History Main / PushoverParents

** In "Appetite For Destruction", Rita and Lynn Sr. never to anything to punish Lily for her destructive behavior [[spoiler:which is revealed in the end to have been constipation brought on by cheese consumption]], even when Lily crosses the line at physcially attacking an innocent kid, [[KarmaHoudini allowing her to get away with her bad behavior]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents:''
** Vicky's parents are downright ''terrified'' of Vicky, and they are afraid of disciplining her.
** 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.

* Elliot's parents in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' are kind of like this. It's partly a result of their total acceptance of the weirdness (when told that Elliot had broken into a secure facility in order to reverse a GenderBender, and instead created an OppositeSexClone, their only concern is that he told them he was going to be at Tedd's house, so he lied) and partly just what they're like (their reaction to the one part of this they're mad about is first to say Elliot gets [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment no dessert]], then modify that to "one brownie, then it's straight to bed", then offer him more brownies anyway).

* An implied zig-zagged example of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' is with Daddy Morebucks, Princess Morebucks' father. It's shown that he rarely disciplines his daughter when she throws temper tantrums, and gives her money to get her silenced. But when making Princess mayor ends up with their mansion robbed, he taps the rolled-up morning paper against his palm repeatedly. So despite spoiling her, he'll still discipline her if she causes something he ''cares'' about.

** Implied with Sarah and Ed's parents - except [[ParentalFavoritism mainly to Sarah]]. Ed is infamously grounded in one episode, and his parents [[UpToEleven remove the stairs]] to ensure he can't escape.

* Drew Pickles zig-zags this in regards to his daughter Angelica in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}''. He does spoil Angelica, and bows to her whim on many occasions. That said when it's clear to him that Angelica's done wrong, however, he puts his foot down. A good example of this occurs in one episode where Angelica steals one of Chaz Finster's favorite Latvian Folk Dance CD (ItMakesSenseInContext long story, don't ask), when Drew discovers her crime, he marches her to the Finster house, makes Angelica apologize and makes his overall displeasure with her ''very'' clear. Though usually Charlotte disciplines Angelica much more than Drew (at least during the rare moments when she's not [[{{workaholic}} distracted by work]]), Charlotte still has occasions where she is as well, such as in "Princess Angelica" where she disregards Angelica's self-entitlement as mere "self-esteem."

** They wizened up and escaped this however in ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp!'' and no longer spoil Angelica like they used to.

** They wizened up and escaped this however in ''WesternAnimation/AllGrowUp'' and no longer spoil Angelica like they used to.

** They wizened up and escaped this however in ''WesternAnimation/AllGrowedUp'' and no longer spoil Angelica like they used to.

* '''WesternAnimatin/BobsBurgers''': Bob and Linda Belcher zigzag with this trope. On one hand, they give their kids a bit too much freedom and the end result is them being a bit troublesome and get roped into their situations without any resistance. That said, when the kids do something genuinely wrong, they're not afraid to ground the kids.

SubTrope of LawfulPushover, which applies to any similar person of authority. Compare to ExtremeDoormat.

!!Examples

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Fanfic]]

[[folder: Film - Animated]]

[[folder: Film - Live-Action]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics]]

[[folder: Religion]]
* ''Literature/TheBible'': [[Literature/BookOfProverbs Proverbs 13:24]] mention that parents who withhold themselves from disciplining their children are the ones who don't love them.
-->''"He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes."''

[[folder: Web Original]]
* Plenty of examples at ''Website/NotAlwaysRight''.
* As [[ParentalSubstitute parental substitutes]] to Jeffy, both Mario and Rosalina from ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' fall into this territory, especially the latter. While they both cave into Jeffy's demands, Mario at least tries to discipline Jeffy whenever he does something bad, whereas Rosalina almost never punishes Jeffy, even when he really deserves it, and frequently takes his side as well, even accusing Mario of child abuse when he tries to discipline Jeffy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', Gideon Gleeful's parents do nothing to curb his behavior. His dad Bud is a pretty laid back guy who usually goes along with whatever Gideon's planning, while his mother is practically catatonic, only ever seen vacuuming. In fairness to them, Gideon is [[EnfanteTerrible a complete psychopath]], and is probably responsible for his mother being in such a state in the first place. The only time Gideon's father is seen telling Gideon to behave, he's put back in his place:
--->'''Bud:''' Gideon Charles Gleeful! Clean up your room this instant!\\

** Zig-zagged with Draco Malfoy's father. He's definitely spoiled and Lucius uses his wealth and power to pull off some absurd displays of favoritism for his son (among them buying top-of-the-line brooms for the entire Slytherin Quidditch team just to get Draco a position on it and forcing the Board of Governors to agree to execute Buckbeak). On the other hand, the first time Lucius appears in the series, he's shown ordering his son not to touch anything in the shop they're in, refusing Draco's request for a present, making a snide comment about Draco's grades, and then scolding him for academically coming in second to a Muggleborn like Hermione Granger.

* [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Bella Swan's]] father is one of the most laid-back parents, hands-off parents around. Throughout the series, Bella continuously ignores the rules he sets, particularly the ones about him not wanting Edward over all the time, and he either doesn't notice or doesn't do anything about it. This gets pretty absurd in ''New Moon'' (when he makes one heartfelt effort to get Bella to see sense and move on past Edward but drops the subject when she refuses to talk about it) and ''Breaking Dawn'' (when Bella strongarms him into accepting her getting married at 18 and squashes his argument that maybe she and Edward are a little too young to be raising a child).

* ''ComicStrip/USAcres'': [[https://garfield.com/usacres/1986/03/29 A kid offers to take Orson in]] and tells him not to worry about the kid's Dad because he's a pushover.

* Drew Pickles zig-zags this in regards to his daughter Angelica in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}''. He does spoil Angelica, and bows to her whim on many occasions. That said when it's clear to him that Angelica's done wrong, however, he puts his foot down. A good example of this occurs in one episode where Angelica steals one of Chaz Finster's favorite Latvian Folk Dance CD (ItMakesSenseInContext long story, don't ask), when Drew discovers her crime, he marches her to the Finster house, makes Angelica apologize and makes his overall displeasure with her ''very'' clear. Though usually Charlotte disciplines Angelica much more than Drew (at least during the rare moments when she is not distracted by work), Charlotte still has occasions where she is as well, such as in "Princess Angelica" where she disregards Angelica's self-entitlement as mere "self-esteem."

** A {{flashback}} in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]" shows that Ned Flanders' parents were beatnicks who didn't believe in punishing their son for his unruly behavior, but on the other hand didn't want the behavior to continue.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'':
** Poor Doofus Drake's parents are terrified of their SpoiledBrat son, who UsedToBeASweetKid until he inherited his Grandma Frances' fortune and [[EnfantTerrible went power-mad]]. Now Doofus reveres his late "Gummeemama" and treats his biological parents like servants, forcing them to cater to his every whim.
** Della Duck is something of this due to the fact that she wasn't around for the triplets' first ten years of growing up. When she returns from the Moon, she initially starts off as OneOfTheKids due to her inexperience. She ends up finding her backbone and grounds Louie when he nearly causes time/space to collapse.

* ''Fanfic/TheManyDatesOfDannyFenton'' (''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' WesternAnimation, [[{{Series}} TV Series]], and ComicBooks.): [[PlayedForDrama Played For Drama]] As Danny notice to his shock, even Katie's parents are afraid of her.

* Developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind's research on parenting styles revealed the "permissive parenting" style, where the parents combine high responsiveness with low demands. That is, they cater to their children's wishes and impose few to no rules on them. They might let them stay up all night and eat all the candy they want without enforcing bedtimes or healthy diets. These parents tend to try to be more of a friend to their children than a parent, and it usually doesn't end well.

* ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'': Occurs in [[Recap/Doraemon1979E1759SoapBubbles "Soap Bubbles"]]. Tammy initially wants to discipline Noby for making Mr. S feel depressed, but when she gets hit with a huge soap bubble, she feels sad and refuses to discipline her son or anyone besides herself.

If this goes on, the kid usually turns into a SpoiledBrat[=/=]BrattyHalfPint with bad social skills.

'''Gideon''': I can buy and sell you, old man!\\
'''Bud''': [sheepishly] Fair enough...

** The Dursleys utterly spoil Dudley. As a baby, it's mentioned that he was seen "kicking his mother up and down the street, screaming for sweets" and as a child, he's constantly pacified by being bribed with gifts (his father considers this a ''good thing'', that his son wants his "money's worth"), seems too never be scolded for breaking or abandoning said gifts, and gets away with bullying all the time. His parents overlook school reports on his bad behavior and weight issues (at least until the fourth book, when he reaches "roughly the same size and weight as a small killer whale", and even then Petunia ''still'' gives Dudley as large portions of food as she can get away with). The only notable times when he doesn't get his way are in the first book, when panic over Harry getting his Hogwarts letter overrules the Dursleys' desire to spoil their son, and the aforementioned diet regime. It gets to be so bad that when Dumbledore visits the family in the sixth book, he notes that their treatment of Dudley is, in a way, even ''worse'' abuse than what they inflicted on Harry.

* In ''Literature/{{Beastly}}'', this is all but stated to be one of the reasons why Kyle ended up such a {{jerkass}}. His mother [[ParentalAbandonment left when he was little]] and his rich father's idea of parenting is to throw money at Kyle for whatever he asks for. His father seems too busy to bother with anything Kyle gets up to, but it's implied that the times Kyle did get in enough trouble that his father noticed, his dad just pulled strings and payed money to smooth it over.

* In "It's Still A Good Life" from ''Series/TheTwilightZone2002'' (the sequel of "It's a Good Life", from ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959''), Anthony ends up being this for his own daughter, Audrey. Because he was coddled throughout his life, while he loves Audrey, he's rarely shown actually parenting her. He sets one other parent on fire for letting it slip that he hadn't wanted his son to play with Audrey, angry at the idea that anyone would disapprove of their children associating with her. Audrey, meanwhile, knows full well that her father's wrapped around her fingers and uses this to manipulate him into not hurting people she cares about (for example, distracting her father when he starts to lose his temper at the bowling alley and then pretending she's tired, so they can leave right away). [[spoiler:When Anthony sees that her power are even greater than his own and that she seems to have no issues with sending her own mother to the Cornfield (something which [[EvenEvilHasStandards not even he ever considered doing]], he begins to behave towards her in a way similar to how his own parents treated him, being visibly nervous while speaking to her when she asks how he feels.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', Gideon Gleeful's parents do nothing to curb his behavior. His dad Bud is a pretty laid back guy who usually goes along with whatever Gideon's planning, while his mother is practically catatonic, only ever seen vacuuming. In fairness to them, Gideon is [[EnfanteTerrible a complete psychopath]], and is probably responsible for his mother being in such a state in the first place. The only time Gideon's father is seen telling Gideon to behave, he's put back in place when Gideon retorts "I can buy and sell you, old man!"

* As [[ParentalSubstitute parental substitutes]] to Jeffy, both Mario and Rosalina from ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'' fall into this territory, especially the latter. While they both cave into Jeffy's demands, Mario at least tries to discipline Jeffy whenever he does something bad, whereas Rosalina almost never punishes Jeffy, even when he really deserves it, and frequently takes his side as well.

** Della Duck is something of this due to the fact that she wasn't around for the triplets' first ten years of growing up. When she returns from the Moon, she initially starts off as OneOfTheGuys due to her inexperience. She ends up finding her backbone and grounds Louie when he nearly causes time/space to collapse.

** In the episode "The Itchy and Scratchy Movie", during a parent-teacher conference, Marge explains to Mrs. Krabappel that she and Homer have a hard time disciplining Bart whenever he does something wrong and are encouraged by her to start being firm about it. Following her advice, they get better at disciplining him, such as when they [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment send him to bed without dinner]] for breaking Grandpa's teeth, and preventing him from seeing ''The Itchy and Scratchy Movie'' when he doesn't watch Maggie and she drives Homer's car.
** A {{flashback}} in "Hurricane Neddy" shows that Ned Flanders' parents were beatnicks who didn't believe in punishing their son for his unruly behavior, but on the other hand didn't want the behavior to continue.

* On ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', Gideon Gleeful's parents do nothing to curb his behavior. His dad Bud is a pretty laid back guy who usually goes along with whatever Gideon's planning, while his mother is practically catatonic, only ever seen vacuuming. In fairness to them, Gideon is [[EnfanteTerrible a complete psychopath]], and is probably responsible for his mother being in such a state in the first place. The only time Gideon's father is seen telling Gideon to behave, he's put back in place when he tells him "Remember I can sell you to the zoo, father!"

* Della Duck of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' is something of this due to the fact that she wasn't around for the triplets' first ten years of growing up. When she returns from the Moon, she initially starts off as OneOfTheGuys due to her inexperience. She ends up finding her backbone and grounds Louie when he nearly causes time/space to collapse.