Henry and Peter's parents

Henry and Peter are major characters from the Horrid Henry series. Their parents are also major characters. They were created by American author Francesca Simon and British illustrator Tony Ross.

Overall

 * 1) The main problem with both of them is that they favour Henry's younger brother Perfect Peter over him just because he's "Perfect", leaving out Henry because of the fact he is "Horrid". They prefer to shape up Henry and Peter how they want them rather than Henry and Peter being how they want to. This is likely why Peter loves rubbing in his Gary-Stu obeying side at them.
 * 2) * They both show intense dislike and misery for Henry for his Horrid behaviour, to the point that in the books there have been instances that they try and hide the fact that Henry is their son.
 * 3) *On top of that, they never actually support Henry as well simply for the fact he's a "Horrid Boy". If they actually helped him out it would have most likely prevented him from misbehaving a lot.
 * 4) Most of the time in the books and TV series, they are incredibly mean-spirited, abusive and unlikeable to Henry. This comes to the point that it's completely understandable why Henry is so horrid: he lives in an abusive family that doesn't nurture and care for him.
 * 5) Their punishments for Henry can be quite cruel and show how over-tempered they can be.
 * 6) * One of the worst examples comes from the episode Horrid Henry's Horrid Revenge, where they take everything out of Henry's room simply because he "Painted Peter", despite the fact that Peter was the one who started the events, to begin with. A similar scenario happens in Horrid Henry's Special Spinner where they take Henry's favourite things because he didn't do his homework.
 * 7) * Another instance of them punishing Henry unfairly is at the end of Horrid Henry's Time Capsule, where they accuse Henry of trashing the school gardens just because Miss Battle-Axe found his slime there and take away his pocket money "for a very long time". While Henry DID instigate the conflict of the episode by stealing Peter's toy bunny and putting it in the school's time capsule, he managed to correct his misdeed by getting the bunny back from Miss Oddbod (who had dug up the capsule in the first place). As a result, this makes Henry's punishment outright unfair since he literally fixed his mistake. To add insult to injury, Henry's parents downright refuse to let him explain his side of the story!
 * 8) As what Point 1 says, they never listen or believe Henry even if he's telling the truth. Yet if Peter was telling a lie, they would believe it to be true.
 * 9) * An example of this is in the Series 1 episode "Where's Fluffy?". Henry finds out that Moody Margaret has kidnapped Fluffy after she runs away, and yet when he tells Mum and Dad, they assume that Henry is "accusing their neighbours" even though they never bothered to check. Henry then says to the audience that nobody believes him, which you can't blame him for saying.
 * 10) They say "Don't be Horrid, Henry!" countless times and for all the wrong reasons (like Henry lifting his spoon, Henry eating his beans, etc.)
 * 11) They are absolutely brainwashed, they should really discipline Peter and tell him not to speak when Henry wants to ignore. In other, Peter himself asks for it.
 * 12) They are incredibly overprotective and strict.
 * 13) Hypocrisy: It's obvious that they dislike it when Henry acts cruel to Peter, sometimes disobeying them ect, yet they act very cruel towards him (Henry) too. Even if he has a well-known reputation for being a constant troublemaker, it still isn't excused.
 * 14) * They can also come off as unnecessarily cruel towards Peter whenever Henry frames him for bad behaviour or gets him into trouble. You'd think given Peter's (admittedly undeserved) reputation as the "good" kid of the two, they'd probably either just let him off with a warning or let him tell them that Henry caused him to get in trouble but no, they punish Peter just as harshly as they would with Henry.
 * 15) They rarely, if ever, punish Peter for torturing Henry which shows not also he (Peter) is a huge brat, but another example of how horrendous they are.
 * 16) And to make matters worse, they rarely, if ever, get repercussions for their actions, making them a huge notable Karma Houdinis.

Henry and Peter's Mom

 * 1) She never cares about anything Henry likes and only cares about Peter because of his "Perfect" behaviour, and nothing else. In other words, Mum only likes it when her children obey her.
 * 2) She calls Henry "horrid" even when he isn't doing anything considered "horrid" at all, like being nice.
 * 3) She blames Henry for absolutely ANYTHING he does, whether good or bad.
 * 4) * In the Series 4 episode "Horrid Henry Takes the Blame", she doesn't just punish Henry when he is caught watching TV, but Simon as well for taking her glasses which causes both of them to scream "NOOOOOO!!!", and yet even Simon of all people didn't deserve that!
 * 5) *She is completely oblivious to the abuse Henry suffers from Moody Margaret, Stuck-Up Steve or any other of Henry's arch enemies. She thinks all of those mentioned are "very kind to Henry" when it's evidently the other way around. It would be more like Henry is very kind to Margaret and Steve.
 * 6) She also frequently undermines her own husband.
 * 7) * In "Horrid Henry: Good Day, Bad Day", Simon and Henry wanted to see a Gross Class Zero movie together only for Henry’s mother to not let them go unless Henry was on good behaviour and kept getting good marks on the family reward chart. While Henry fulfils his end of the bargain, his mother breaks her promise but giving both of the tickets away to Stuck-Up Steve, causing both Simon and Henry to scream.
 * 8) She acts more abusive than strict to Henry, and that it is shown that she actually hates him in a messed up way:
 * 9) * She discriminates against Henry and never believes or trusts him.
 * 10) * for example, in Horrid Henry and the Catastrophic Cushion, when Peter plugs the charger off the tablet, she blames Henry for it, even when he tells the truth. A similar scenario also occurs in "Horrid Henry Takes the Blame" when Fluffy uses the tablet.
 * 11) Another example of her discriminating against him is in Horrid Henry Loses Rude Ralph, where she doesn’t let Henry eat a slice of the cake, yet she allows Peter to eat a slice of it.
 * 12) In the episode "Happy Birthday Peter!", she cheers at Colin the Clown making Henry disappear, but she does gets karma when everyone looks at her grimly. Heck, even Moody Margaret of all characters showed some contempt for that!
 * 13) In "Horrid Henry and the Dinner Guests", Henry attempts to show off his karate skills and Mum's boss's husband hits him so hard he goes flying across the room into Mum's arms, who doesn't even react to Henry getting punched at all, she even thinks Henry was the one who burped when it was really Mr. Mossy.
 * 14) In "Horrid Henry's Household Chores", she forced Henry to go to Ralph’s house in pink clothing just because Henry messed up on his chores by mixing the coloured and white loads of laundry.
 * 15) In "Horrid Henry's Sick Day", she neglected Henry by saying that Peter is the sickest, basically, she was saying she cared more about Peter. However, she could have seen through Henry's act beforehand as Henry was just pretending to be ill, but still.
 * 16) In the story "Horrid Henry Goes Shopping", she brought Henry pink tartan trousers, albeit that was only because she lost her temper when Henry threw a fit.
 * 17) She is so lazy that she makes Henry wrap his Christmas presents!
 * 18) "Horrid Henry and the Tickly Treats Thief" is one of her worst roles. Not only she loses her temper way too much throughout the plot, but she also turns against Henry telling him that he is "Even more Horrid than I thought" when Henry accuses (and eventually, exposes) Fluffy for being the Tickly Treats thief.
 * 19) In several episodes, she makes Henry get out of bed on the weekends, so she’s basically depriving him of sleep.
 * 20) In “Horrid Henry and the Dinner Guests” she makes Henry go to bed while Peter stays up all night playing his stupid cello.
 * 21) She constantly makes Henry do things he doesn’t like.
 * 22) She also neglects Henry as Henry managed to sneak out into the garden at midnight and also lets Peter get stuck in the tree at midnight too.
 * 23) *She is also this way to her own niece, Vomiting Vera. In “Horrid Henry Changes A Nappy”, she was supposed to babysit Vera but does not, instead, she talks on the phone and leaves Henry in charge of her, despite him being a child and naturally, having no idea how to care for a baby. This is really bad within itself, having a minor in charge of an infant is one thing but he EVEN had to change her nappy all by himself, which causes Vera to get faeces all over the house and other people, that’s unsanitary and a biohazard as faeces causes illnesses such as E.coli infection and Listeria. She’s not only endangering her niece but her WHOLE FAMILY too.
 * 24) Her yelling and screaming can get on your nerves very fast!

Silly Simon (Henry and Peter's father)

 * 1) He's a lousy excuse for a father, as he is lazy and sometimes lacks knowledge.
 * 2) He sometimes ignores both Henry and Peter, though the latter is justified.
 * 3) He usually leaves Mum to do the punishments, similar to Hugh Neutron from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius and Hiroshi Nohara from Crayon Shin-Chan.
 * 4) His voice is far too annoying.
 * 5) Just like Mum, he can also be short-tempered and abusive as well (for small reasons):
 * 6) In "Horrid Henry's Happy Birthday Steve!", Simon gets so exasperated by Henry staying in the restroom that he lashes out at Henry by telling him that he will take all his toys away and that he won't get any pocket money until he (Henry) is 94 ½, luckily, he got karma when the man staring at him felt contempted (as the man said "Hmph!") of his (Simon's) behaviour.
 * 7) In another episode, he even tried to fight Henry, which if he actually did, it would be considered child abuse.
 * 8) Just like his wife, he also blames Henry for everything, even if it's not his fault.
 * 9) Additionally, he also cares about Peter's "Perfect" behaviour a lot more than Henry (also showing how much of a hypocrite he is).

Overall

 * 1) It's not easy having a kid as horrid as Henry, but it still doesn't excuse their treatment of him that much.
 * 2) Their character designs are okay, especially in the TV series where they are far more appealing to look at.
 * 3) They tend to be more likeable in a few episodes and a few books.
 * 4) *One example is in the episode "Horrid Henry and the Silly Siblings", where it's shown that Dad is more or less like a Henry guy, while Uncle Francis (his little brother) is like a Peter and Mum guy. In fact, episodes focusing on the two tend to be better.
 * 5) *They are at least there when Henry and Peter need them.
 * 6) *It's suggested in some episodes that neither of them had a good (or at least an unhappy) childhood.
 * 7) They have had their funny moments, like wearing their silly pirate hats.
 * 8) Given that Henry has the most unhealthy diet comprehensible, it's hard not to argue against them trying to get him to eat vegetables (even if they are a bit forceful about it).
 * 9) Their catchphrase, despite being annoying, can sometimes be justified for some valid reasons (e.g. Henry torturing Peter, disobeying them, stealing Peter's things without asking, etc).
 * 10) They do occasionally punish Peter.
 * 11) They have gotten karma for their poor treatment of Henry from time to time.
 * 12) At least the books and shows don't try and pretend they're good parents so it's likely they weren't meant to be liked for their behaviour and personalities.

Henry and Peter's mother

 * 1) She once believed Henry for telling the truth.
 * 2) She once apologized to Henry for accusing him of something (like Fluffy being the Tickly Treats culprit).
 * 3) Tamsin Heatley does an okay job voicing her (if one can look past her occasional yelling).

Silly Simon (Henry and Peter's father)

 * 1) He is actually a little bit nicer to Henry from season 4, and that's saying something. In fact, Dad is generally less oblivious to Henry than Mum.
 * 2) He has a fun-loving side at times.
 * 3) He's more likeable than Mum.
 * 4) As mentioned above, he didn't really do anything to warrant getting grounded in that one episode where Mum got him in trouble.
 * 5) He did once assure Henry that everyone matters, regardless of socioeconomic class.
 * 6) Wayne Forester does a great job at voicing him (despite wasting his talents).