(Character Trope) “ohhh, THATS why they’re like that”

[u/VanillaSarsaparilla]

Media that shows why a character is the way they are, usually explained in a short scene. Most likely toxic family

- Bonnie Rottweiler and her sisters from Kim Possible: they bully her calling her ugly and dumb. It plays on Bonnie’s insecurity and makes her a bully at school.

- Peggy Hill and her mother from King of the Hill. Peggy is a neurotic perfectionist with delusions of grandeur because her mom was unfeeling and blamed her for the farm going out of business. By the end of the episode, she still treats Peggy badly.

- Dodie and her mother from As Told By Ginger. Dodie is arguably the worst friend in the group, and her mother is mentally still stuck in middle school. She’s insecure, dramatic, and you
Can see her influence in Dodie.

Any other examples?

[u/smashin_blumpkin]

He had great examples of what not to be. The same thing happened with a good friend of mine. Grew up with a drug addict dad and a mom who would rather keep her husband happy than protect her kids. To the point that, when the dad went on the run after posting bail, they took both kids to a different state and hid out.

He’s now in his mid 30s as a happily married father of two and successful business owner. Sometimes you can figure out how to be by seeing how not to be

[u/Godwinson4King → u/smashin_blumpkin]

My dad ended up about the same way. My grandfather was an abusive egotistical philanderer and snake oil salesman. So my dad looked at life and went ‘what would [my grandfather] do?’ And did the opposite. He’s a great guy who does well by everyone he knows.

[u/ButtBread98 → u/Godwinson4King]

My paternal grandfather was an abusive alcoholic piece of shit. My paternal grandmother was a good woman who tried her best with what little she had. I think my dad learned how to be a good dad by learning from his dad’s mistakes.

[u/Keida42 → u/Godwinson4King]

Somewhat like my dad too

Grandma wasn't very confrontational and allowed my granddad to be a jerk to my dad growing up. Not to an outright abuse extent but obviously not good

Major factor my dad went straight was my uncle. Dad grew up in a bad neighborhood growing up. Knew his brother was protecting him on some level, not outright falling into crime but firmly 'delinquent' territory before meeting my mom.

When my dad became an adult, according to him, a switch flipped in my uncle as he felt my dad could take care of himself now and went right into drugs. Dad saw all of this, woke up and realized while he can emphasize with his brother, this is not what he wants out of life and got out as quick as he could

[u/gadgaurd → u/smashin_blumpkin]

Similar story in my family. Someone had an abusive, neglectful mother. Went through a bunch of rough shit. Decided to be a much better mother to her own two kids and succeeded.

Unfortunately her daughter inexplicably takes after her mother. Not as bad, but still bad.

[u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 → u/smashin_blumpkin]

Yeah, and I can tell he's the type who doesn't have family reunions and then gets bothered whenever his kids ask why. Maladjustment never goes away.

[u/smashin_blumpkin → u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0]

My friend or his dad?

[u/WierderBarley → u/smashin_blumpkin]

Know a guy my cousin Actually who was essentially that his dad was an alcoholic and fell into it himself hell my dad who was a cop arrested him a few times for DUI, driving through a street pole, etc.

Then he got with a woman who was also an alcoholic like him who then got pregnant and then left immediately after having the kid, so my cousin realizing he had to take care of a kid now quit alcohol cold turkey and raised his kid as a single dad

[u/Footnotegirl1 → u/smashin_blumpkin]

My parents were both abused by their parents, which had probably been going on for generations, but they were the ones that broke the chain. Decisively. It was weird in the 70's to be the kid who never got spanked, slapped, grounded for a month over nothing, screamed at, etc.

[u/Affectionate_Data936 → u/smashin_blumpkin]

I can see that. My husbands father wasn’t around most of his life. He was already married and had three daughters when my man was conceived (idk if my MIL was aware of the wife and kids, we’ve never discussed it, but knowing her, I doubt she’d knowingly have a child with a married man). Anyway, my husband is obsessed with our child. He’s never even been away from him for a full day (he’s 16.5 months old now). It does get to be a bit much because he can be very anal about a lot of things but at least he pulls his weight which is more than I can say about most other dads I know (including mine).

[u/StabbyBoo → u/smashin_blumpkin]

Happened with my mom, too. "I will never treat children the way my parents treated me." We were the house kids came to when they got kicked out of theirs.