Scrubb's parents.
* ''Literature/PodkayneOfMars'', by Creator/RobertAHeinlein: A plot-centric example is Professor and Dr. Fries.

* Important to TheReveal of Laura Kasischke's ''Mind of Winter.'' Holly and Eric adopted Tatiana from a Siberian orphanage. Both parents pride themselves on how much freedom they give their daughter. However, that freedom also includes freedom from doctors, dentists, and vaccinations. [[spoiler:As a result, nobody ever diagnoses Tatiana's serious heart defect, even though both a nurse at the orphanage and a next-door neighbor warn Holly that something is wrong.]]

* ''Film/TheRageInPlacidLake'': Placid's parents.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'': Ness' parents are surprisingly cool with their little boy heading out to fight monsters on his own without any form of escort or weaponry. They just like it when Ness calls them every once in a while to say hi. They also are just as cool with giving Ness hundreds and thousands of dollars as allowance.

* Toph Beifong in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' adopted this parenting strategy, partly in response to her own stifling upbringing and partly due to a demanding career. Unfortunately, she went too far in that direction leading to a myriad of issues in her children. Lin assumed responsibility from a very young age (as a teenager she was Suyin's father figure essentially) while Suyin rebelled and fell in with the Triads. Her two daughters ended up estranged with her and each other for over 30 years until they finally reconciled.

* Masaomi Kida's parents in ''{{LightNovel/Durarara}}'' apparently take this view and seem entirely unconcerned about their son going out late at night, dropping out of high school (and before that [[spoiler:becoming a gang leader]]) to the point that his friend Mikado pulls a LampshadeHanging on it. Ironically of his three friends Masaomi is the only one whose parents are actually around, as Mikado's parents rent an apartment for him closer to his school and Anri's are dead, but you'd never know it by how he acts.

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' seems to imply that Bella's mother is like this, which explains why Bella is so [[InformedAbility mature]].

* Toph Beifong in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' adopted this parenting strategy, partly in response to [[OverprotectiveDad her own upbringing]] and partly due to a demanding career. Unfortunately, she went too far in that direction leading to a myriad of issues in her children. Lin assumed responsibility from a very young age (as a teenager she was Suyin's father figure essentially) while Suyin rebelled and fell in with the Triads. Her two daughters ended up estranged with her and each other for over 30 years until they finally reconciled.