Stage Mom



""I've always dreamed of becoming an actress. That's not why I'm pushing Olivia to do it. Is it suspicious that I brought that up unprovoked?""

- Olivia's mother, Family Guy

Sometimes parents really want their kids to become child stars. However, they tend to interfere in the actual work, causing problems in the very works they want to make their children stars. Often they can help their kids start successful careers, but in fiction, it's very rare.

Similar in theme to an Education Mama, but usually presented as more malicious, as she persecutes other people's children as well as being pushy to the point of insanity with her own. She'll often have self-serving reasons for pushing her kids into showbiz (as demonstrated by the above quote), using them to vicariously experience the fame and fortune that she had dreamed of, and possibly being a failed actress or musician herself. In this case, the trope overlaps with Coattail-Riding Relative.

This is almost Always Female for cultural reasons. A man is expected to earn stuff on their own, and if he and his wife are both pushy stage parents the wife is usually the one on the scene to take the blame (see Shirley Temple). But sometimes guys can see their kids accomplishing things they couldn't. When it isn't pushing their kids at sports, it's often this trope.

Anime & Manga
"Sara: Remember this... a kid is not a parent's doll."
 * Happened with Kohane's mother in xxxHolic, who pushes her young girl to appear on television specials, even when the girl is clearly uncomfortable and only wants her mother's affection.
 * Onpu Segawa's mother from Ojamajo Doremi is a milder version of the trope, as she does care for Onpu somewhat more than the typical Stage Mom but still pushes her to be an Idol Singer like she used to be and is often out working when she should be with Onpu.
 * Haruka Harukaze, Doremi's Tsundere mother and an ex-pianist who lost her career due to a Game-Breaking Injury, was close to become one. When little Doremi showed some degree of musical talent, she tried to shape her into a good pianist, but Doremi panicked when on-stage and Haruka didn't insist. She felt so guilty about it that when Doremi's little sister Poppu wanted her mom to teach her how to play, it took both her and Doremi's efforts to convince her.
 * Subverted by Miyata's father in Hajime no Ippo. While his son Ichiro took up boxing few after Miyata-san's forceful retirement, it was because of Miyata's own will and not because his dad pressured him to do it, and father and son care for each other very much.
 * In Charisma Doll Kazuma wants Sara to "follow in her footsteps" and have a chance to be a star. Sara doesn't like being a pop idol, because she feels that her androgynous appearance and voice are nothing but a cheap gimmick to get money.


 * Sawakita's father in Slam Dunk looks like this a little, but he's actually an aversion since he does truly care for Sawakita himself.
 * In Speed Grapher's first episode, a young would-be ballerina and her stage mom visit the ballet dancer Kazuya Shirogane in his camerino so the girl can show off her dancing skills and become his pupil. Shirogane turns out to be an Euphoric, and ends up breaking the girl's arm while screaming "Not flexible! Not flexible! NOT FLEXIBLE". AAAAHHHHH!!!
 * 's mother from Fushigi Yuugi.

Comicbooks

 * The original Silk Spectre from Watchmen coached her daughter to take up her profession.
 * Bonnie Jones nee King, Cissie Jones-King aka Arrowette's mother from Young Justice in The DCU, was a superhero stage mother, pushing her daughter into becoming a superhero because of her own frustrated ambitions. In issue #7, this angered Wonder Girl's mother, who has the exact opposite attitude towards her daughter Cassie's heroics. She called out Bonnie on caring more about fame than her daughter's safety, asking whether she even knew that Arrowette had recently taken an arrow through the shoulder. This resulted in a Cat Fight.
 * It was also pointed out around that time that the costume that Bonnie had made for Cissie was more flashy than functional, and didn't protect her very well (several iterations of it were a sparkly, girly mini-dress). Arrowette's costume change to a more sensible one (yes, the bare midriff was more sensible than what she had on before) was supposed to signify that Bonnie had backed off.
 * Nightwing chewed that mom out too (he had showed up at the parents conference for Tim).
 * The recent Strange miniseries had a plot that involved pageant mothers actually making deals with a demon in order to secure a win. As one would expect, and because the demon was a huge cheater who decided he didn't have to adhere to the rules of magic, this backfired horribly. As for the pageant itself when it was shown, more than a few readers who'd been in or been involved with pageants noted that yes, some of the adults at those things really are that scary.
 * Calvin once asked his father if he was attempting to live vicariously through Calvin to make up for his own failures in life. His father shot back that if he was, he'd be trying a lot harder. Calvin manages to deduce his father's disrespect.
 * Striker of Avengers Academy had a mother like this who gave him his drive to be famous.

Films

 * Gypsy. See "Theatre"
 * In Beaches, there were some stage mothers as well.
 * Arguably, Violet's mother in the 2005 version of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. We don't see her interacting with (or even acknowledging the existence of) the other kids or parents, but she keeps pushing Violet and plays up to a very indifferent Willy.
 * The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom and Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story, two movies about the same real-life Stage Mom. The first one had Holly Hunter playing said mom.
 * Little Miss Sunshine was all over this. Not with the family itself, but when they get to the pagent and see the other contestants and their families.
 * Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray, who, among other things, tries to
 * Kim Cattrall's character in Ice Princess, in a rare semi-sympathetic example.
 * Kirstie Alley's character in the black comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous takes it to the biggest extremes, as she's determined to have her daughter Rebecca (played by Denise Richards) win every single contest she's in by sabotaging them.
 * Male example: "Andrew! You've got to be NUMBER ONE! I won't tolerate any losers in this family! WIN, WIN WIN!"
 * Another male example, but less exaggerated: Troy's father and basketball coach from High School Musical.
 * Erica Sayers of Black Swan, the smothering mother of the main character, who has a lot of issues.

Literature

 * An appalling example in The Godfather one mother is clearly pleased that producer Jack Woltz sexually molested her twelve-year-old daughter, apparently because this makes it more likely he'll give the little girl a role in one of his movies.
 * In James Joyce's Dubliners, the short story " A Mother" reads this way today. At the time, given the limited career opportunities for women, it's more an example of an Unbuilt Trope.
 * In Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez, Carmen's mother Diana is an example of this. Diana is a former opera singer who gets throat cancer and can no longer sing. Diana instead ends up living vicariously through Carmen, a violin prodigy. In the end,
 * A minor character in The Gates of Sleep is a child chess prodigy, whose father drove him into a breakdown by pushing the kid into more and more public exhibition games.

Live-Action TV
"Patricia Blaine: My mother couldn't decide whether I was Martha Graham or Helen Hayes. Phil Cerreta: Who were you? Patricia Blaine: I was Patty Blaine. So I got out before I wasn't."
 * Spoofed in the Nickelodeon show Roundhouse—the main character had a bitchy rival in a talent or other competition, and in response to his "What do you have that I don't?" she brought out her stage mother. There was a pretty kickass song that went with it—the only lyrics I half-remember were, "You'll be gettin' my claws if I don't hear that applause! Stage motherrrrrr!"
 * Someone transcribed the song, which was called (appropriately enough) "Stage Mother" and was written by Buddy Sheffield. The lyrics—mirrored from a now defunct Geocities site—can be found here.
 * There was one of these as a recurring sketch on Little Britain, she would sabotage other kids' chances and even harm them to get her son even a minor part.
 * An early Law and Order episode, "Aria", shows one of these mothers. Her obsession with living through her children had already driven her older daughter away, and she pushed her younger daughter into porn, hoping that would help her land bigger roles. The younger daughter commits suicide out of despair.

"Tommy: Why? Dick: Because it's important that you experience the humiliation of adolescent boys at the hands of bitter adults trying to re-write the failures of their youth. It'll be fun!"
 * There's a "What if" episode of Desperate Housewives in which Gabrielle pushes her youngest daughter to become a child star despite her absolutely sucking at it. It ends up with wasting both their lives and her husband and other daughter leaving them
 * All of the mothers on Dance Moms.
 * Natalie Teeger on Monk becomes one of these briefly. In one episode, her daughter's performance is given a negative review by a critic (who later turns out to be the murderer) and Natalie becomes obsessed with proving him wrong.
 * Kamen Rider Double had a story arc where the Monster of the Week, with power over aging, sells his services to people. One Stage Mom hires him to turn her daughter's rival into an old woman; when the victim's mother finds out, she hires him to do the same to the first woman's daughter as revenge. Of course, the two little girls saw one another as friends, not rivals, and the sight of the two of them huddled together and crying as their mothers shouted at one another triggered a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
 * An episode of In the Heat of the Night showed a young woman entering a local beauty pageant. Her Rich Bitch mother was so determined that she win that she arranged for someone to drug the girl's chief rival, take nude pictures of her, then threaten to leak the photos to the press unless the girl dropped out of the pageant. The girl was so devastated and traumatized by the entire thing that she killed herself. To make matters worse, the two girls were friends and would have been genuinely happy for each other had the other won. The young woman is so angry and disgusted by her mother's actions that when she does win, she storms off the stage and flings her crown and sash at her mother, snarling, "You wanted it so badly, here it is!", and storms out of the auditorium and presumably out of her mother's life.
 * Dinosaurs had Fran becoming one of these when Baby became a big star in frying pan commercials. It took a calling out from her best friend Monica and her husband Earl as well as a bad dream about Baby as an adult that made her realize what she was doing was wrong.
 * The sports version is invoked and lampshaded on 3rd Rock from the Sun when Dick decides Tommy should play basketball:


 * Averted for the most part on Make It or Break It. Kelly's mom, Kaylie's father, and Lauren's father fit this trope, but the other parents of the main cast are properly supportive without being pushy.

Music

 * "[Antichrist Television Blues]" by Arcade Fire concerns a father pushing his daughter into the limelight so that he doesn't have to "work in a building downtown."
 * "Perfect" by Alanis Morissette is a satire of this trope.
 * Noel Coward's "(Don't Put Your Daughter On The Stage,) Mrs. Worthington" is addressed to a stage mother whose aspirations are greater than her daughter's potential.

Professional Wrestling

 * WWE's Jack Swagger has the Gimmick of an overachieving child with a Stage Dad, now all grown up and determined to find the same success in wrestling. In order to completely cement him as a Dirty Coward, Swagger ran away while Kane beat up his father - and then justified it afterward by saying he felt vindicated for his father being an overbearing Stage Dad.
 * This happened quite often when wrestling promoters had sons. It was desirable to build a promotion around men who would be loyal to you, and family was usually that. The most notorious wrestling stage dad would probably be Fritz Von Erich, given the fate of most of his six sons.
 * Bonnie Blood, ex-wife of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, took increasing control of his career from 1988 on, even to the point where she got control of his stage name in the divorce settlement.

Theater

 * Gypsy is the epitome of this trope. Mama Rose obsessively worked her two daughters into her vaudeville acts, highlighting Baby June, who ended up running away and eloping, and downplaying Louise, who ended up becoming more successful than her sister and becoming Gypsy Rose Lee. Mama Rose went as far as to have multiple 10th birthday parties to try to trick her daughters into thinking they were indefinitely 10 years old so she could continue to milk them for all they were worth. The worst part? She was a real person.
 * Mrs. Walker from Once in a Lifetime has elements of this, even though she causes relatively little harm in the course of her championing her daughter Susan.
 * Madame Giry becomes one for Meg in Love Never Dies

Videogames

 * Gloria's mother from Psychonauts who screwed her life over TWICE. First time was dumping her at Hagatha's Home For Girls where she was forced to sing, dance and act. The second time was when she became famous as a worldwide sensation and her greatest performance was marred by
 * To be fair, Gloria's mother didn't hate her and did try to send letters of love to her, but
 * Morgan Fey, sweet Jesus. Since her power as a channeler is so weak, she was passed over to become head of the Fey family in favor of her younger sister Misty, who was a much stronger medium. This means that her niece Maya is now technically head of the family, and calls all the shots. So naturally, the sane course of action is to...

Webcomics

 * Parodied in an Achewood guest strip with Philippe's mother. "Please Mommy not the BUCKLE MOMMY NOT THE BUCKLE!!"
 * While not as bad as some of the other mothers mentioned here, Ash of Misfile was pressured into showing off a dress by his/her mother, who also repeatedly asked Ash to do some modelling, though she would back off when Ash said no.
 * Also the characters of Jenny senior and Jenny junior from an early story arc.
 * Better Days talks about the problems of little girls pressured into child pageants by their mothers.

Western Animation
"Mom 1: Remember this is mommy's big day. Mom 2: The bigger you smile the more beautiful mommy looks. Mom 3: Baby it's time to win mommy's love."
 * Beebee Bluff's mother on Doug was a stage mother for one episode, but at the end, Beebee was able to call her out on it and her mother quickly saw the error of her ways.
 * Helga's parents in Hey Arnold! neglect Helga's needs and shower her sister Olga with attention... but they get to this extreme. Bob is so demanding in regards to Olga's intellectual and artistic talents and puts so much pressure on her that Olga is now a neurotic Fragile Flower who panics horribly at the mere prospect of getting a B grade, to the degree that she thinks Helga is the one who has it easier of the two since she can do whatever she wants and their parents won't say anything.
 * In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy this trope is brilliantly lampshaded in the episode, My Fair Mandy. Grim, disgusted by how tarted up the other contestants were asks "What kind of sad, needy person would do this to them?"


 * Rare man example in The Simpsons where Homer managers Lisa in a talent contest, bullying everybody behind the scenes to get the best for her.
 * A much earlier episode subverted this trope when Homer signed Lisa up for a beauty pageant. Homer didn't do it for any personal glory, but instead because Lisa was feeling insecure about her looks and he thought it would help her self-esteem. And It Worked!
 * Susan Dinwittie from What's New, Scooby Doo with her former child star kids, Andrew and Mandy,
 * What really makes it sad is her third child, The Unfavorite genius  Thankfully Andrew and Mindy agreed their mom had gone way too far and decided they'd never work in show business again and walked off with their brother.

General

 * Successful entertainers who have children typically wind up getting accused of this if their children follow them into showbiz.

Acting

 * Minnie Marx, mother of the Marx Brothers. It was mainly her hard work that ever got them recognition in Vaudeville before their breakthrough.
 * William Shatner's Star Trek Memories claimed that wife of the actor who played Christopher Pike in the pilot insisted he be shot from certain angles, among other techniques, in order to make him look good. Eventually, Desilu Studios couldn't handle this and stopped using the actor.
 * In Star Trek IV, Sulu (George Takei) was meant to have a chance encounter, while walking around 20th-century San Francisco, with a kid who would turn out to be his ancestor. Unfortunately, the kid who was to play the part had what Shatner described (in Star Trek Movie Memories) as "the most over-the-top stage mom" he had ever encountered, and she ended up making her kid so stressed out that she made it effectively impossible to actually film the scenes.
 * Nearly all of Macaulay Culkin's Hollywood burnout can be attributed to his father/manager, Kit Culkin. To give an example, one of the reasons Macaulay was pushed into the horror film The Good Son was Kit's pushing and threatening to withdraw Macaulay from Home Alone 2. Kit's presence on The Good Son wound up forcing the first director to quit. Eventually, studios were turning the kid down for roles specifically because they didn't want to deal with his father, leading to his retirement from acting at the age of 14. Macaulay has since become estranged from Kit and refuses to speak to him.
 * When auditioning child actors for the Harry Potter movies, producer Chris Columbus interviewed the parents of all of the children being considered for roles and eliminated the children of those who came across as stage parents. He said he did that because of all the problems he had with Kit Culkin while doing the first two Home Alone movies.
 * Judy Garland's mother kept feeding her pills to keep her weight and increase her productivity. This ended up very badly.
 * Dina and Michael Lohan, parents of Lindsay Lohan, are exemplars of the self-serving side of this trope. Dina took Lindsay to nightclubs and let her drink when she was underage, then used her daughter's personal troubles to launch her own career in entertainment, getting herself a reality show on E!!. Then, she pushed her younger daughter Ali to enter showbiz as well, causing many people to fear that Ali will end up with as many or more problems thanks to her mother. Michael, meanwhile, blabs about Lindsay to the media every chance he gets, and went on Celebrity Rehab for seemingly no other reason then to get attention and talk about her.
 * "Could you make the check out to cash? It's my nickname for her..."
 * In a recent blog on SMBC Theater, JP mentioned that, while he and some others were talking about the show in a diner, a 10-year-old girl came over and told them that her mother said to tell them she's an actress. If you don't get why he didn't like that, let me put it into perspective: A woman had told her 10-year-old child to introduce herself to a group of men neither one of them were familiar with, just so the girl might get an acting position.
 * It would have been worse if the mother was familiar with SMBC Theater, since most of the material is not safe for kids. This is why they always have adults kneeling when they have children in the sketches.
 * Drew Barrymore's mother Jaid could be blamed in large part for her daughter's drug and alcohol problems at such a young age. Jaid regularly took young Drew to such adult hangouts like Studio 54 and the China Club. Years later, some time after Drew posed for Playboy, Jaid decided that she wanted to pose nude too!
 * Hilary Duff's parents are said to be the reason why the Lizzie McGuire franchise was cancelled after The Movie.
 * More than one similar accusation has been leveled at Billy Ray Cyrus (Miley Cyrus' father and co-star) in regards to the Hannah Montana franchise. Billy Ray says it's the other way round: that the executives were the ones abusing and restraining Miley. Then again, he's also blamed atheists for the same thing. Billy Ray might just be cuckoo.
 * Thora Birch's father (Jack Birch, a former porn star) has meddled in his daughter's affairs enough that he's caused a hit to her reputation. He reportedly showed up on set during production of the 2007 film "Horrified" and watched over his daughter while she performed a simulated sex scene with Dean Winters, then in 2010 he reportedly stayed in her dressing room at a stage adaptation of Dracula and tried to micromanage the production. This ended up getting her fired from the play.
 * Thora was also recently fired from a biopic about the Manson family girls, and the director specifically blamed her father's interference.
 * Equally distressing, Thora doesn't appear fazed by her dad's behavior, nor is she upset that he has cost her work. After she was fired from Dracula, she said, "My dad is my support, and he is the best support that I ever could have."
 * Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith have been accused of pushing their children into showbiz at too early an age. Their son Jaden is an actor (best known for the Karate Kid remake, which was produced by Will and Jada), while daughter Willow is a singer.

Music

 * Britney Spears' mother Lynne pushed her and her sister Jamie Lynn to become stars. You know how this ended. Britney eventually resumed her career and got her life back together, but she remains under her father's conservatorship.
 * Joe Simpson, father of Jessica and Ashlee.
 * Joe Jackson really, really didn't want his kids to become criminals on the streets of Gary, Indiana. He probably could have found a better way to do this, however.
 * For worse, he has hinted that he wants to do something similar with Michael's kids...
 * The Beach Boys suffered through years of dreadful stage-fathering. Murry Wilson, father of Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, was a mildly successful songwriter/producer who, for their first few years, acted as manager, producer, and publisher to the group. Among other questionable practices and decisions, he allegedly whacked Brian Wilson in the head with a 2x4, causing hearing damage. Celebrities At Their Worst, a collection of, well, you know, features a 10-minute outtake of the elder Wilson guilt-tripping his sons through a recording session for "Help Me, Rhonda".
 * Mexican singer Luis Miguel's father and manager, Luisito Rey.
 * The Shaggs, a band comprised of three sisters, came into existence due to a prophecy their father believed that they would form a popular music group. As soon as they were old enough, he pulled them out of school and bought them instruments and lessons, and forced them into gigs and the studio from 1968 until his death in 1975. Despite his efforts, the band would go down in history as legendarily So Bad It's Good.
 * Taylor Momsen has accused her parents of being this. This may explain her transformation from a teen soap star to a raunchy, scantily-clad rock frontwoman before she turned 18.
 * Pop girl group Destinee & Paris' mother is like this. The main reason they became Destinee & Paris was that their mother suffocated the previous members of their rock band (Ariel and then Sarah, who lasted less than half a year as the Clique Girlz) and they were forced into it after all the bad publicity. (Ariel went on to name her next band NMD—No More Drama—as a Take That.) When the two were featured on the E!! reality show The Dance Scene, their mother continuously told everyone around them they weren't ready to perform on the night of the performance despite Laurieann Gibson (choreographer for Lady Gaga) saying they were great. Laurieann dropped them as clients not long after.

Sports

 * Anthony Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton's dad and ex-manager. Lewis admits they're not in speaking terms ever since his dad stopped managing his stuff.
 * Poor, poor Vitaly Petrov. Crossed with Amazingly Embarrassing Parents, too. Ouch.
 * Both of NHL hockey player Eric Lindros' parents were like this. Widely expected to be the next great superstar in the early 1990s, both his father (also his agent) and his mother were very vocal as to what they saw as acceptable for their son, including having him hold out from playing for the Quebec Nordiques who had drafted him first overall (the city being too small, French and provincial to properly market their son). This got Lindros' career off on the wrong foot and made him an early pariah with a Jerkass reputation. After the Philadelphia Flyers acquired his rights, the Lindros parents continued to attempt to stage-manage his career to the great annoyance of the organization. Eric did go on to become a very good player until his career (and that of his little brother) was cut short by injuries.
 * In a Hilarious in Hindsight moment for Quebec, Lindros' trade to Philadelphia turned them into a playoff contender almost overnight. They went on to win two Stanley Cups as the Colorado Avalanche.

Other

 * Wanda Holloway, the woman who inspired The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom and Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story. She asked her brother in law to hire a hitman, who then was supposed to kill the mother of her kid's rival in a cheerleading competition.
 * Watch any show about child pageants. All the moms and more than one dad shown there will be like this, more often than not, to sickening degrees. This is the whole point of the show Toddlers and Tiaras.
 * One particularly sickening example is the recent story of Kerry Campbell, who gave her eight-year-old daughter Botox injections. When she was found out, she not only defended this practice (claiming it was never too early get your child cosmetic surgery to "get rid of the lines"), but also claimed that other pageant moms practiced this as well. The fact that the story turned out to be fake did nothing to dispel it.
 * One 5-year-old girl named Carley developed an alter-ego called Darla to cope with her mom's pushing.
 * George Sampson, the winner of Britains Got Talent in 2008, should have had a very promising career after his victory in the show. Unfortunately, his career was run into the ground in less than a year, in no small part due to his obnoxious and extremely demanding mother, who was largely responsible for Simon Cowell's company ditching Sampson after they became sick of her. Sampson is making a rebound, however, as he has starred in a recent film, Street Dance.
 * Rose Hovick, mother of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee and actress June Havoc. She became legendary for this trope following Gypsy's 1957 autobiography and the subsequent musical adaptation Gypsy as mentioned above.