History Main / ParentalObliviousness

* ''The Autumn Throne'': Partially subverted with Isabel de Warenne. Although normally an observant and protective mother, she fails to immediately notice her teenage daughter’s pregnancy. Somewhat justified by the fact that the child’s father is Isabel’s equally teenage nephew-by-marriage, Prince John (son of Henry Plantagenet and UsefulNotes/EleanorOfAquitaine and villain of many modern [[Myth/RobinHood Robin Hood]] adaptations), who had resided in her own household for several years.

** When it comes to Bart’s - and occasionally Homer’s - long-running issues and misbehaviors, Marge is not ''oblivious'' per se, but she often retreats into denial and vainly hopes that they will change for the better. This was even lampshaded in the episode ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS22E10MomsIdLikeToForget Moms I’d Like to Forget]]'', which showed the largest area of her brain occupied first by “Repressed Rage” and later by “Denial About Family”.
** ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS33E5LisasBelly Lisa’s Belly]]'': When Lisa gains weight as the result of medication, Marge playfully calls her “chunky”. This sends Lisa into an existential crisis about her appearance, and Marge takes a PAINFULLY long time to catch on to how much impact her words had. Even Homer grasps the severity of the situation before Marge does, and arranges an outing with Aunt Patty and Aunt Selma to help bring back Lisa’s confidence.

Sometimes the parents are oblivious because there's something going on and the parent is a {{Muggle|s}} who can't know because s/he isn't SecretKeeper. Or perhaps the ExtraStrengthMasquerade seems to be hitting them especially hard.

* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Chloe's father, Professor Cerise, is completely oblivious to all the reasons why his daughter dislikes Pokémon. Namely, the fact that his research takes up so much of his time and attention, the fact that he has ''forced'' her to work as his assistant after school, and the general assumption that she will [[FollowInMyFootsteps follow in his footsteps]] despite her lacking interest. Add in the fact that he only pays attention to her when Pokémon are involved, and you have one of the biggest factors that drove her away from home and onto the Infinity Train.

** In "Dear Is a Four Letter Word," he forgets about his promise to leave work early to attend Lydia's birthday party, arriving after it's over.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': From the time Butch and Cassidy appeared for the second time to the moment it evolved, Ash, Misty, and Brock had no idea baby Togepi knew the Metronome attack that had saved itself and the team on a few occasions. Tracey subverts this by questioning if Togepi really did save them once.

* Issei's parents in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'' were explicitly shown to be placated by Rias' magic the first time [[NotWhatItLooksLike he was caught naked in bed with her]], though their fondness for multiple female housemates of his seems to come from [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents cheerfully supporting]] their son's HaremSeeker ways. It blatantly crosses over into this trope when Issei gets another three female housemates at once without complaint, and when the family house is renovated into a six-story mansion overnight to accommodate everyone (in opulence at that), they awake the next morning and happily remark how nice it is to have the extra living space.

* ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'': In addition to simply being a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter in regards to [[BitchInSheepsClothing Sugou Nobuyuki]], whom he had set Asuna up with in an ArrangedMarriage, Asuna's father Shouzou had ''absolutely no idea'' that Asuna completely despised Sugou even before she was trapped in [=SAO=] for two years and the events of the Fairy Dance arc.

* In ''Fanfic/{{Cinderjuice}}'', both [[WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}} Lydia and Beetlejuice]] comment on the fact that Charles and Delia are often profoundly guilty of this. It makes Charles attempting to be an OverprotectiveDad all the more amusing to Beetlejuice.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' (pictured above): Justified, as [[ContrivedCoincidence contrived coincidences]] always serve to remove all evidence of the titular boys' outlandish creations before their mother can actually see it (or in some cases, just the evidence that they were the ones responsible). At one point Candace uses this to their advantage by trying to tell their mom about something she ''wants'' gone. Sure enough, it disappears the second before their mom would have seen it. Their father, though more likely to notice what the boys are doing and has sometimes actively participated in them, seems to be oblivious to most things going on around him.

* ''Film/HomeAlone'': The [=McAllisters=] don't realize Kevin has been left behind until their airplane is already in the air. Granted, they were all in a rush so that they wouldn't miss their flight, but it also makes them look a bit foolish for not remembering about Kevin.

* ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'': Shows an especially glaring example with Orel's parents Clay & Bloberta Puppington. After a second season episode that ended with another family moving out of town, nobody but Orel (and Christina, Orel's DistaffCounterpart from the other family) ever noticed that younger son Shapey and Block, the youngest son of the the Posabules, were accidentally switched. [[spoiler: Bloberta discovers this only in the third season premiere, ''more than ten episodes later.'' The parents don't accept Block back. When Clay sees both Block and Shapey playing together, he writes it off as an effect of his being perpetually inebriated.]]

* ''Series/StrangerThings'': Most parents (beside Joyce) are oblivious to the supernatural going-ons related to the Upside Down, but Ted and Karen Wheeler take the cake. Not only do they fail to realize that their daughter Nancy is hunting a monster from an AlternateDimension, but even worse is that their son Mike successfully [[BatmanInMyBasement hid his super powered girlfriend Eleven in their basement]] for nearly a week. The only reason Ted and Karen found out about Eleven at all is because the MadScientist hunting her when she EscapedFromTheLab thought it was a better idea to talk to them to see what they know (which is absolutely nothing) rather than let his [[AxCrazy borderline insane underling]] kill them when they start annoying her. At one point, Nancy allows Steve to spend the night in her room, meaning that ''both'' Wheeler children are simultaneously hiding people in the house, and their parents are none the wiser about any of it. To her credit, Karen is at least trying to have a relationship with her children, and just assumes that Mike and Nancy's odd behavior is due to the disappearances of their respective best friends [[RightForTheWrongReasons (which isn't entirely inaccurate, even if she hasn't noticed the supernatural side of the story)]]. Ted, however, is just completely checked out on everything regarding his children.

* ''Literature/FloraSegunda'': Buck is completely unaware of the shenannigans which Flora gets up to (mainly because being [[MarriedToTheJob Commanding General of the Califan Army takes up so much of her time]]). Hotspur [[OpenMindedParent is a bit more on the ball]] though.

* ''WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget'': The title chracter hasn't got a clue that his niece Penny is the one who's always saving the day.

* Many have accused the parents of UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, of this.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Has a double example. Toph's parents are so oblivious they think that Toph is still taking baby lessons in Earthbending, rather than being an Earthbendrix supreme. Once they find out, they turn to denial so deep that they hired the guy who had her kidnapped to find said lost little lamb, because they can't handle the truth. Her father actually gets worse in the [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheRift comic continuation]]. While he's apparently accepted he will never be able to force Toph to come back home, now he just insists she cannot be the daughter he raised, and Toph isn't about to be something she's not to get him to pay attention to her.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': Does this in spades. Aside from being unaware of all of the magical stuff going on in Timmy's life, Timmy's parents are completely unaware that Vicky is a BabysitterFromHell, even when the evidence is right in front of their faces. It gets worse in later episodes where Vicky doesn't even make any attempt to hide her evilness. Taking the worse factor a step further, in "Vicky Gets Fired", Timmy shows his parents incriminating evidence of Vicky torturing him, but they don't even bat an eye. In fact, they only get upset at Vicky and fire her because she erased their reality tape.