Over-Enthusiastic Parents

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Hughes is gonna tell you about his daughter. Whether you want to hear it or not.

It's pretty much taken as given that parents love their kids, but there are those that take it to embarassing extremes. They constantly talk about their offspring (whether or not anyone's actually listening), shove baby pictures under everyone's noses, treat their kids' every accomplishment like they've invented oxygen, get excessively worked up and upset if said kids are annoyed with them for some reason, and generally make a spectacle of themselves. The kids' responses to this vary according to age, personality and level of embarrassment.

May occasionally overlap with Overprotective Dad, My Beloved Smother, Doting Parent and Amazingly Embarrassing Parents.

Examples of Over-Enthusiastic Parents include:

Anime and Manga

  • Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist is practically the definition of this trope. Constantly talks about his daughter, check. Treats everything she does like the best thing since sliced bread, check. Makes a spectacle of himself, check. Shows everyone photos of her whether they want to see them or not, check doesn't begin to cover it.
    • He practically kidnaps people to get them to visit his daughter! All part of the usual humorously exaggerated characterization, of course.
  • Spirit Albarn. No baby pictures, but he's got everything else covered (especially the 'making a spectacle of himself' part). His daughter is embarrased and exasperated by his foolishness... but the love is nontheless appreciated.

Film

Literature

  • Roald Dahl mentioned this kind of parents (who think their stupid child is the best in the world) as being the second-worst ones in Matilda. The worst ones, however, are those like Matilda's parents, who treat a smart child like shit.

Live-Action TV

  • Jerry's parents on Seinfeld had shades of this. Also Uncle Leo, constantly gushing about his unseen son Jeffrey who works for the Parks Department.
  • Monk: Monk immediately transforms into one of these upon meeting his dead wife's daughter, taking hundreds of pictures to show off, and marveling about every little detail of her life ("You know the Internet? She's on it!")

Music

  • The song "Talent is an Asset" by Sparks imagines Albert Einstein's parents as being overenthusiastic and overprotective.

Web Comics

Western Animation