Teasing Parent

The kind of parent who loves to tease their children and to play pranks on them. They are also likely to deliberately intrigue their kids with secrets (something parents normally do only around Christmas and other holidays), and invoke Lies to Children (not as a way of avoiding complex explanations, as others do, but just to mess around with their child).

Should a Teasing Parent suspect their child has Unresolved Sexual Tension or Cannot Spit It Out with another one of their friends or someone they like, they will also often tease them on their feelings both to incite an embarrassed reaction out of them, but perhaps also to incite them into admitting their feelings for the other individual. Usually followed by them saying I Want Grandkids

Frequently overlaps with Open-Minded Parent, One of the Kids, Wacky Parent, Serious Child, and Amazingly Embarrassing Parents if they tease or prank their kid in public; also compare Trickster Girlfriend, for the same kind of thing in romantic relationships.

Not to be confused with Abusive Parents, whose jokes are malicious in nature, and who actually intend to hurt their children. One sure way to tell the difference is if the banter and teasing can go both ways. Truly abusive people tend to be Control Freaks and will not stand to be challenged or mocked, whereas someone who is lightheartedly teasing can take it just as well as they dish it out. Abusive parents often claim to be teasing parents to justify their behavior.

See also Familial Chiding.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Case Closed, Shinichi's mother Yukiko is childlike and mischievous, and also a professional actress. She frequently plays jokes on him and appears alongside him in various disguises, so that he wouldn't recognize her. Sometimes his father Yusaku also joins in: for example, in "Conan Edogawa Kidnapping Case" they both dressed up as agents of the Black Organization and staged a fake kidnapping of Conan, to make him realize the dangers of detective work in Japan and reunite with them in America.
• High School D×D: Zeoticus Gremory likes to tease his daughter Rias because he believes it's his duty as her father to do so.
• Takagi of Teasing Master Takagi-san spends most of her days teasing and tricking her love interest Nishikata. In the spin-off manga Teasing Master (née) Takagi-san set years later, Takagi continues teasing her husband Nishikata, but proves equally adept at doing the same to their young daughter Chi.
• In Urusei Yatsura, Mr. Mendou likes to prank his son by exploiting his claustrophobia. His daughter takes after his prankster habits, but she's way more sadistic about it.
• Yotsuba&!: Mrs. Ayase used to prank her eldest daughter Asagi. Unfortunately for her, Asagi has picked up that character trait and often pranks other people herself, including her mother.

Comic Strips

• In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin's dad is usually serious, but occasionally he teases Calvin with some absolutely ridiculous story (such as explaining old black-and-white photographs by telling him that the world used to be black-and-white and coming up with convoluted explanations for Calvin's queries such as why old paintings are in color ("because a lot of great artists used to be insane").

Fan Fiction

• As Fate Would Have It: Nate's and especially Yancy's mothers love to tease their children about Their First Time, which the young couple were forced to come clean about after Nate's mother caught them the morning after the deed. Unsurprisingly, both Nate and Yancy turn absolutely red with embarrassment when it's talked about.
• In The Raven Cycle fic For Me to Know and For You to Find Out, the psychic Maura Sargent likes to tease her daughter Blue about the future events that she foresees.

Literature

• In The Raven Cycle, the main character Blue has a very playful relationship with her mother Maura, which is more like a friendship than a mother-daughter relationship. Though Maura doesn't play any pranks on Blue, she often teases her daughter and directs lovingly ironic remarks at her.
• In the short story "A Mouthful" by Paul Jennings, the protagonist's father loves to play pranks on his daughter and her friends. He's put too much pepper on their dinner, short-sheeted the beds, etc, but his favourite prank was to put fake cat poop on the table and pretend to eat it. The girl then tricks him into eating real cat food.
• In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg's mother Susan sometimes uses a jokey version of Reverse Psychology, where she pretends to humour her kids but then uses reverse psychology to get them to obey her. One example was when she tricks Greg into brushing his teeth by faking a call to the dentist, and another example is when she tries to get Greg to stop hiding by pretending she doesn't know where he is.
• In Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, Fat Charlie's father Mr Nancy once convinced him that people dress up as presidents on President's Day. Charlie, not wanting to be just another Lincoln, went as Taft. Makes sense as Mr Nancy is really Anansi, the trickster god.

Films — Live-Action

• In Jojo Rabbit, Jojo's mother Rosie enjoys playfully teasing her son, retorting his self-loathing remarks by gushing about how she herself is cursed with being "incredibly attractive", and responding to his blind fanaticism by pointing out the ridiculousness of what he's saying. At one point she even ties his shoes together and jokes about leaving him behind.
• Harlan Thrombey from Knives Out is a Cool Old Guy with various eccentricities who had various secret means of communicating with his oldest daughter Linda. Usually they manifested in the form of games, clues, puzzles, and riddles that only she could properly decode. By the end of the film, she finds the various notes he left for her and she figures out that the invisible ink can be seen by applying her lighter under it, revealing to her that her husband Richard has been cheating on her and that Harlan threatened to tell her if he did not.
• In Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar's dad loved challenging him to games, some of them incredibly elaborate. The movie's plot is kicked off when Oskar finds something that he thinks is a clue to his father's final game, and sets out to solve the game.

Live-Action TV

• Castle:
  • Rick Castle has a playful, teasing relationship with his daughter, Alexis. After she tearfully admits that she lied to him about something, which, as it turns out was a Felony Misdemeanor (She jumped the turnstile at the subway without paying because it was raining and she was about to miss the train), he suggests, teasingly, that her punishment is mandatory ice cream for breakfast for the next two weeks. Alexis grounds herself, but not until after a school trip. Castle smiles and says she's firm but fair. Of course, Alexis gives as good as she gets. For example, she once told him, with tongue firmly in cheek, "We were going to borrow your Ferrari and hook up with some boys that we met on Craigslist." Castle responds, "Not cool."
  • Unsurprisingly, Castle also has this sort of relationship with his own mother Martha Rogers. For instance, when Castle points out that the local news has listed him as #7 on the Most Eligible Bachelor list for the year, she reminds him that he was #3 the year before, then states that it's her job to keep him humble. On another occasion, she finds out that the murder took place at a studio where she once worked for a soap opera, and begs to come along. Castle says that a murder scene is only for trained professionals. Her reply? "Richard Castle, you are neither trained nor a professional."
• In Doom Patrol (2019), Niles Caulder's parenting style contains a certain amount of teasing. A flashback shows him defusing a tantrum by Baby Doll (over him missing their weekly breakfast together) by marveling at how quiet his breakfast will be without a "certain little piggy snarfing up all the syrup", and another scene shows him and Dorothy watching a movie together and him stealing some of her popcorn and holding it out of her reach.
• The Chilean version of El Club de la Comedia ("The Comedy Club") had the "Cruel Dad", who's the Manchild parent of a 10-year-old he calls "Tatayaya" all the time (an Affectionate Nickname the kid hates) and made jokes to him so he can get a good laugh, almost bordering the Abusive Parent line, to end every sketch with this:
  You make me laugh so much.
• Gilmore Girls: This is kind of the show's whole shtick: Lorelai and Rory are "best friends first, mother/daughter second," which means that Lorelai, who is The Gadfly, plays the wacky, teasing parent to Rory's serious, down-to-earth teenager.
  Lorelai: (flopping on Rory's bed while she's sleeping) Am I more beautiful today than I was yesterday?
  Rory: Oh, boy.
  Lorelai: I'm just not sure. I mean at first I looked in the mirror and I thought, well yes, definitely, huge improvement.
  Rory: Can I have my pillow back?
  Lorelai: But then I thought maybe its not that I'm more beautiful today. Maybe I was just as beautiful yesterday, only I lacked the self-esteem to recognize it.
  Rory: I'm gonna go take a shower.
• Schitt's Creek: When Alexis gets a job with a fitness company that turns out to be a UFO cult promising to take its members to a mystical Gateway in the sky, Johnny seems he know nothing about it. However, when giving a pep talk to his family, he laments that they are all about to lose Alexis to the Gateway, to the amusement of everyone present but Alexis.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation has a dark version. In "Violations", Jev's father Tarmin finds amusement in publicly humiliating his son by deriding his telepathic abilities while boasting about his own. It's implied that revenge for this is the reason Jev turned to Mind Rape and attempts to frame his father for it.
• In Under the Banner of Heaven, flashbacks show Jim Wright challenging his daughter Brenda when she announces her intention to go to Salt Lake City for college, pushing her to give reasons for why she wants to go there rather than somewhere closer to home. When she makes her arguments, he then announces that her room is up for grabs for her younger sisters.

Video Games

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: In the flashbacks, it can be seen that Lara Croft's father used to create mysteries around Croft Manor, including hand-drawn treasure maps and secret rooms in the house that he fully expected for Lara to explore.

Web Animation

• Let Me Explain Studios: After Rebecca's running away from home prank on her mom fell flat because her mom acted coy about it, causing her and Rachel to come out of hiding, her mom suddenly got the idea to do the prank again, but this time, on Rebecca's dad. Lo and behold, the prank was a rousing success due to her mom putting on her most convincing acting performance.

Webcomics

• Channel Ate: In the strip "Scary Stories", when the kids ask if they can sleep with their parents because they're afraid, mom pretends that the dad has disappeared, and the dad pretends to be a ghost.

Western Animation

• In My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, Princess Celestia can be considered one, depending on how you view her relationship with Sunset Shimmer. As revealed in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (IDW) Annual 2013, she presented Sunset Shimmer with mysteries and puzzles on occasion, telling her she would know fully when she was ready. This unintentionally fueled Shimmer's growing ambition and frustration, which lead to a fractured relationship and Sunset Shimmer's banish vanish into the human realm.
• In The Tofus, the protagonists' parents are quirky eco-hippies, but they are not nearly as naive as they may appear to be, and frequently know much more about their kids' antics than they let on. For example, in Out, Out, Fake Spot!, when Chichi fakes illness to skip a math test, they catch on with it but pretend to believe him and subject him to exotic "alternative medicine" treatments, like having his feet licked by goats.
• In What's with Andy?, while Lori's father doesn't do elaborate pranks like Andy, he's still a practical joker, often playing pranks on Lori and other people.
• In Bluey, Bluey and Bingo's father Bandit has a habit of playing jokes on his daughters and mildly teasing them. The episode "Teasing" actually lampshades how often this happens, while at the same time proving that the kids can both respond in kind and even beat him at his own game.

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