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) They approve of Perfect Peter's Gary-Stu obeying behavior and do not trust Horrid Henry, not even a single bit, simply because he's horrid.
 * 2) They tend to be mean-spirited, abusive and unlikable in many of the books and episodes of the TV series to the point where it's completely understandable why Henry is so horrid: he lives in an abusive family that doesn't nurture and care for him.
 * 3) Like with Peter, they never never let Henry do anything he enjoys or likes.
 * 4) 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.
 * 5) *One example of this is in the season 1 episode "Where's Fluffy?" where they think Henry is accusing Margaret for stealing Fluffy, even though Henry was telling the truth about Fluffy. Henry then says that nobody listens to him, which is true.
 * 6) In Horrid Henry's Horrid Revenge and Horrid Henry's Special Spinner, they went as far as to take everything out of Henry's room just to teach him a lesson, which is going WAY too far!
 * 7) 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.)
 * 8) They are incredibly overprotective and strict.
 * 9) 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.

Henry and Peter's mother

 * 1) She never cares about anything Henry likes and only cares about Peter because of his 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.
 * 3) She blames Henry for absolutely ANYTHING he does, whether good or bad.
 * 4) *She once got her husband Simon into trouble as well (even when almost HE of all people didn't deserve it).
 * 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.  One example is that both he 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 Henry’s cousin.
 * 7) She acts more abusive than strict to Henry, and that she actually hates him in a messed up way:
 * 8) She discriminates Henry and never believes or trusts him, 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.
 * 9) Another example of her discriminating 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.
 * 10) In the episode "Happy Birthday Peter!", she cheers at Colin the Clown making Henry disappear, but she does get karma when everyone looks at her grimly. Heck, even Moody Margaret of all characters showed some contempt to that!
 * 11) 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.
 * 12) She even 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.
 * 13) 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.
 * 14) In the book, she also brought Henry pink tartan trousers, albeit that was only because she lost her temper when Henry threw a fit.
 * 15) She is so lazy that she makes Henry wrap his Christmas presents!
 * 16) In several episodes, she had made Henry get out of bed on the weekends, so she’s basically depriving him of sleep.
 * 17) In “Horrid Henry and the Dinner Guests” she makes Henry go to bed while Peter stays up all night playing his stupid cello.
 * 18) She constantly makes Henry do things he doesn’t like.
 * 19) She also neglects Henry as Henry managed to sneak out into the garden at midnight and also let Peter get stuck in the tree at midnight too.
 * 20) *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.
 * 21) 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 mh:besttvshows: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.

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 likable 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) They do occasionally punish Peter.
 * 10) They have gotten karma for their poor treatment of Henry from time to time.
 * 11) At least the books and show don't try and pretend they're good parents so it's likely they weren't meant to be liked for their behavior 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 for 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 likable 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.