History Main / ParentalNeglect

* [[TheUrkel Steve Urkel's]] [[TheGhost unseen]] parent's in FamilyMatters are a serious example. Many times over the series Urkel decribes his parent mean actions. Example include as pushing ''back'' in when he was born, a curfew for when he can come home and using exploding candles on his birthday cake. Finally toward the end they leave for Russia without him. All of it is PlayedForLaughs as Laura says that his parent "Took the easy way out" when they moved.

* File Helga's parents, Bob and Miriam in ''HeyArnold!'', under Neglect unto Abuse. They're not BAD persons per se, but Helga was TheUnFavorite growing up (WordOfGod stated that her mother Myriam was an alcoholic), and for a while it was her FreudianExcuse to be the school bully.

** They weren't always that neglectful. During early seasons, they genuinely loved and cared for Timmy, despite a few misunderstandings between them. {{Flanderization}} of Timmy's parents took the misunderstandings and transformed it into full-on neglect.
** As bad as Timmy's parents are, Remy Buxaplenty's are even worse. They spend a minute a day with their son and don't even remember his name. If "Remy Rides Again" is any indication, they've only gotten worse.
** Timmy himself will become a neglectful parent toward his own children (Tommy and Tammy) in the future.
*** Possible side effect of the LaserGuidedAmnesia we all know he's going to get when he gets older. He says that the purpose of the time capsule was so that he'd remember Vicky's atrocities to prevent his fate from happening to his future kids. Said memory loss might have wiped the motive away too.

Parental Neglect happens when the parents are shown not to pay a lot, if any, attention or care to their children for some reason. Maybe they're just busy with work. Maybe they are their children aren't particularly emotionaly close, or perhaps they're just obsessed with their own attempts to save the world. Nevertheless, for some reason, their children are not the highest on their agenda.

* Surprisingly, {{Superman}} himself, towards Superboy, in Series/YoungJustice. Mostly because he refuses to accept that Superboy is, for all intents and purposes, his son.

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* In the ''ComicBook/{{Sonic the Hedgehog}}'' comic, [[strike:Evil Sonic's]] [[EvilTwin Scourge's]] father Anti Jules made very little time for his son. Scourge would describe him as full of "empty words". It's heavily implied he was killed by his son.

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* Michael's biological mother Denise in ''TheBlindSide''. Not necessarily abuse so much as neglect, due to her addiction to crack cocaine.
* ''{{Tideland}}''

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* Hayate of ''{{Hayate the Combat Butler}}'' has incredibly neglectful parents -- they spend all their money on gambling, and steal from Hayate to fund their habits, eventually selling his organs to the [[strike:{{Yakuza}}]] [[UnusualEuphemism Very Nice People]] to pay off their debts.
** They also stole a ring from him when he was a child [[spoiler:given to him by Athena. He desperately wanted to trust and love them. He put his place with Athena at jeopardy to argue with her that they were good people, so she put all of her love for Hayate into that ring. His parents smiled, said they would take good care of it, and hawked it at a pawn shop. Hayate was kicked out of Athena's grace.]]
* In the ''{{Prince of Tennis}}'' anime, Kevin Smith's father George is an emotionally scarred alcoholic who heavily neglected Kevin [[spoiler:by subjecting him to TrainingFromHell ''and'' not caring if the child was around when he was drunk.]] Kevin openly tells his teammate Billy that his father is a worthless person and that's why he wants to beat Ryoma, to not be like his dad.
* Gaara of ''{{Naruto}}'' was horribly neglected by his father who ordered him killed on several occasions. This left Gaara to be raised by his uncle Yashamaru, who initially respected him... but said uncle ultimately ends up betraying him and being killed by Gaara, leaving the latter to trust no one.
** Considering its heavily implied he didn't see his own orphaned godson for the first 13 years of his life, [[{{Naruto}} Jiraiya]] can certainly count as neglectful to the point of being abusive. He gets (somewhat) better after their initial meeting, though.
*** If you call spending his godsons life savings on booze and hookers an improvement.
**** Hey, he doesn't spend his godson's life savings on booze and hookers... Just, whatever Naruto happens to have in his adorable frog-shaped wallet at the time.
* In ''YuYuHakusho'', Yusuke's mother clearly cares about him a great deal, but she's also an alcoholic and does almost nothing to actually look after him.
* In ''KatekyoHitmanReborn'', although Tsuna's mother loves him, she definitely doesn't really care enough about his future or his self-esteem to count as a very good parent (including not doing anything about his truancy or poor grades, and constantly belittling him in front of his friends and the [[ShallowLoveInterest girl he likes]] as "[[ButtMonkey No Good Tsuna]]" -- honestly, he's only 14 years old). And then there's his father, who [[DisappearedDad went missing for most of Tsuna's life]], and only reappears suddenly to force Tsuna (without even asking Tsuna [[IJustWantToBeNormal if he wants to first]]) into becoming a Mafia crimelord that will be targeted by countless assassins.
** His mom only really belittles him in the early chapters, though. She becomes much more sweet and supportive once Tsuna stops being such a loser.
** There's also Chrome's parents, who treated her like she didn't exist and then abandoned her to die after a car accident... with half her internal organs missing.
* Gauron from ''FullMetalPanic'' certainly qualifies in relation to [[spoiler:the twins Yu Fang and Yu Lan]]. Not surprising, considering [[AxCrazy his personality]]. He cares little for their physical or mental well-being, and is shown to mainly care about using them for his plans. There are hints and implications that his relationship with them also [[WifeHusbandry might not strictly have been a pure, father-daughter kind]]. He also didn't seem to care that, by having them work in Amalgam, they were being raped and beaten by [[PsychoForHire Gates]] (which was apparently happening to them ever since they were young children). Despite all this, they [[HappinessInSlavery still obsessively love him]].
* Riza Hawkeye's father of ''FullmetalAlchemist'' appears to have been so absorbed in his alchemy research he disregarded the well-being of his daughter and the state of his home. Hawkeye said that her father "at least" made sure she got an education. As well, her father's tattooing of a massive alchemical array on her back could only be described as physical abuse.
* Oz Vezallius's father in ''PandoraHearts'', who starts off like this before it's revealed that he said that Oz [[spoiler:should never have been born, ''right in front of him'', and is later shown to be one of the people who sent him to the in-universe equivalent of ''{{Hell}}'' for the apparent crime of '''existing'''.]] Supposedly he has his reasons (if only in his head) but ''yeesh''.
** [[spoiler: Gilbert and Vincent's]] parents can be considered this since they left the children on the streets where they were abused and mistreated until [[spoiler: Jack]] found them.
* ''HoneyHunt'' has the protagonist's (Yura) famous celebrity parents, Yukari and Takayuki. For one thing Yura is judged a disappointment by others because she is continuously compared to her celebrity parents and she is used to people trying to get close to her for the sole purpose of getting to possibly meet Yukari and Takayuki. For another thing, Yukari is hardly at home and is very selfish. In all of her interviews she lies and says that she and Yura are close and spend much time together as a result of Takayuki being abroad so often, when in reality she is a cold and distant parent. Also, immediately after showing up after being away from home for about a half a month, Yukari coldly announces that she and Yura's father are getting divorced before telling Yura that she can go wherever she wants. Also, while Takayuki was having an affair she was having one of her own with Yura's neighbor and crush, Shinsuke. When Yura finds out about the affair Yukari's response is to smile, declare that Shinsuke likes her more than Yura, that she's going to allow Shinsuke to live with her in a mansion she had bought, and that Takayuki had a baby with his mistress so neither he nor Yukari will have time to look after Yura anymore. She then demands that Yura leave the house. It's eventually revealed that she and her husband were only together for the sake of their careers and their images, they didn't love each other. The two of them even agreed on a rule with each other that they would stay married as long as they hide their own adulterous affairs. After she decided to divorce Takayuki because the press found out about his affair, however, it is shown that she has no intentions of taking care of Yura and merely cared about repairing her image in the eyes of the public because they had originally thought she was the "ideal mom". Seriously, [[TheWoobie poor kid]].
* ''{{Psyren}}'': Sakurako Amamiya's parents are very neglectful, having both basically abandoned her after splitting up and not batting an eye when she vanishes for weeks at a time.
* ''MiraiNikki'': While Yukiteru's mother Rea maintains a close relationship with Yukiteru she is rarely at home because of her work as a video game programmer and approves of Yuno as a potential bride for Yukiteru, even remaining oblivious to Yuno's [[{{Yandere}} psychotic and dangerous behavior]]. Really, when your son is on the run from the law, then disappears for a week after being exhonorated and comes back incredibly nervous, you should be at least a little concerned.
** Also, his father Kurou. Initially, he appears in chapter thirty claiming to just want to check on his son, but it turns out that he has only returned to destroy Yukiteru's diary in order to fulfill a deal with the Eleventh. Despite his only clear desire being to free himself from his debts, he does try to save Yukki when the latter almost falls to his death, but takes the parachute away from Yukki before the tower crumbles soon after. He then stabs his wife when she tries to take him to the police and escapes, though is stabbed to death himself two chapters later by the Eleventh's men, just when he'd realised the error of his ways and was trying to atone. ''Ouch''
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* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DaFA5yfvFA&feature=related "And I thought we were done with all that silly dreamer talk."]]
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* Trent and Jane's parents in ''Daria'' seem to be this way, opting to let their children roam freely, as they put it, and that's if they're even in town at all. Trent even seemed remorseful about it in one episode.

* In the ''{{Prince of Tennis}}'' anime, Kevin Smith's father George is an emotionally scarred alcoholic who heavily neglected Kevin [[spoiler:by subjecting him to TrainingFromHell * and* not caring if the child was around when he was drunk.]] Kevin openly tells his teammate Billy that his father is a worthless person and that's why he wants to beat Ryoma, to not be like his dad.

* ''HoneyHunt'' has the protagonists (Yura) famous celebrity parents, Yukari and Takayuki. For one thing Yura is judged a disappointment by others because she is continuously compared to her celebrity parents and she is used to people trying to get close to her for the sole purpose of getting to possibly meet Yukari and Takayuki. For another thing, Yukari is hardly at home and is very selfish. In all of her interviews she lies and says that she and Yura are close and spend much time together as a result of Takayuki being abroad so often, when in reality she is a cold and distant parent. Also, immediately after showing up after being away from home for about a half a month, Yukari coldly announces that she and Yura's father are getting divorced before telling Yura that she can go wherever she wants. Also, while Takayuki was having an affair she was having one of her own with Yura's neighbor and crush, Shinsuke. When Yura finds out about the affair Yukari's response is to smile, declare that Shinsuke likes her more than Yura, that she's going to allow Shinsuke to live with her in a mansion she had bought, and that Takayuki had a baby with his mistress so neither he nor Yukari will have time to look after Yura anymore. She then demands that Yura leave the house. It's eventually revealed that she and her husband were only together for the sake of their careers and their images, they didn't love each other. The two of them even agreed on a rule with each other that they would stay married as long as they hide their own adulterous affairs. After she decided to divorce Takayuki because the press found out about his affair, however, it is shown that she has no intentions of taking care of Yura and merely cared about repairing her image in the eyes of the public because they had originally thought she was the "ideal mom". Seriously, [[TheWoobie poor kid]].

* Terra's relationship towards Kefka is implied to be this in the Dissidia 012 trailer (Essentially, Kefka remarks "After all, she comes running straight back into my arms, anyway. What do I care!", and the she he is referring to is implied to be Terra.).

* How the heck did FamilyGuy not make it up here yet? Even leaving out [[ButtMonkey Meg]], [[{{Flanderization}} Peter]] and [[CharacterDerailment Lois]] have gotten to the point where they barely even see their children anymore. Stewie is almost always left alone with Brian while Chris seems to barely exist. In fact, Peter has gone as far as to say that he can't stand his kids. Nowhere is this trope shown better than in the episode Stewie gets a [[Squick horrible head injury]] that only gets [[NauseaFuel worse]] as he is not taken to the hospital (Meg and Chris try to hide his injury in fear that they'll get in trouble). When Peter finds out, he [[MoralEventHorizon COMMENDS]] the children on trying to hide the problem, and reveals that [[AbusiveParents he did the same to each of them.]] This only gets worse as he tries to get Lois to think she did it by [[CompleteMonster THROWING Stewie in front of the car as Lois backs up over him.]] [[CharacterDerailment Lois]] then suggests they [[WhatTheHellHero hide it and pin the blame on someone else.]]

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* Also played for laughs in the ''TeenageWorrier'' series, where Letty's parents are rarely at home, refuse to cook or buy groceries, smoke in the house and largely ignore her in favour of their younger son.

NeedsABetterDescription

In fiction, we have parents who [[GoodParents are nice and kindly]] to the Protagonists. Then we have those who are [[AbusiveParents downright bastards]] to the kids. Sometimes, [[ParentalAbandonment they're not there at all]]. And, finally, we have this.

Parental Neglect happens when the parents simply don't care about their children for some reason. Maybe they're just busy with work. Maybe they aren't exactly fond of their own children for some reason, or perhaps they're just obsessed with their own attempts to save the world. Nevertheless, for some reason, they don't have their kids show up in their agenda.

Compare and contrast with AbusiveParents and ParentalAbandonment.

This can be set up for an FreudianExcuse. Also an excuse for kids who go off to [[SavingTheWorld save the world]] not worry too much about their parents, seeing as they don't give two cents about what they're doing anyway.

* How the heck did FamilyGuy not make it up here yet? Even leaving out [[ButtMonkey Meg]], [[Flanderization Peter]] and [[CharacterDerailment Lois]] have gotten to the point where they barely even see thier children anymore. Stewie is almost always left alone with Brian while Chris seems to barely exist. In fact, Peter has gone as far as to say that he can't stand his kids. No where is this trope shown better than in the episode Stewie gets a [[Squick hoorible head injury]] that only gets [[NauseaFuel worse]] as he is not taken to the hospitable (Meg and Chris try to hide his injury in fear that they'll get in trouble). When Peter finds out, he [[MoralEventHorizon COMMENDS]] the children on trying to hide the problem, and reveals that [[AbusiveParents he did the same to each of them.]] This only gets worse as he tries to get Lois to think she did it by [[CompleteMonster THROWING Stewie in front of the car as Lois backs up over him.]] [[CharacterDerailment Lois]] then suggests to [[WhatTheHellHero hide it and pin the blame on someone else.]]

* When dealing once again with serial killer Hoyt, [[RizzoliAndIsles Maura Isles]] starts looking into his childhood after he says that the two of them are alike. Maura looks back at her own childhood as well, and realizes that, although her adopted parents did love her, they were much more interested in their own things than they were in her. According to Isles, the "less [she] asked for, the less time they had for [her]."

**Um, Timmy's parents HAVE crossed the line to truly evil abusers. From wanting to rent his room out to set him to military school to watching ACTUAL PROOF of Vicky's torture (not even caring that their son could have DIED in the torture), they crossed the MoralEventHorizon in many people's minds.
**Yeah, but this episode (Vicky Gets Fired!) is FULL of {{Out of Character Moment}}s. In fact, [[{{Discontinuity}} the premise of this chapter is ludicrous if you watched before "Channel Chasers" and "The Switch Glitch"]].
**There are more moments too where they have also crossed the MoralEventHorizon into truly Abusive, Neglectful parents. Like when Timmy's mother forgets to ''make a separate dish of food for him'', forcing him to eat ''garbage'' to forgetting they even had him as a son to several other things. Mr. and Mrs. Turner are the worst parents on TV, possibly even more than [[FamilyGuy Peter Griffin]] and [[TheSimpsons Homer Simpson]]. Not only that, Cosmo and Wanda, who were the only people who truly cared for Timmy? [[TheScrappy Poof]] is sucking them dry so they can't save Timmy with their magic or improve his life anymore, and they are becoming Abusive Parents in the neglect regard. And Butch Hartman plays this for laughs. How the hell can someone think this is funny?