In the recent dramas Choi Moo-sung (as Tae Baek) made the most impression on me as a calm and supportive parent in “Like Flowers in Sand”.

All Reply parents, and especially 1988.

I'm trying to stay as spoilerfree as possible

good parents:

- the protagonists of flower of evil (they are just so cute with their little daughter, the scenes between father and daughter are always a highlight)

- FL's parents in My Perfect Stranger (I adored her parents, their love story made me forget this is actually a murder mystery so often. The cute romance didn't clash with the mystery either, it just made it so much more sad)

- the single parents of move to heaven, Death's game and Bad & Crazy have my heart.

- the stepdad in castaway diva is the definition of "dad that stepped up" get yourself a husband like him, he would do anything to protect you!

- Nobody Knows: The FL isn't even related to the kid, but she is a better mom than the biological mom. Glad that even the "real" mom noticed and wants to change for the better.

- the Kidnapping Day: the ML is just so endearing and I love his dynamic with the kids! This show also has one of my favorite bad parents.

bad/evil parents:

The Kidnapping Day: I really liked how complex one of the bad parents in this show was (and there are MANY shitty parents in this show). You can tell that person loves their child in some way, but they are a broken person and can't show it well until the end.

The Glory: This show is also full with shitty parents, but they are fun villains and it's statisfying to watch them ruin their own life.

I don't think I have any favorites but the parent that came to mind when I saw the prompt was Angel Dad from Castaway Diva.

He was just such a lovely and selfless man. He is an example of not all heroes wear capes.

Kim Mi-Kyung is a great mom in every single one of her dramas.

Jin Kyung is a great evil mom in every single one of her dramas

I love the parents from Reply 1988, but my vote goes to.... The mother from My Treasure (Cdrama). She is not perfect - she is loud and childish, and lacks financial acumen. But oh, I LOVE how she handles her only child's career-related woes by taking pressure OFF her instead of mounting MORE of it to help resolve their poor financial situation. On top of it, she is funny as hell, especially when she is trying to be "shrewd for survival" (a characteristic that her daughter inherited from her I think 😂). AND... she knows her boundaries (voilà, they do exist in dramaland!) when it comes to her daughter's romantic interest.. pretending to be asleep while they were having a sweet moment, and only giving her daughter a "disinterested opinion" on how she views her love interest.

Why is it only parents from Cdramas come to mind for me?

I love the warm, accepting single adoptive parents of Mr. Bad and Go Ahead. And then there is the Emperor from Love Like the Galaxy who plays enthusiastic wingman to his reluctant adoptive son. Lol

Even though they don’t play a large role, I really enjoy the male lead’s parents in Legally romance, especially the mom’s grin when they discover their son hiding in the closet with his girlfriend. It’s also funny seeing them argue over which profession their future grandchildren will follow.

And then there are the supportive parents of Hidden Love and A Romance of the Little Forest.

In thinking about it, from my perspective either parents are non-existent or non-entities in Kdramas or they are overbearing and harsh. It’ rare to find a mom and dad in Kdramaland who have a healthy relationship with each other and also with their children.

ML's parents in Twinkling Watermelon (Seo Young Hee and Choi Won Young in their adult versions).

Go Sera's parents in Into the ring (Ahn Kil Kang and Jang Hye Jin).

Okay, now that I have warmed up my memory a little, I have more parents that come to mind. (Note: they're not favorites, I just liked the performances or characters)

The cook mom (It's Okay to not be Okay)
I liked how she was always keeping everyone fed and was never overbearing but was still apart of everyone's lives.

The art director (Her private life). She was just funny to me. She clearly loved her daughter but hmm, there was certainly some lacking there. The scene when she thought her daughter took herself off the family registery and then was outraged that the daughter was calling someone else mom (she's my daughter! Mine! Oh my god, I'm her mother! Secretary! Oh my god!) It was so chaotic.

The reformed pickpocket (Iljimae)
Aww him. He loved his sons so much. Oh my heart💔💖

The super strong dad (Moving). It was honestly like watching gorilla strength happening. It was to the where I wondered if the actor watched videos of gorillas, especially a protective gorilla fighting.

The patient dad (Move to Heaven). I can't think of him without crying.

I feel bad that I can't remember more moms. Maybe it will come to me later.

First that came to mind was the FL's dad in Clean With Passon For Now. Kim Won Hae really stood out for me in that drama as the very caring and fiercely protective single dad.

Gang-hyun’s parents in Flex X Cop. A mature, loving couple with a warm household. Her mom filled I-soo’s stomach with salty food and helped heal his heart with an understanding embrace.

Dali’s dad in Dali and Cocky Prince. A loving father who didn’t share the social prejudices of some of his fellow chaebols.

Honorable mention to MIL in Perfect Marriage Revenge. She fought more fiercely for her daughter-in-law than she did for her son, perhaps compensating for the childhood bullying from stepbrother.

I’m not sure about favorite (need to dig up the memory bank) but one that definitely made a long lasting impression was Kim Hae Sook in I Can Hear Your Voice. The character was short-lived but memorable both because of the actress and the fact that i haven’t seen a lot of great drama parents at the time.

I love Reply 1988 parents in varying degrees. 😊

I also like Ung's parents and Yeon Soo's grandma in Our Beloved Summer

Favorite Mom: Jang Hye-jin (Seo Ji-hye's mom in Crash Landing on You, Moon Ga-young's mom in True Beauty, Park Shin-hye's mom in Doctor Slump)

Favorite Dad: Lee Seung-joon (Lee Yoo-mi's dad in Strong Girl Nam-soon, Jung Hae-in's dad in Love Next Door, Shin Min-a's dad in No Gain No Love)

Favorite mom- I loved Han Gyul’s mom (who it turned out to be the adoptive mom) in Coffee Prince. Their relationship was so sweet and loving.
Perfect Marriage Revenge: Seo Do Gil’s mom was awesome: “I am open-minded. I studied abroad.”
Hospital Playlist: Jung Rosa
Hometown Cha Cha Cha: Yeo Hwa Jeong as Yi Jun’s mom. While she was not the mother of a main, her portrayal of a mother and wife and the deterioration of a marriage was amazing. The sock scene which showed her snapping point was am amazing depiction of how a relationship can die through neglect.

Favorite dads:
Like Flowers on Sand: Kim Tae Baek
Healer: the FLs dad

I loved the parents of Oh Hae Young (FL) in Oh Hae Young Again. They had there not so good moments, especially when they kicked OHY out of their house. But the later scenes made up for it - I especially loved their karaoke evening together ❤️

The parents of Beautiful World> They were lovely. They worked hard to understand what happened to their son.

The parents of Another Miss Oh> They didn't always understand their daughter but did their best to be there for her (like cooking in the middle of the night).

The mother in Under The Queen's Umbrella> She loved her sons but all the Princes too.

All the parents in "Moving", but especially the sharpshooter Mom.
Most recently Jang Na-Ra in Good Partner because of her self reflection and steep learning curve.
Spoiler ahead: if you haven't watched Mystic Pop-Up Bar yet but plan to, just skip the next lines: Choi Won-young as
Manager Gwi in Mystic Pop-Up Bar plus Hwang Jeong-eum as Wol Joo, the parents of Kang-Bae.
I'm sure there are much more, as there are parents in virtually every kdrama and not all are bad, but when somebody asks to pinpoint which ones were good my mind goes blank.
Oh, and Jung Hae-in as single parent in One Spring Night. The drama as a whole had some things that didn't sit right with me but he was an adorable and doting Dad.

This is a great topic, I hadn't thought about it til now, but kdrama has a lot of great (and melodramatically awful) parents. I have a soft spot for adoptive parents, so I'll single out Lee Hye-young as the heroine's mother in Mother. I just realized she was also in I'm Sorry, I Love You.

My mind is drawing a blank ahhh. I love this topic though. I can't seem to recall a favorite drama parent, but I can think of instances where I enjoyed the parent's acting rather than hating it. Unfortunately there are also times when the parents' acting is eye-rollingly awful and you dread their scenes. For example, fake drawn-out crying scenes, gambling, losing money, being an awful parent while also being an awful actor. An instance recently where I distinctly hated the mom's acting was in Wonderful World, the actress who played Kim Nam-joo's mom bowled me over with her unconvincing acting. There are some drama parents that make me immediately perk up when seeing them and others that make me immediately dread their upcoming scenes. I really liked and was charmed by the mom in See You in My 19th Life, played by Kang Myung-joo. She didn't have a big part but she had my full attention when she was on the screen. She was very graceful and classy, quite different from the average drama mom. Another drama mom, or drama in-law that was a treat to watch is Youn Yuh-jung in My Husband Got a Family. Although she often plays long-suffering moms who are always grouchy and complaining, she does it full of charisma and personality. So it's a joy to watch her griping.

Love this one! Parents have such a hard time in dramaland. They go from villains who deserve the worst to saints that get killed as a plot device. They deserve a break. 😆

—Baek Du's parents in Like Flowers in Sand may be my most recent favorite parents, alongside Mo Eum's parents in Tell Me That You Love Me.
—Eun Mi from Not Others. I just love how the drama showed her as a human being first, and a mom second. She wasn't a perfect mom, because she wasn't a perfect human. Being a mom didn't mean she had all figure out. She had some grown up to do too because she didn't get a chance to do that in her youth. But she raised her daughter so damn well despite all that. Queen.
—All parents in Moving. Their love for their children is the entire plot. But Hui Soo's dad is my number one.
—Eun Gyeol's parents in Twinkling Watermelon. They were the best no matter the timeline.
—The mom from Be My Dream Family. That woman was healing. She had so much live to give. She was so pure.
—Both moms from Hi Bye Mama. 😭
—All parents in Reply 88. But I had a really soft spot for Cheetah and Kim sajang. Bo Ra's dad too.
—Hyun Soo, the ML from Flower of Evil. He was a great dad even when he thought he was incapable of it.

Honorable mention:
—The mother-like-sister FL from Stars Falling From the Sky.
—Uri kidnapper from The Kidnapping Day.
—The housekeeper from The Suspicious Housekeeper.

I'm just going through the comment thread and saying, "Oh yeah, yeah, yes, umm hmm, absolutely, you're so right!" about everything people pick! I love how parents, especially mothers, in k-dramas get to do all the emotional scenes and all the character dynamism. They grow! They change! They improve! And they make you CRY!!!

I did not watch all of Miss Granny, a Korean movie that was excerpted on Youtube. There was one AMAZING scene in which Shim Eun-kyung, a young actress (only 20!) playing a de-aged elderly lady, and Song Dong-il, (who was then 50) play a mother and her adult son. This little magician of an actress made me believe she was the mother of a man 30 years older! She evoked her love for him as a tiny baby! She cried! He cried! I, watching the scene out of any context, bawled! It was incredible! K-drama parents are on another level.

There are the quiet, supportive parents; Quite a few single dads, like, someone mentionedMove to Heaven, in , but also the single dad in Reply 1988 and the father (one of the few sane persons) in SG Nam-soon. Actually, the father in Bong-soon was pretty lovely, too. As well as that little brother in Queen of Tears who fought for his little son, DNA or not. As for that, the Adoptive Mongolian Parents in Nam-soon were only there for a short moment, but they filled my heart with feelings of safety and love. They had that Charisma.
Another of those quiet, supportive parents is FL's mother in Because This Is My FIrst Life. Parents who quietly support their children's talents and dreams. The Uncle, for example, who brought up our Rookie Historian to be such a smart and brave girl.
I love it also, when parents intelligently care and worry about their children, no screaming and no smothering, but they express their worries that things are not turning out well for their child. ❤️💔😟
I love when mothers - or even whole families - step up as a many-headed dragon in defense of their main character child, like in A Good Day To Be A Dog.
But I am really tired of the (often the same) Violent Mothers 🙄 like we witness at present in Love Next Door , or else in Welcome to Samdal-ri, domestic violence often shown to us as a joke.

Park Hee Soon and Choo Ja Hyun as the protagonists/parents in Beautiful World are the first pair that come to mind. They both give fantastic performances as genuinely awesome parents navigating a devastating tragedy in one of the most underrated shows I've watched. If we're moving out of K-drama world, I also want to give a huge shout out to the lead's mom in Oh No, Here Comes Trouble! She's a keeper.

Hands down, second to none— Kang Hye Soo from Marriage Contract.
Yes, she’s the FL character, but she’s also a mother, and a single one at that. It’s rare for Dramaland (doesn’t matter K-dramaland or C-dramaland) to feature mothers as the FL, but this one features a mother whom is also a single mother.
Oftentimes, we will hear of our own parents (mothers) or maybe a friend’s parent who say they are ready to move Heaven and Earth if it means so that we can live and have a good life (comfort, financial stability, maybe a life-partner/husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend)— this drama puts all of those words onto full display and shows the viewers what it looks like to have those words put into action

Seo Beom's mother in Heard It Through the Grapevine.

Gosh this is hella hard. Maybe the sane parents in SKY Castle? Okay one was a stepmom but she had a garden. Just sayin.

Hands down Ra Mi Ran in Good Bad Mother for me! The song still rings in my head every time I recall the drama!

🎶 naneun haengbokamnida naneun haengbokamnida… naneun haengbokamnida jeongmal jeongmal haengbokamnida…🎼

I forgot to mention one mom. Ji-ho's mom in Because This is My First Life. Now, that's a mom I simply LOVE! She won't let her daughter be a scapegoat of patriarchy, even if that requires exchanging some harsh words with her daughter OR pleading for her happiness/ independence with a dubious SIL while she fought with her own daughter (that letter made me teary right along with Ji-ho 😢).

Ah! The moms in Suspicious Partner
Oh their rivalry but their obvious care when it came to their kids.

When the female lead's mom said some offhanded comment about how could the male lead be so different from his mom and the mom said something like "he's a child of my heart even if I didn't give birth to him" and the FL's mom acknowledged her and started to look at her different.

Ha-Neul´s mom in Doctor Slump

I'll second the FL's adoptive dad in Healer, he was awesome, loving and supportive.
And I do have to admit I really love both moms (Kim Mi-kyung, of course, and Kim Sung-ryoung) in "The Heirs", they have a great dynamic and the most epic pillow fight.

Kim Hae-sook from I Can Hear Your Voice 🙌

Off the beaten-path selections of parents in unusual roles as a father, mother and couple:

In OH MY GEUM-BI (2016) , Geum-Bi (Heo Jung-Eun) is only 8-years-old, but she suffers from dementia. She is slowly losing her memory. Her father Hwi-Chul (Oh Ji-Ho) is a broke swindler but while he struggles to take care of Geum-Bi, he changes and learns about the preciousness of life.

In HIGH CLASS (2021), Song Yeo-Wool (Jo Yeo Jeong) is a mother put into a difficult situation when her husband’s scandal destroys the family to the point she moves as an outcast to Jeju to enroll her young son in an upperclass English school. There, she has to fight for her son and the Truth about her family.

In BEAUTIFUL WORLD (2019), Park Moo-Jin (Park Hee-Soon) and Kang In-Ha (Choo Ja-Hyun) are a married couple. Their peaceful family days turn into a hellish experience. when their son, who is in middle school, is seriously injured due to school violence. Park Moo-Jin and Kang In-Ha try to reveal the Truth of the cover-up.

... So I have not watched the Reply series (please don't beat me) 😅

But I do have favorites for this category. My career favourite parents are:

A. Kim Mi Kyung (as Cha Eun Sang's mum in The Heirs - her scene with Choi Young Do was immaculate, Cha Yuri's mum in Hi Bye Mama, Choi Young's aunt/mum in Faith, FL's mum in It's Okay That's Love)

B. Jo Han Chul (he's new to the dad scene but I'm loving him already. My favorites are as the King in 100 days My Prince and The Matchmakers. In both, his job (as king) was either sad or hilarious but he was an amazing father).

Favorite mother for the role:
Queen Im in Under the Queen's Umbrella, Ji Seung Wan's mother in 2521 and Lee Bo Young as Kang Su Jin in Mother.

Favourite father for the role:
Chae Young Shin's dad in Healer, Lee Jun Ki in Flower of Evil.

Favourite Parents for the role:
Ha Eun Gyeol's parents in Twinkling Watermelon and Baek Hyun Woo's parents in Queen of Tears

One more: Weightlifting Fairy Dad and uncle both. stong yet soft, absolute cotton candy yet enduring anything. such a supportive family