Portraying a three-member household, the award-winning animated series Big-Head Son and Small-Head Dad — first aired in 1995 — is back in the public eye, after sparking fiery debate about gender and family roles.

At the center of the discussions is "Apron Mom", who many critics of the cartoon have pointed out appears to only exist to serve the interests of the father and son.

Social media influencer "Maebo" got the ball rolling on the Red-Note platform in February with her post "Apron Mom, when can you take off your apron?" The post garnered over 47,000 likes, and the trending topic has since led to widespread online discussion about the issue.

After her post went viral, Maebo said several netizens shared scenes from the cartoon that exemplified the problem of the outdated depiction of a mother's role. One of the most widely discussed clips shows Apron Mom fainting while Small-Head Dad rushes over and says: "Apron Mom, you can't die! Big-Head and I haven't had dinner yet!"

"To place an individual's life below the urgency of whether or not dinner is served goes beyond gender," Maebo said, "it becomes a question of basic humanity."

In another clip, Big-Head Son announces: "Today is International Women's Day. Let's let Apron Mom rest for one day." Maebo said "rest" is framed as an "exceptional reward "for Apron Mom, with the implication that "not resting is her default duty".

Maebo's posts quickly drew a wide range of comments.

Some pointed out that while the male characters are identified by their physical traits, the mother is defined by an apron, a symbol of domesticity. "It reinforces the idea that her identity is inseparable from her labor," Maebo said.

One English teacher noted that during classroom exercises on occupations, students frequently associated fathers with prestigious jobs such as "doctor" or "engineer", while mothers were more often labeled "cook". The teacher began encouraging students to challenge these assumptions, reminding them that mothers can also be doctors.

Whether humorous or serious, one netizen posted an observation about Big-Head Son's birth, saying, "his head is so large that it must have been a painful childbirth for Apron Mom."