Basic Trope: A mother is a bit too controlling and has a hard time "cutting the apron strings" from their kids.
- Straight: Alice visits Charlie's college apartment nearly every other day to make sure that all his needs are taken care of, and that his room is clean.
- Exaggerated: Charlie is already married with his own children, but his mother Alice still calls him three times a day to make sure he's eating right, and generally meddling with his schedule.
- Downplayed: Alice calls Charlie at least once a week, occasionally offering to do his laundry or asking if he's still single.
- Justified:
- Charlie is a really dependent person who needs attention and helps from his parents even as he gets older.
- Charlie has a mental disability.
- Alice is the one who's really dependent and needs attention. Life wasn't kind to her, and now Charlie, her only child (or, perhaps, her only son - she doesn't care about daughters that much), is the only person in her life she can cling to.
- Charlie was kidnapped as a child, so Alice's smothering is an emotional reaction to it.
- Charlie has a rare body condition or disability making it difficult to do simple things like walking or writing. He could die without around-the-clock care.
- Alice and Charlie are supernatural creatures disguising as humans. Alice is terrified of what could happen to Charlie if the humans discover their identity.
- Alice is the Big Bad of the Show that is a Bad Boss of a corporation but Charlie serves as her Morality Pet and Living Emotional Crutch and she wants what's she thinks is best for him.
- Alice blames herself (rightfully or otherwise) for something that happened to Charlie, and she is acting out of guilt.
- Inverted:
- Alice is a "hands off" parent who lets Charlie go completely after he leaves the house, even when he's just a child who has no idea of what he's doing.
- Alice's son keeps bothering her because he still hasn't matured enough.
- Gender Flip: Alan is overly protective of Charlie.
- Subverted:
- Charlie complains about his mother's overbearing nature to everyone in earshot; when she finally appears, it's revealed he was lying or exaggerating wildly and she's a perfectly normal mother.
- The first time Charlie's friend Bob meets Alice she's asking Charlie whether he remembered to brush his teeth. Bob is briefly scandalized before Charlie lets out an exasperated, "Mom, that was one time!" and Alice laughs - turns out Alice is just teasing him and is just putting on a show to break the tension.
- Double Subverted: ...Or at least, it seems that way, until she asks him if he washed behind his ears.
- Or her "normal" behavior is just faking.
- Parodied:
- Alice will come into Charlie's workplace and call him constantly, cooing over him and even spying on Diane, Charlie's girlfriend, to make sure that everything is fine for him.
- Anytime Charlie is supposedly on his own, Alice can be seen following him, usually wearing large sunglasses and a raincoat or hiding behind a newspaper. Occasionally she even resorts to hiding in garbage cans to keep an eye on him.
- Zig Zagged: Alice is a beloved smother, but realizes she needs to give her son some space. But when Charlie manages to make a mess she's overbearing again and the cycle repeats, ad nauseam...
- Averted:
- Alice gives Charlie enough breathing space to be comfortable but still cares about him.
- Good Parents.
- Conveniently an Orphan.
- Enforced: The writer has encountered one of these species (which is, sadly or gladly, very much Truth in Television) and wants to show the problems that will ensue if the mother doesn't back down one day.
- Lampshaded: "Isn't she a bit too watchful over her son?"
- Invoked: Charlie is The Chosen One or is otherwise prophecised to have some kind of significant destiny; Alice smothers in in order to ensure that his destiny either comes to pass or is avoided.
- Exploited: Bob gets Charlie to do something by talking Alice into telling him to do it.
- Defied:
- Alice's own mother smothered her, so she decides to focus on making her child comfortable, but not overbearing.
- Demetra, Alice's old friend, after seeing everything in her family finally gives her an Anti-Smother Love Talk, which prompts Alice to lose her grip over Charlie,
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "She better learn to cut those apron strings soon enough..."
- Implied: Charlie leaves the room in a big hurry because his mom is calling him.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice is so overbearing she drives away Charlie's Love Interest and friends. Charlie is too smothered by Alice's behavior and he calls her out on it, and it tears their relationship apart.
- Charlie is brainwashed frequently by Alice that she is overprotective because she is the only one who actually loves him, he tried to call her out several times in his younger years but failed, so he gives up on it, and lets his mom controls his life, several years later, he still acts like a little kid who demand EVERYTHING from his mom, he still living with her since she never allows him to move anywhere, he can't keep a job for more than a few months before he gets fired for No Social Skills and doing something stupid, and he never quite learned to do basic life skills by himself such as how to clean his house and manage his bank accounts because his mom already does everything for him. As time goes by, Alice realizes that she has bred an absolute Psychopathic Manchild who consumes both her energy and her saved money from the pension, and affects her health as well.
- Alice forgets about her own life because she worries about Charlie's before her own, and Charlie is an Ungrateful Bastard, or even Abusive Offspring.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice comes to realize that she needs to give Charlie his own space to grow and develop; she lightens up and backs off a bit, becoming less overbearing and allowing Charlie to mend his friendships and romances. She remains quick to interfere, however.
- After Alice dies, Charlie realizes how ungrateful he's been and dedicates his life to his own son.
- After Alice dies, Charlie gains the actual freedom of his own life, and raises his own son in a more Open Minded way in the fear that if he smothers his son in the same way with his mom, the son will end up like him.
- Played For Laughs: Charlie is 35 and his mother still hand-picks his daily clothing, goes full-blown "Satanic Panic" whenever she sees him reading comics, and finds a reason to baby-talk him in anything he does.
- Played For Drama: Charlie is 55 and every single second he's awake he's got to withstand his mother lecturing him about anything he does (and blinking too hard at any point of those lectures leads to the standard "I raised an inconsiderate son!" rant). Charlie would really like to holler out a Big "SHUT UP!", but he doesn't want to risk someone misrepresenting it as an abusive episode and calling the cops.
- Played For Horror:
- Alice's unrelenting, decades-long smothering has turned Charlie into a copycat of Norman Bates. Maybe even, like Norman, Charlie killed Alice to try to make her shut up once and for all, but her nagging still hounds him as hallucinations.
- Alternatively, they're the creepy Villainous Mother-Son Duo which Alice is a Evil Matriarch who encourages Charlie, her Psychopathic Manchild son to commit several crimes and violent things, which Alice always keeps an eye on his actions.
And don't be late back to the main page! Mommy'll be missin' ya so much, and it's gonna be cold in the evening...
