8 K-Dramas to Watch About Good (and Bad) Parenting

Parenting can often make you wonder if you're getting it right. That's where these K-dramas to watch come in. Some reflect your own experiences in ways that make you feel understood. Others spotlight parenting mistakes worth avoiding.

Either way, each K-drama offers beautiful, honest and, at times, heartbreaking takes on the chaos and joy of family life. Prepare to binge-watch!

1. Your Parenting Tribe Doesn't Always Have to Be Family

Parenting feels lighter when you're not carrying the load alone, and that's what Reply 1988, one of the most iconic K-dramas to watch, excels at showing. Yes, everyone's in each other's business in the Ssangmun-dong neighborhood. But the parents show up without question when things get hard—or out of rice.

In the first episode, Hwan's mom asks him to give Deok Sun's mom a plate of food in return for a bowl of rice. That little moment kicks off a fun cycle of dish swaps, with the teens popping in and out of each other's homes to give dishes of food.

As they meet for the nth time on the street, Hwan quips, "We should have all just eaten together." It's a funny scene but also speaks volumes about the beauty of having a parenting tribe just outside your door.

2. Parental Love Can Become a Weapon Against Your Child

You'll likely find yourself saying the parents are "crazy" or "monsters" multiple times in each episode of Sky Castle. The series follows four wealthy families who'll do just about anything to secure their children's admission to Korea's top universities, even if it means crossing the line.

Take the character of Cha Min-hyuk, a father who uses a pyramid-shaped metronome to time his children as they answer complex test questions. When time is up and a son doesn't finish answering, Min-hyuk makes him kneel before a pyramid sculpture to drill into his child the importance of being on top.

Sky Castle exposes how "wanting the best for your child" can turn unhealthy and harmful when that love is conditional on your child's success or failure. It's also a stark reminder of what your job is as a parent: help your child reach their potential, not bend them to fit your ambitions.

3. Don't Wait for a Do-Over to See Your Partner Clearly

Where to watch the K-dramas on this list? Most are available on streaming platforms like Netflix, Viu, or Disney+.

18 Again starts with a funny (and familiar) premise. A middle-aged man, Hong Dae-young wakes up in the body of his 18-year-old self.

Seeing his life from this new vantage point, Dae-young notices things he'd missed, especially the mental toll of parenting his wife, Da-jung, has been carrying. Da-jung has been trying to restart her career while constantly being told she's "too old."

The show gives just as much care to Da-jung’s experience as it does to Dae-young’s regrets. Neither one is perfect, but both are making an effort. The takeaway? You don't need to wake up in your teenage body to start noticing and appreciating your partner again.

4. You Can Feel the Pain of Your Choices and Still Stand by Them

Family life in Our Blues is anything but picture-perfect. You’ll meet a single mom who's battling depression while fighting for custody of her son, and two high school students facing an unexpected pregnancy and their fathers, who can’t stand each other. You'll see a woman who acts carefree but struggles with guilt over placing her sister with Down syndrome in a care facility.

The series doesn't provide easy answers to family conflicts or sugar-coat the realities of raising kids. But each character is trying to make peace with the choices they made. They cry over what’s been lost, but they also show that loving your family sometimes means living with the weight of imperfect decisions.

5. Protect Your Children Without Keeping Them From the World

In Moving, one of the best K-dramas to watch, the parents possess supernatural abilities, such as flying and healing in seconds. But they're trying to escape the dangers of their past lives. To protect their kids, they go to great lengths to hide their identities and conceal their children's powers.

For instance, the character of Lee Mi-hyun has spent years training her son, Bong-seok, to suppress his ability to float. She tapes weights to his body and warns him never to run too fast, jump too high, or draw attention to himself. Any parent will understand her intentions, but it takes a toll on Bong-seok, who moves through life cautiously, even fearfully, to hide his "flaws."

That's the delicate balance every parent has to maintain. Protection matters, yes, but kids also need the freedom to grow into who they're meant to be, even if that means taking risks.

6. You Can Be the Villain in Your Child's Life, But Know When to Stop

The Good Bad Mother follows Jin Young-soon, a widowed mom raising her son Kang-ho on her own while running a struggling pig farm. Determined that he'll have an easier life than she did, she pushes him relentlessly toward academic success until he becomes a top prosecutor.

Everything changes after a car accident leaves Kang-ho bedridden and with the mind of a 7-year-old. Suddenly, Young-soon is back in the role of caring for a small boy, only this time she approaches it with gentleness and affection, trying to rewrite their hurtful past with small, everyday acts.

No one wants a second chance to fix parenting mistakes to come from a tragic accident. But this K-drama is a reminder that while being the "bad mother" can push your child forward, you also have to know when to give them room to make their own choices.

7. You Can Be in Over Your Head and Still Be Exactly Who Your Child Needs

At first glance, Crash Course in Romance feels like your typical feel-good rom-com. A mom who runs a side dish shop meets a moody celebrity math instructor. But the "mom" in this story, Nam Haeng-seon, is a single woman who gave up her dreams of a sports career to raise her brilliant niece, Nam Hae-yi, as her daughter.

Haeng-seon is determined to help Hae-yi succeed, even if it means living with the stigma of being a "single mom." She never bothers to correct people, knowing the misunderstanding will protect Hae-yi from gossip.

She may not know the first thing about test-prep tactics or elite academies, but Haeng-seon figures it out as she goes. What matters more is that her love and persistence leave Hae-yi with no doubt that she has a mom in her corner.

8. Family Can Be the Greatest Adventure You Didn't Plan for

When Life Gives You Tangerines is the latest K-drama set on Jeju Island and follows the life of Ae-sun from the 1960s to the present day.

Ae-sun used to dream about being a poet and exploring the world. But when life got in the way, she shifted her focus to family and threw herself into that with just as much passion—flawed at times, but always full of life—like the way she once chased her dreams.

Another reason to watch When Life Gives You Tangerines is its portrayal of the marriage between Ae-sun and Gwan-sik, whose family devotion becomes Ae-sun's anchor during uncertain times. Despite being opposites in many ways, they realized that their differences made their family stronger.

When parenting feels like one long, chaotic blur, sometimes the only thing that helps is collapsing on the couch with a good show. Hopefully, this list of K-dramas to watch gives you a mix of comfort, catharsis, and just enough escape to make the tough days feel a little lighter.

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