Abusive Offspring

If you grounded her, she'd put you six feet underground.

Bud Gleeful: Gideon Charles Gleeful, clean up your room this instant!
Gideon Gleeful: I can BUY AND SELL YOU, OLD MAN!
Bud: ...Fair enough.

— Gravity Falls, "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel"

Abusive Parents is a very common trope. This is the Inverted Trope; when the child is abusive to the parent, physically, sexually, financially, or emotionally. While these characters can be children and will usually be an Enfant Terrible who exhibits Troubling Unchildlike Behavior, a particularly extreme example of a Bratty Teenage Daughter, or simply someone that proves Teens Are Monsters, they may be an adult. In that case, such cruelty will often fall under Elder Abuse, although the parents can also be of any age. In rare cases, it may either be an inversion of Wicked Stepmother or a mistreatment of the Good Stepmother.

This is closely related to Antagonistic Offspring, but the relationship is the direct opposite of abusive parents, be it an Evil Matriarch or an Archnemesis Dad. This is a much more severe, villainous form of that trope, and it's almost impossible to have a heroic character who is abusive, while antagonism can be justified, and (as with abusers in normal life), the abuser can be Affably Evil or (more likely) Faux Affably Evil. It's in fact common for antagonism to apply to an evil parent and to be justified as a heroic characteristic. Most of the time, the parents of the abusive offspring are often too terrified to disobey their demands which results in the Spoiled Brat child/offspring to quickly be lead into a position where they're superior to their parents.

This may be motivated by hatred of the parent in question (or both of them), but that is not a requirement. In order to distinguish it from Calling the Old Man Out, it is important that this is at least shown to be a recurring trait or incident rather than just happening once. It may be that the abusive child has a Freudian Excuse relating to their own parent (who may themselves be abusive), but it's not necessary. The most sympathetic version will be acting out of revenge, determined to give the parent A Taste of Their Own Medicine.

The natural conclusion is the Self-Made Orphan, but not all who fall under that trope will also be abusive, as it's common for them to be presented as "snapping" rather than as a cumulation of past behavior.

Compare Big Brother Bully, and contrast Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas, when the mama is an exception to her son's reign of terror. Also contrast Double Standard: Violence, Child on Adult, which may also be applied to young abusive offspring. Will lead to Calling the Young Man Out if the parent has enough of the child's abusive behavior. When the offspring in question is a child, this may invoke (or be a part of) a Kids Versus Adults conflict.

Unfortunately, this is very much Truth in Television. That being said, No Real Life Examples, Please!

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Boy's Abyss, the protagonist Reiji's older brother snapped and became a hikikomori after failing his college entrance exams, verbally abusing his mother and senile grandmother while Reiji and his mom work themselves to the bone to support the family. Reiji's mother admits that she's terrified of him going off the deep end and killing them all one day. It's later subverted as it's revealed that their mother is a Manipulative Bitch forcing him to pretend to act abusive to emotionally blackmail Reiji into staying.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Rui, the Lower Rank 5 of the Twelve Kizuki, establishes a makeshift family of demons, with himself as the youngest son, rather than the patriarch, and his "parents" and "siblings" drinking his blood and gaining spider-like demonic abilities from him. The reason why he set up his family this way was so that, according to the belief that parents protect their children and older siblings would protect younger ones, his family would exist to protect him. He ended up being horrifically abusive to his family, torturing them for their failures and, in the anime, having one member burned to death in the sunlight.
• In Digimon Ghost Game, Kayono was a young girl who was manipulated by her Digimon "partners" Monsters of the Week WaruMonzaemon and ExTyrannomon into becoming a Living Doll Collector, with her father becoming their first victim. The three then terrorize her mother, forcing her to watch helplessly as they turn even more people into dolls. When her mother finally works up the nerve to try to talk her down, she becomes their next target.
• Tomodachi Game:
  • Zig-Zagged by Yuuichi. He was nothing but kind to his Delicate and Sickly adoptive mother, but unbeknownst to her, he and his Con Artist adoptive father were holding her hostage by blackmailing her loved ones into paying them ransom in exchange for his good behavior and not causing her undue stress. However, as a result of her kindness Yuichi Took a Level in Kindness himself to honor her memory, becoming a Guile Hero in the present day.
  • Played Straight by Kokorogi. Shiho first becomes privy to her true nature as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing when she walks in on Kokorogi physically & verbally abusing her alcoholic mother for drinking behind her back. It's later revealed that the two have a codependent relationship as a result of her father's abuse, with Kokorogi resenting her mother for turning him into a monster by burying the family in debt.

Comic Books

• Superboy-Prime became this to his parents after he was finally returned to Earth-Prime at the end of Legion of 3 Worlds. They and his girlfriend Laurie were following his story throughout various DC comics on their world, showing his descent into supervillainy and the billions of people he murdered in his quest to find "the perfect Earth." As a result, they were naturally horrified when he came back. Blackest Night showed his parents living in fear of him and trying to keep him happy. Though he claims he loves them, they still refer to something he did to Laurie which he claims was an accident.
• Young Justice: Harm gleefully terrorizes his adoptive parents, to the point that when he was just 11 years old, he sliced his adoptive dad's neck, barely missing his jugular. He also murdered his adoptive little sister Greta, who became the heroine Secret.
• In X-Statix, when Arnie Lundberg discovered that he was a Reality Warper, he used his powers to take over his town and deform everyone he felt had wronged him. While he never used his powers on his single mother, he kept the threat of doing so over her head to keep her in line, and it's clear that she's terrified of him.

Eastern Animation

• In Kayko & Kokosh, Kaprilda constantly yells at her devoted father, Ramparam, during angry outbursts where she breaks every vase in the throne room. Ramparam in turn not only caters to her every whim, but is even shown to be scared of her.

Fan Works

• Danny Phantom: Stranded: Downplayed. Colette Bevier is not openly emotionally or verbally abusive to her father, biological mother, and stepmother(s), but is not above lying to and manipulating them by acting like a loving daughter to get what she wants.
  • It's eventually apparent that she has no real love for her current stepmother, Stella, and only sees her as a means to an end. This is best shown in "Dressed", where Colette notices her stepmother is feeling distressed after an argument with Star (Stella's biological daughter and Colette's stepsister) and shows no concern for her emotional well-being, rather deciding to take this as another opportunity to manipulate her and becoming angry when Stella is too upset to take the bait. She later even refers to Stella as her father's "stupid wife that turned him against her" in "Traveled". In "Blackmailed" when Stella tries to have a heart-to-heart with Colette, explaining she's only strict with her to guide her onto the right path and that she loves her stepdaughter as if she were her own, Colette pretends to reciprocate while internally insulting Stella for being a "fool" and even having to stop herself from mockingly laughing, making it clear she feels nothing at her words.
  • In "Blackmailed", it's revealed that Colette is secretly in contact with not only her mother, but all of her previous stepmothers. She pretends to care about them by calling each of them her "favorite stepmother" and takes advantage of their failed marriages to her father in order to gain sympathy and use them for her plans. This proves that Colette never truly cared about any of her stepmothers, only what she could get from them. She is even anticipating adding Stella to the list once Jean-Luc inevitably divorces her.

Films — Animated

• In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Bowser undergoes Adaptational Villainy and is shown to be a Bad Boss who's more than willing to abuse his troops if they displease him, including his adoptive father and right-hand man Kamek.

Films — Live-Action

• In the Bollywood film, Baghban, Raj and Pooja provided their four sons with everything they needed, at the expense of their own desires. However, when they are forced to live with their sons, the sons force Raj and Pooja to live separately. Both parents receive a lot of abuse while staying at their sons' home. This does not include their adopted son Alok, who practically worships them.
• Brothers (2009): Isabelle becomes this to Sam in the final act, telling him that he should have stayed dead and rubbing in Grace and Tommy's "affair" to his face. She does come to regret this, though.
• In the movie Clara's Heart, the protagonist finally explains to her charge David the Dark and Troubled Past that led her to leave her native Jamaica and come to the US — when she confronted her son Ralphie about having raped a woman, he raped her and then killed himself.
• Diary Of A Mad Housewife: Tina has to endure not only her husband Johnathan's emotional abuse but also that from their two daughters, who treat her just as cruelly.
• In Falling Down, Villain Protagonist Bill was forced to move back in with his mother after his divorce, and his bitterness over the whole ordeal would cause him to lash out at her. She was so afraid of his Hair-Trigger Temper that she struggled to eat when they'd sit down for meals together, earning her a Death Glare from him.
• The Hangover: Alan becomes this to his mother in the sequels, treating her with disdain, being demanding towards her, and even insulting her on several occasions. In the third film, he outright says that he wished she died instead of his father.
• Teased as being the case between Steven and his unseen father in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, as he describes to his son Bob that he gave his (sleeping) father a hand job when he was a kid to check that he was producing a normal amount of sperm.
• The Lodge: They adore their mother, but Aiden and Mia psychologically torture and gaslight their stepmother-to-be, Grace, which includes Aiden peeping on her in the shower.
• Run: A controversial aspect of the ending. Diane kidnapped and poisoned Chloe for around seventeen years so Chloe would never stop needing her. However, after Chloe manages to escape at the end, it jumps forward several years and reveals that Diane is in a prison hospital where Chloe visits her. It then ends with Chloe feeding Diane the same pills, which presumably have an equally horrific effect on her body.
• Splice: Elsa and Clive are both abusive to their "daughter" Dren, with whom Elsa broke her own rules by using her own DNA to create her. They lock her in a barn constantly and refuse to let her socialize with others, along with being emotionally abusive, and Clive has (apparently consensual) sex with Dren, which falls under Questionable Consent given that he is essentially her stepfather. However, experiencing violent aggression as she grows older, Dren turns male and violently rapes Elsa, impregnating her.
• Step Brothers: Both Dale and Brennan are quite demanding, disrespectful, and ungrateful towards their parents. At one point, Brennan considers sending his mom to a nursing home.
• The Strange Thing About the Johnsons: Isaiah is shown to be sexually abusive towards his father Sidney, although it's ultimately left ambiguous who started their "relationship".
• The Whale: Ellie had been abandoned by her father when she was 8 years old; only now, when he's dying, does he want to reconnect with her. That said, she steals from and is sporadically physically abusive towards her mother. She also physically abuses her disabled father, throwing away his walking frame and drugging him (which could have killed him due to his illnesses), cyberbullying him by shaming him online, and being constantly belligerent and demeaning to him, both for his weight and sexuality. She also shows no remorse for any of this.

Literature

• Baby Teeth: Hanna is seven, but she takes pointed pleasure in emotionally torturing Suzette, in hitting and attacking her when she can, and finally tries to burn her alive.
• The Count of Monte Cristo: Benedetto tortured his adoptive mother to death (the death part was unintentional, he got too carried away with the torture bit). During the big reveal of who his father is, he also says he doesn't care who his real mother is (said real mother faints in the crowd).
• In Nineteen Eighty-Four, all the children of the Outer Party are Tyke Bombs brainwashed to hate their parents to facilitate absolute loyalty to the Party, to the point that they'll immediately report them if they suspect thoughtcrime.
• J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fall of Númenor: After becoming estranged from her husband, Erendis takes her daughter Ancalimë to a farm and starts poisoning her mind against her father and men as a collective. As a result of her lessons, though, Ancalimë comes to see her mother as an annoying idiot who is obsessed with one man, and ends up ignoring and abandoning Erendis.
• We Need to Talk About Kevin: Before he kills her husband - his father - and her youngest daughter/his sister, Kevin is abusive to his mother Eva. This includes bullying her, undermining her in front of Franklin, and masturbating in front of her with the door open.
• Horrid Henry: Aside from the fact that the eponymous character makes his parents' lives a living hell, he also sometimes tends to tell them directly to their faces that he hates them whenever they don't let him have something he wants or let him do something he wants. This doesn’t play well and will both end up punishing him for insulting them:
  Henry: You're the meanest parents in the world and I hate you!
• Tony Hill and Carol Jordan: The killer of Cross and Burn is revealed to have raped his stepmother, possibly more than once when he was a teenager.

Live-Action TV

• The series premiere of Army Wives pairs this with Bait-and-Switch. When one of the wives in question is seen covering up the bruises on her arm, it's naturally assumed that her husband is hitting her. Until her teenage son slaps her in a fit of rage after not getting into the military school that he wanted to, thus revealing that he's her abuser.
• Desperate Housewives: Andrew was already starting to turn out this way towards Bree before Rex died; he kicked her when she got in the way of the TV and constantly criticising her. However, after Rex's death, he threatened to falsely accuse her of molestation and slept with her boyfriend because she wouldn't buy him a car. However, after she abandoned him at the end of Season 2 and he returned in Season 3, he became an inversion bordering on being an Extremely Protective Child.
• Emmerdale: One storyline dealt with Ashley taking his anger out on his elderly father Sandy, bullying him and raging at him on a near-constant basis, and hitting him on at least one occasion.
• Game of Thrones: Joffrey Baratheon has zero qualms about mistreating his own mother, Cersei Lannister, despite or maybe because of the fact that she's the one that always enabled his worst impulses. Even though he had first appeared close to her and was made King of the kingdom because of her, he has shown that he has no respect for her and is willing to ignore her advice to act on his cruel, impulsive actions, which she enabled. When Cersei tries to put her foot down and get him to listen to her, Joffrey makes it clear that he has no qualms about executing his own mother, getting her too afraid to control him anymore. This is very contrasted with the book series, where Cersei was the one person Joffrey loved, never threatened and listened to, even if he wasn't above ignoring and moving around her advice to do cruel, impulsive actions. The main problem was that Cersei never had a problem with most of Joffrey's brutal actions, and the things she did have a problem with, she chose never to bring up to Joffrey.
• Inspector Lynley, in the episode "Know Thine Enemy", Guy adored his father but despised his mother, who he regarded as weak, and beat up on at least one occasion.
• On Jessica Jones (2015), Kilgrave became this to his parents after gaining his Compelling Voice.
• Killing Eve: Villanelle's mother, Tatiana, claims she was one of these, saying that she and Villanelle's now-dead father were so terrified of Villanelle's psychopathic urges that her father took her to Moscow in a desperate attempt to stop her from hurting or killing any other members of their family. Tatiana herself is also shown to be emotionally abusive, though, and Villanelle denies that her father was scared of her, so it's highly ambiguous.
• Law & Order: "Pride and Joy" is centered on this, as a murdered superintendent is found to have been the victim of emotional and physical abuse from his son, a scholarship kid to a private school who was embarrassed to have to shoulder the burden of having a "low class" father. In another episode, "Hate", Anita picks up on the meek, timid demeanor of a suspect's mother and quietly asks her, "Does he hit you?" The woman confirms this in the typical "It's my fault" manner of many domestic violence victims—"If I get in the way."
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: "Dominance" - As if it wasn't bad enough that he raped his younger brother, Charlie is shown to be abusive and violent to his Alcoholic Parent, beating his father up and generally terrorizing him.
• Lie to Me: In "Beat the Devil", Martin Walker, a serial killer who killed his sister and murdered multiple other women at his college by water torturing them and burying them alive, is shown despite being extremely polite to terrify his mother.
• The Regime: Part of Corporal Zubak's backstory. He physically assaulted his own mother when he was fourteen.
• Silent Witness: The twist of "Snipers Nest" is revealing that sixteen-year-old Craig Cross abuses his mother rather than the other way around. He regularly verbally abuses and threatens his weak-willed alcoholic mother (who was also abused by Craig's father), and eventually ended up teaming up with the deranged Adrian Turner to kill his father (though it was in retaliation for his father abusing him).
• Supernanny: Numerous episodes from this series, as well as its sister show Nanny 911, show the parents being afraid of their own children as their tantrums and bad behavior worsen; fortunately, Jo always manages to set things right when she shows up.
  • In the case of the Baulisch family, the younger children are extremely abusive to their deaf parents and hearing elder sister. The younger children take full advantage of the fact their parents can't hear and make their elder sister's life a living hell before Jo arrives.
  • Among the things Ashlyn and Alaia Wischmeyer do to their parents are kick, bite, and slap them in the face.
• True Detective: The Big Bad of Season 1, Errol Childress is shown to keep his father (who also abused him, sexually tortured him along with the Yellow King cult, and badly burned him) trapped on a bed, where he is now emaciated, tortured, and unable to speak.
• Implied to be part of Claire Slater's Fate Worse than Death at the end of Series 1 of Unforgotten. She has Alzheimer's and is trapped at the mercy of her youngest son Matthew, who is implied to know that she murdered Jimmy and several of his father's (male) lovers even though she can't be prosecuted for it and is determined to psychologically torture her in payback.
• Violent Child, Desperate Parents follows a series of parents pushed to the brink by their (often physically) abusive children; one story even has a boy at risk of getting locked up months before turning ten because of the amount of assault towards his single dad.

Manhua

• Sinbell from My Beloved Mother is an orphan Raised by Robots, who unfortunately have a Fantastic Racism towards machines because of his peers, and spends most of the story being a disrespectful jerkass towards his robot mother and caretaker, Milan, like rejecting all her attempts to love him, slapping her food tray out of her hand when she tries giving him Breakfast in Bed, throwing around harsh comments in her presence ("What does she know about pain? She's just a robot.") and running away from home repeatedly making Milan worried.

Myths & Religion

• Classical Mythology: Before the days of the Olympians, Ouranos abused Gaia, who gave birth to him through no male. When she had her children (and his, they were married as well), he would throw the ugly ones into hell. When Kronos defeated him, Gaia was so overjoyed the Earth became fertile for many years to come.

Puppet Shows

• Baby Sinclair from Dinosaurs is the youngest child of the Sinclair family and can be quite troublesome. Anytime he shares screentime with Earl, his father, expect Baby to bludgeon him while screaming his war-cry of "NOT THE MAMA!", especially if it's a frying pan.

Video Games

• In Jade Empire, the last sidequest for Gravedigger Shen involves tracking down the elder Tanner Fong, who left the graveyard and took refuge in his son, the younger Tanner Fong's, house. Talking to the elder Fong reveals that his son tried to have him buried alive, and he's not actually dead. In the end, it turns out that both men are to blame for the breakdown of their father-son relationship and can be persuaded to reconcile, but that's a horrific thing to do to one's father.
• Tekken: Already infamous for being one of the most iconic Abusive Parents in media, Heihachi Mishima also extends his abuse to his own father, Jinpachi, as well. In the backstory of Tekken 5, Heihachi seals his father under the Hon-Maru, causing him to starve to death and get possessed by a vengeful spirit. Things don't get any better in Heihachi's ending in the game, where Heihachi straps his father, alongside his son Kazuya and grandson Jin Kazama, to the tip of a rocket and has the three of them launched into outer space while Heihachi himself looks from a distance and laughs at their fate.

Visual Novels

• Zero Time Dilemma: Delta, the mastermind of the Decision Game, is revealed to be the Kid from the Future of Sigma and Diana, as well as the twin brother of Phi. Despite being a Well-Intentioned Extremist, he still subjected his parents to a Deadly Game, and has no qualms with letting them get murdered in multiple timelines throughout the game. Suffice to say, his family does not approve of his actions in the slightest.

Webcomics

• El Goonish Shive: Damian killed his biological father after taking over the rogue Project Lycanthrope that was responsible for his birth.

Web Original

• ATTACK on MIKA:
  • Marin, a girl genius, abuses her father Hiroshi for being a middle-school dropout.
  • Aika, bullies her father Kazuo for no discernible reason. Knowing Kazuo is actually sterile and he decided to raise her anyway, it's probable that his wife Miho influenced Aika into it.
  • Komoru is a NEET who leeches off his mother Ayaka, going as far as stealing from her just to win a raffle, and even beating her when she complains.
• 8-year-old Adam to his mother during the sixth season of Arby 'n' the Chief. That is until he gets hauled off to juvie. All as heard on his mic.
• Caillou the Grown Up: Caillou subjects his parents to emotional and sometimes physical abuse in order to get his way.
• Revenge Films:
  • In this story, the OP was abused by both her daughter and her in-laws, the only one who sided with her was her illegitimate son whose mother abandoned him. Years later, even when the OP's ex-husband remarried and the stepmother neglected the daughter, she was still the same stuck-up girl as back then while begging the OP to let her move into her house.
  • Kanami beats up her mother Saeko whenever she didn't submit to her demands. One day, when Saeko ran out of money and couldn't give her any, Kanami threw a vase on her, knocking her out and putting her in the hospital. Her father Norio destroyed the evidence with her help. Saeko along with her mother called the police and both were arrested.

Western Animation

• American Dad!: Dick Reynolds' son beats his father with his abnormally large right hand.
• Arcane: Jinx becomes this to her adoptive father Silco after she finds out he hid Vi's survival, stabbing in the face multiple times with a needle. She later kidnaps him, ties him up, and gags him after misunderstanding his conversation with Vander's statue.
• Archer: Sterling Archer's Beleaguered Assistant Woodhouse was an Alfred Pennyworth-style Parental Substitute to him, as his father wasn't in the picture and his mother Malory was, well, Malory. In spite of this, Archer belittles and abuses him constantly as he endures it all with a Stiff Upper Lip. As the setting's a World of Jerkass, it's shown at times that this is actually payback for his often heroin-induced Parental Neglect of Archer in his childhood.
• Beavis And Butthead: In the episode "Holding", Gary the porn maker is shown to be verbally abusive to his mother by constantly screaming at her for no good reason.
  Gary's mom: Do you and your friends want some sandwiches?
  Gary: SHUT UP!!!
• The Boondocks:
  • In one episode, Robert comes across a small white boy having a tantrum in the supermarket while directing an amount of verbal abuse at his mother that would give even Eric Cartman pause. Robert then encourages the mother to follow in his footsteps, handing her his signature belt.
  • Another episode revolved around eight-year-old Lamilton Taeshawn, a sociopathic Enfant Terrible Riley befriends who assaulted his grandmother for not buying him the fried chicken he wanted.
• Brickleberry: Even though Woody is his Parental Substitute, Malloy still treats him horribly, making him his indentured servant, stealing his kidneys, chasing him with a loaded gun, tricking him into hurting himself out of amusement, and being more than willing to endanger his life when it suits him.
• DuckTales (2017): Doofus Drake degrades his parents into acting more like his butler and maid rather than his own parents, making them too scared of his wrath to stand up for themselves until B.O.Y.D. becomes their son.
• The Fairly OddParents!: It's shown that Vicky's cruelty extends to her own parents, considering they're both absolutely terrified of her.
• Gravity Falls: Gideon is shown to verbally torment both his parents. His mother can barely function and is shown uttering a Madness Mantra, while it's hinted that his father joined the Society of the Blind Eye to forget about what Gideon does to him.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: As she is with everyone else, Mandy is even rude and demanding towards her own parents, who are egregiously terrified of her. However she does care for them and in "Keeper of the Reaper" she's actually dumbstruck to see them admit their fear of her, implying that while she can be cold she doesn't actually mean to intimidate them.
• King of the Hill : In the episode "Bobby Goes Nuts", Bobby ends up with Acquired Situational Narcissism after learning he can instantly win a fight with a Groin Attack, and after disabling Hank refuses to recognize his authority and acts like a terror around the house. He then tries the same thing on Peggy when she tries to discipline him, but thanks to Artistic License – Biology ^note though Dale does claim she is pretending not to feel pain she then proceeds to publicly humiliate him and bring him back down to Earth.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Due to her father being a pushover, Chloé Bourgeois treats him like a slave, constantly berating and insulting him.
• Moral Orel: In the episode "Dumb", town bully Joe Secondopinionson finds out that his mother (Nurse Bendy) is alive, after believing his whole life that she died from childbirth. When an enraged Joe goes home and confronts his elderly, Alzheimer's-stricken father (who is implied to have impregnated Nurse Bendy when she was just thirteen) about what he's learned, he ends up beating his dad to a pulp as his older half-sister listens on in the other room.
• The Simpsons:
  • The minor recurring character Gavin is a Spoiled Brat who treats his mother like dirt, to the point of yelling at her to shut up.
  • Homer Simpson combines this with Elder Abuse. He doesn't hate his father outright (and they do share the occasional sentimental moment), but he's generally characterized as deliberately neglectful and dismissive of Abe's feelings and well-being (contrast with how he treats his children, where he's also neglectful and dismissive, but more out of ineptitude and horrible impulse control). Most times we flashback to Homer's childhood shows that Abe was a pretty piss poor parent himself, so it's heavily implied Homer is negligent as a form of payback.
    Homer: (to Bart) ...Now I can see you need your dad more than ever.
    Abe: And Homer, I can see you need me more than ever.
    Homer: Get back in the garage, old man!
    Abe: But there's spiders in the boxes...!
    Homer: Stay out of my boxes!
  • "Love Is a Many Strangled Thing" has Bart Simpson becoming this to Homer after the latter undergoes a course of therapy to prevent him from strangling Bart, which results in him becoming afraid to discipline Bart at all. A Flashback Twist also shows that Homer's treatment of Abe has been going on since Homer was himself a child.
    Homer: I guess it's just how I was raised.
    (Flashback.)
    Abe: Look at these grades! They're a disgrace! No TV for a week.
    Homer: Why you little—! (jumps on kitchen table to reach Abe's neck)
• South Park: Eric Cartman is generally bossy with his mother, giving orders and even insulting her often.
  Cartman: MOM, GET THE DOOR!!!
• SpongeBob SquarePants: "The Bully" sees Spongebob antagonized by Flats the Flounder, who, for no apparent reason, wants to kick his butt. At one point, Spongebob tries to appeal to Flats's father for help, only for it to turn out that he's also terrified of Flats, as he's apparently kicked his butt in the past.
  Flats: Dad, what are you doing?
  Flats' dad: Uh, nothing, son.
  Flats: What did I tell you about talking to strangers?
  Flats' dad: Now he's gonna kick my butt!
• Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race: Taylor is a Spoiled Brat who treats her mother Kelly as an Extreme Doormat, with Taylor not showing her mother even the slightest hint of gratitude. As the season progresses, Kelly's patience with Taylor's insolence wears thin, and when Taylor pushes her luck too far, Kelly finally gives her daughter some long overdue discipline.
• Velma: When she was younger, Velma Dinkley was a huge Enfant Terrible who frequently hit her mother, called her an "old bag", and damaged her belongings. She also fights with her father, behaves aggressively and cynically toward him, and locks him, Amanda, and Sophie out of the house so she can watch TV with her mother.

---