Companion trope to the bumbling dads and contrast to Wet Blanket Wife. These are the wives of those dads who, despite clearly knowing better, do next to nothing to curb their husbands' antics. They act as if they have no control over the situation that the dad placed them in. While it can sometimes be played as the mom's faith in the dad overriding their common sense, it can also come off as voluntary martyrdom.
Often the result of media that combines Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife with the idea of dads being the head of the house, she will know that his plan is a bad one and is bound to fail but will do next to nothing to stop it beyond mild nagging and "I told you so" after the fact. When the kids try to go to her in hopes of stopping the dad's latest scheme, her response will be a strained "Listen to your father, kids". She will suffer in relative silence as her husband continues to make the situation worse and then will proceed to blame the husband despite doing next to nothing to try to stop the situation.
Sometimes when things start to go bad, the Antics Enabling Wife may angrily tell the husband to fix the problem but without offering any help or advice on how they think the problem should be solved. He is left to fumble his way through a solution that often makes things worse.
Other times, she may come in at the absolute last minute with a solution that fixes everything. And yet the audience is left to wonder why she only stepped in now and not twenty failed attempts ago. While the point is to make the dad look stupid for not thinking of the solution, it often makes her look cruel for not intervening before things get catastrophically worse before she steps in.
A sub-trope of Adults Are Useless, Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist (the bumbling husband of her or she's sharing this role with him) and Useless Bystander Parent (when she also did nothing when children are suffering from husband or other relatives, being it deliberate abuse or accidental results of their stupidity). See also This Is Gonna Suck (the usual state of Antics Enabling Wife) and I Warned You (her biggest response).
Examples
- Calvin and Hobbes: The mom is shown to hate the camping trips the dad takes the family on just as much as Calvin and yet does nothing to stop these apart from complaining and having a sour attitude.
- FoxTrot: Andy starts off as an Enabler Wife to Roger's bumbling antics but over time starts to put down her foot a lot more with him and has at times simply opted out of some of his schemes, leaving the kids to deal with it. Double points for Roger getting (relatively) smarter with time and having to deal with Andy's antics (who is an extreme Moral Guardian and very prone to Hypocritical Humor and other stupid shenanigans (and thanking to Flanderization, she Took a Level in Dumbass and Jerkass too)).
- The Mitchells vs. the Machines: Played with in the case of Linda. While she goes along with Rick's idea of the cross-country road trip despite her not thinking it's the right course of action, during the trip she actively tries to help Rick repair his relationship with Katie.
- Christmas with the Kranks: Nora Krank goes by her husband Luther's decision to skip Christmas. His plans cause everyone in town to turn against them. Despite being smarter than Luther, she has no other option but to stay on his good side even if it means getting humiliated.
- National Lampoon's Vacation: All throughout the series of films, Ellen will make the mildest attempts to talk Clark out of his schemes and yet stand by quietly as things continue to get worse.
- The Berenstain Bears: Mama Bear tells her husband Papa to do a task like getting honey from the store or buying a Christmas tree, but he would do it the old-fashioned way. She has no other option but to let him drag the cubs on his quest to find something. When Papa didn't get something as planned, he would follow Mama's advice as he should have done in the first place.
- Harry Potter: Petunia Dursley and her husband Vernon both hated wizards and witches. Vernon would try desperately to separate his nephew Harry Potter from the Wizarding World. Petunia, despite being smarter than her husband, would let Vernon work out his plans even though they backfire constantly.
- The Cosby Show: Claire Huxtable will often fuss at Cliff, but is rarely seen actively trying to stop him from fixing things. One time involves him trying to repair the dishwasher and having parts spread out all over the place.
- Home Improvement: Jill is a mild example in that she is often more proactive in trying to stop Tim's repair schemes, often resulting in Tim trying to find ways to work around her. Still after a while, one has to wonder why she lets Tim bring any tools into the house.
- In Modern Family, Claire rarely stands in the way of Phil's Manchild proclivities, be it his magic act, Homemade Inventions, odd collections, or his "Didn't Think This Through" large purchases/major household decisions, which tends to conflict with her otherwise Control Freak characterization. However, unlike many examples, she is perfectly willing to help fix the situation and numerous episodes have Phil's shenanigans lead to an overall positive outcome that wouldn't have happened had Claire intervened (or, sometimes, despite her intervention).
- Deconstructed hard in Kevin Can F**k Himself. Before the start of the series, Allison tolerated Kevin's buffoonish behavior even when it ended up hurting her. As the series begins, she starts to realize how unhealthy the relationship is and plots to extricate herself from the marriage...permanently.
- Scrubs: The Janitor grabs J.D. to punish him for convincing everyone to come to his wedding. J.D. asks his fiance Lady if she's just gonna stand by, to which she says "I gotta let my man be my man!"
- The Upshaws leans into how the roles of Antics-Enabling Wife and Bumbling Dad feed off each other, and plays it for drama. Regina and Bennie are highschool sweethearts who've been together for roughly 30 years, in a paradoxically rocky-but-consistent relationship. Bennie is a layabout car mechanic and a Manchild who never grew up, in a frustrating but realistic way. Regina, in contrast, is the stable, responsible parent who holds their household together, but she's no saint. Regina is perpetually fed up with Bennie's bullshit, but she has taken him back time and time again. Since Bennie can depend—accurately—on her eventual forgiveness, he has little reason to change. The show is very blunt about how Regina is a major player in creating this situation. She's not trapped in this marriage—her sister Lucretia would love to help her leave Bennie. But she doesn't.
Regina: I don't even know why I let you back in.
Regina: Cause you a mess too. And we the only people that we can be with.
- American Dad!: Francine Smith will often do very little to stop Stan and even identifies as an enabler.
- Family Guy: Lois starts off as Enabler Wife to Peter's antics but as the series progresses, she becomes equally zany and is just as often the source of the problems.
- The Fairly OddParents!: Mrs. Turner will often flip between being an Antics Enabling Wife and being just as nuts as Mr. Turner. The trope is played more straight with Cosmo and Wanda.
- The Simpsons: Marge is a classic example of the Antics Enabling Wife, often doing next to nothing to stop Homer's antics aside from glares and mild nagging while suffering in silence through the consequences.
