He hid the truth of why music wasn't allowed in the kingdom, destroyed her collection, didn't listen, and made her afraid to come home. Ariel at least tried to listen to Melody "Is there something you'd like to talk about? You know you can always tell me anything."

^ Yes but she could have told her why she wasn't allowed in the ocean. That would have made things a little easier. They both hid why something wasn't allowed but at least Ariel had a little bit of an understanding why i mean she did know that her mother died from somehow and the last time she did see her was when the ship was coming towards them and they had to go back under the water but Melody was way to young to know why she couldnt go into the ocean. So their for she didnt understand anything and her mother didnt tell her anything. Then Ariel saw Melody holding the necklace and instead of listening to her started yelling at her there for causing Melody to run away and land in Morgonas hands.
So they both are in the wrong!

I think both are bad parents but at least Melody wasn't afraid of Ariel like how Ariel was afraid of Triton

Sadly, Both are not very good parents

Yep sad but true

@KataraLover true true they both made a lot of mistakes with raising their mistakes but at least they try to make up for those mistakes!

@courtney_22494 How would you feel if your mom told you "An evil sea witch tried to kidnap you as a baby, so you can't go swimming in the ocean."
Ariel hid the secret to protect Melody and was a sweeter parent than her father was. At least she didn't destroy the necklace, unlike Triton who destroyed all of Ariel's collection/treasures. Even a statue of the man she loves!

@Disneygirl30651 those are all good reasons and yes i would hate that fact and be scared of it but at least i would know why she does what she does. But no she kept it a secret! And left Melody with all these questions that she shouldnt have at her age i mean she was 12 and wondered why she was so different why she could talk to fish. Also by not telling her Ariel really led Melody to the person she wanted to Melody to stay away from if she knew about her then she wouldnt have probably went with her. At least Ariel knew about the evil sea witch but she wanted what she wanted so in a way they are both equally bad parents in a way!!

Yeah both had their reasons for being overprotective. For Triton he lost his wife and he didn't want to lose any of his daughters, for Ariel she almost lost her daughter. But both went way too overboard. But Melody wasn't afraid of her mother, she just didn't think she could talk to her. While Triton made his daughter so afraid that she ran away. But both are bad parents who are trying to protect their daughters.

well both, but definitely him

Frankly, I think The Little Mermaid 2 does a terrible job portraying how Ariel would act as a parent, it's like they completely forgot Ariel's personality in the first, so it's hard for me to answer.

The important thing is that they both learned from their mistakes, and I´m sure Ariel was an amazing mom afterwards.


princesslullaby: I agree, Ariel´s personality changes a lot in the sequel.

I think this is one awfully confused family - every time somebody yells, somebody else runs away... Great problem solving skills, way to go!

^funny
i totally agree with @princesslullaby

lmao @ BelleAnastasia

I think they were both wonderful parents. True they made some mistakes, but doesn't every parent?

I agree with Cruella.

@princesslullaby: And that is why I believe that "The Little Mermaid II" never happened!

Sorry Ariel

Well, as it's been said here they both had reasons to be overprotective, but Ariel's reasons were much more valid than her father's because while Ariel tried to protect Melody from a particular person that threatened to kidnap her in early childhood and was still a threat, Triton came from his prejudiced standards against ALL the humans because of the accedent that happened to his wife. Obviously, he loved his children and didn't want them to get hurt, but it would have been enough to tell them to be careful and giving them some basic self defence lessons instead of requiring from them to be just as prejudiced as him and judge the whole different world, different culture and different people he didn't even know nor did he put any effort into getting to know. It's like raising your kids forcing racist standards on them and it's completely uncalled for that he punished Ariel for not following those prejudices and being open minded enough to want to explore things and beings different from her instead of judging them. Let alone emotioinally abusing her when she did so. However, I don't think he was a bad parent and in the end he still did the right thing.

Neither were bad parents... Poor Triton was trying to raise a bunch of teenage Daughters as a single Dad...I feel sorry for the poor man...Teenage girls can be difficult, hot headed and want to do whatever they want when they want to....(Some times they think Adults are idiots and full of crap and are only trying to keep them down...my sister was like this, but I was not)Triton may have come off harsh and did not fully think things through, but this a man trying to raise girls by himself, of course he is going to make mistakes...Ariel needed a mother figure, maybe if she had one she would not have made so many rash mistakes and also maybe she would have known how to handle Melody better...unfortuantly Melody was also a hotheaded, selfish teenager who acted just like her mother when she was a kid...They say when you have kids you get double how you were...so Ariel now knows how her poor Father felt ...I was a good kid, but my husband was a bit of a hellion so I am little worried about my girls...The middle one (4) is already showing sighns of stubborness and rebellion and the youngest (1) is a little red terror....No parent is perfect and should not be expected to be, just because they did not give into theri children and instead wanted to protect them does not make them bad parents just makes them human....

^ I actually agree with that. I don't think either was a bad parent and they did have reasons to behave the way they did, however, still I think Ariel handled the situation a bit better.