Oh hell naw

@Background Pony #5149  
Obviously their parents didn’t raise them right!

Did you not get the memo? Parents are no longer responsible for their children. That why TV, video games, teachers and education, as well as society has to adopt to each and every child’s needs. What would happen to the free time of the parents if they had to raise their brats? Not like most of them would no how to raise a child properly.

@Background Pony #EB2F  
Read between the lines. “You’re too small to be dragon lord” = “I’m scared you’ll get hurt, but too much of a tough guy to say it.”

@Ryodraco  
I figured the dragons we see ARE the parents. Its their first clutch hence the uncertainty.

@Background Pony #7085  
Character development, plus she was only ever all that afraid of adult dragons (and its probably common knowledge by now that there are hardly any of them in the Dragon Lands), whereas she adored baby dragons.

@Background Pony #08F6  
Writers don’t control which background characters appear.

@Background Pony #7085  
It’s the ninth season. She’s grown out of it.

Where was her fear of dragon went to?

Good question

One of many good questions.

Smolder, you wanna take this one?

@Background Pony #5922  
Oh so basically leave the teenagers to babysit, that sounds like the usual relationship of a teen/parent dynamic.

Ember says taking care of the eggs is the Dragon Lord’s responsibility. So presumably the other adult dragons are letting the Dragon Lord do her job.

@Mori  
We’ve had indications that dragons do exhibit some parental care. Torch for instance, and then there’s Smolder talking about dragon parents kicking their kids out during the molt (which wouldn’t be necessary if baby dragons did not live with their parents). Heck, Garble’s introduction has him thinking Spike was being carried by his mother during the migration.
 
To me though it makes sense the parents would not be there for the incubation. If even a majority of the parent dragons are giant size then there would be no room and the eggs would be at greater risk of being crushed by accident (Ember noted they are very fragile). Thus, the eggs are left with the Dragon Lord for safekeeping until they hatch, then are given to their respective parents whenever they arrive.
 
There are real world versions of this too in various birds, where a communal nest is looked after by a single dominant adult.

@neo4812  
Excuse me but Sea Turtles aren’t meat heads.

They probably subscribe to the ‘claws-off independent-enforcement’ school of parenting.

I have this headcanon dragins don’t really care about their parents or children under normal circumstances. Like turtles they just lay their eggs and leave them to their destiny.  
Also to this, I’m thinking Smolder and Garble are half-siblings.

You’re looking at them

it would seem that dragons use the “sea turtle” meathead. meaning that they lay the eggs but don’t stay to watch them hatch

What parents? Dragons can’t stop being dicks for 5 solitary seconds, given how Torch treated Ember in regards to who gets to be Dragon Lord and whatever we learned from Garble, Smolder and Ember about dragon culture.

Maybe all the huge dragons are just greed induced giants, and these are the only normal ones, if you remember Sludge seemed adult already so probably dragons don’t normally grow that much. Nevermind I just remember the Dragon migration and all those huge dragons.

I believe that after the episode with Spike and Dragon Lord, the writters complitly forgot that grown up dragons is actually a thing. It’s kind of disapointing.

@justanotherponi  
@ABronyAccount  
Both fairly solid theories.

I think a case could be made that it’s mostly juvenile dragons who stay in the Dragonlands year-round, whereas the adults have an instinctive need to spread out. Possibly they’re territorial as they age, like many IRL animals. Thus, the adults weren’t present after laying the eggs since the Dragon Lord is the one that provides brood care. And since the Dragon Lord didn’t use the power to summon them all back, they had no way to know they were needed.
 
Or maybe they’re burning in Heck for having so many children out of wedlock. Hahaha that’s so silly jk jk