History Main / ParentalNeglect

Compare and contrast with AbusiveParents, AdultsAreUseless, ParentsAsPeople, and ParentalAbandonment. Can oveap with LethalNegligence if a parent's laziness ends up getting their kid harmed or killed.

* ''Series/NineOneOne'': Buck's parents conceived him in an attempt to create a bone-marrow donor for their son Daniel, who had leukemia. When the attempt failed and Daniel died, Buck became a constant reminder and they just ignored him, leaving him to be raised by his older sister Maddie. Buck's appetite for risk-taking was born of the fact that the only time his parents paid attention to him was when he was injured. It was also implied that Maddie's abusive relationship was the result of her being starved for attention, making her vulnerable to believing that his controlling behavior was an indicator of love.

* The titular character of the Music/MelanieMartinez ConceptAlbum ''Music/CryBaby'' has two distant parents keeping up a HappyMarriageCharade. Her mother is an AlcoholicParent who has had a poor opinion of Cry Baby from the day she was born, though she seems to like her behind her dysfunctional behavior. Her father is distant in general and has a mistress. [[spoiler:The mother kills both him and his lover, and is implied to [[OffingTheOffspring have tried to kill]] her daughter.]]

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ixuMpIFv0M Suffer the Children]]" focuses on the profound loneliness that a child feels because of his absent parents.

** Roland Orzabal (the main songwriter) has confirmed that "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjuA5GkRfRI Pale Shelter]]" is about the pain and insecurity that stems from not receiving enough (or any) warmth and affection from one's parents.

* ''WebVideo/AirProTexts'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsyZsaAvgvo Tia]] often leaves Cheri and her younger sister Avery alone to cheat on her husband and even told Cheri not to tell anyone about it. One time, Cheri had to call her grandmother because she got lost trying to take Avery to the hospital. In the end, Tia got divorced from her husband and he got custody of the kids.

** ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'': [[Characters/MonsterVerseMadisonRussell Madison]] has been on the receiving end in the five years since her brother's death, as her mother became the {{Workaholic}} whilst her father turned to drinking and divorced Emma. The {{novelization}} confirms Madison coped with the help of her HonoraryAunt Vivienne Graham. Even at the start of the film, Emma retains custody of Madison but is still somewhat distant with her, while Madison and Mark only have sporadic contact[[note]]Mentioned in the novelization[[/note]]. Both parents come to regret the ways they've neglected their surviving child.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'': The novelization reveals that Serizawa had a similar WhenYouComingHomeDad parenting style with his son [[Characters/MonsterVerseRenSerizawa Ren]] to the one his own father had with him, but unfortunately Ren didn't respond to it the same way Ishirō did, instead growing to resent his father. The rift between them got particularly bad after Dr. Serizawa's wife died while he was on an expedition and he didn't find out until a week later, while Ren had to organize his mother's funeral himself at age eighteen. Ultimately, when Serizawa died before he and Ren could reconcile, this created a FreudianExcuse which led to Ren becoming a full-blown EvilGenius and an antithesis to everything that his father and grandfather had stood for.

** ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'': Even before the incident at the power plant turned him into an obsessive conspiracy theorist, [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Joe Brody]] was already unintentionally dismissive of his family, forgetting to greet his son in the morning and even that it's ''his own birthday'' today.
*** The prequel graphic novel ''Godzilla Awakening'' reveals [[Characters/MonsterVerseIshiroSerizawa Dr. Serizawa]] was on the receiving end of WhenYouComingHomeDad, which led to a reconciliation in his young adulthood when his father revealed the truth of his work for Monarch.

* ''Film/INotStupidToo'' is ''made'' of this trope, to the point of being {{anvilicious}}. The Yeo brothers' parents are work-obsessed and barely spends time with them to the point where they can only communicate with their parents using ''Post-It'' Notes on the fridge, and a key plot point revolves around 8-year-old Jerry Yeo trying to get his parents to spare a day to watch his school play.

* In ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', Professor Membrane, Dib's superscientist father is portrayed as neglectful, and obsessed with his work to the point of not even recognizing his son in one episode. Dib seems to have responded to this by becoming similarly obsessed with his own pursuits and largely indifferent towards his father, while his sister Gaz seems eager for his company and attention. However, more recently in the comic books and in the TV movie ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZimEnterTheFlorpus'', Professor Membrane has been depicted more positively, trying to do his work as fast he can to spend at least some moments with his children and even assuring Dib that he has always been proud of him despite their differences.

-->'''Gohan:''' I think I have issues.

** Robert Baratheon is this to his three "children" with Cersei Lannister. Even if he never learns that they aren't actually his, it doesn't excuse the fact that he deliberately put a distance between himself and the kids. Which is rather sad, since Joffrey, for all his cruelty, thinks highly of his "father", to the point that [[spoiler:he sent the assassin to kill Bran Stark because he thought it would please him]]. As for his bastards... well, he doted on Mya Stone as a child at least (and she still has fond memories of it), but he barely pays attention to the others, and Gendry doesn't even ''know'' that Robert is his father.

* ''Literature/FireAndBlood:'' King Jaehaerys I. Widely considered one of, if not the, best king Westeros ever has, but as a father... passable? He gets on well enough with the eldest, who are his heirs, but when you've got nine kids kicking around. He was pretty terrible with the girls especially. Saera grew up to become a monstrous little shit, and he had no time or patience to deal with Daela's disorders.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E156TheBewitchinPool The Bewitchin' Pool]]", Gloria and Gil Sharewood are both extremely self-obsessed and show their children Sport and Jeb no affection. Gloria has to prompt Gil to dive for the kids when they vanish into the pool. She only worries about them once it looks like they might have drowned.

* ''Fanfic/BlackbirdArrow'': Quentin failed to realize that Laurel had been kidnapped for ''over three years'' because he was too deep in his cups with his grief over Sara's (supposed) loss. Knowing what happened to Laurel, it's hard to feel a lot of sympathy for him.
** The Lances basically let Sara get away with figurative murder because she was the baby of the family, and completely failed to parent her at all. Notably, this extends even after she gets back — Quentin has made no genuine effort to actually build a relationship with Sara and Dinah is willfully ignorant of how her 'favorite' daughter has been slowly [[DeathSeeker killing herself over the last three years]] [[DespairEventHorizon due to the guilt over what happened to Laurel]]. To Quentin's credit that's partially because Sara and Dinah have both been avoiding him. Then, in the last chapter, Sara asks to move in with him, which he happily agrees to, fulling averting this trope.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': This is why the main character Luffy and his older adoptive brother Ace [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything turned out the way they did]]. They were put into the care of Luffy's biological grandfather Garp, but Garp, as a famous and very busy Marine, put virtually no effort into actually raising them himself and instead dumped the responsibility onto other people. Ace was raised by Dadan and her gang of mountain bandits, while Luffy is implied to have been raised by the people of Windmill Village up until Garp dragged him off to be raised by Dadan alongside Ace when he was seven. That would be bad enough on its own, but to make things worse, Garp put them in the care of Dadan with the ultimate goal of ''[[InsaneTrollLogic making them into Marines]]''. Therefore, when the mountain bandits quite obviously failed to raise them into being law-abiding Marines their grandfather wanted them to be, whenever Garp showed up he tried to use ToughLove and made multiple attempts to [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood beat the idea into their heads instead]]. That had the exact ''opposite'' effect of what he wanted, as it just made both brothers more determined to follow their dreams, if only just to get away from him.