He was just being a dad.

I use to think he was a terrible father but now I don't think so. He does some really bad thinks but he makes up for them. He admits when he's wrong, admits his mistakes, trades places with Ariel to save her, and gives Ariel her freedom and turns her into a human so she can be happy. No parent is perfect he's just a parent with a temper.

No I just don't think he truly understand what Ariel wanted or her dreams until the very end

How can you really say he's a bad father?

He should have listened more to Ariel, but in the end he had Ariel's best interests at heart.

Not at all... I don't agree with him destroying her collection but overall he's not a bad father.

Same with Mongoose09. He's a very good father.

The only thing "Bad" he did was not be there more (of coruse he is King of the sea and is a single Dad to a ton of Daughters) and did not pay attention more (maybe he could have nipped the human obsession in the bud if he had been more aware from the start or at least talked to her about it....at least she was only hiding junk and not drugs or something worse), also he did overeact a little with destroying her collection, and instead of sending Sebastian HE should have gone to his Daughter and tried to bond with her or gotten her sisters to talk to her,and I don't feel giving in to her was a very good thing either...he should have made her sweat it out and maybe gotten to know Eric more before he let her turn human (maybe even Triton should have gotten to know more about Eric before he let his young daughter run off with him)...giving into what your child wants is not neccisarily good parenting....Triton was a bit of a pushover....yeah he yelled and got angry but what Parent has not? It is not like he was beating her and except for the human thing she was pretty spoiled and got to do whatever she wanted (children need rules and regulations) Triton was not a bad father, but a protective, over-worked single father who just did not have the time and patience to handle a bunch of teen-age girls (he needed a woman and they needed a mother or mother like figure that cared for them)...but hey he did try his best and you could tell he loved her

He's closed-minded and overprotective. Maybe I have high-standars because of MY dad, but I don't like Triton's way.

no. He just didn't want to lose his baby/daughter.

He was just trying to protect her!

Triton indeed made certain significant mistakes when it comes to his parenting, however, the reason why he deserves a full credit for being a good father is the fact that he admitted and made up for those mistakes eventually, which is something a lot of parents rarely do (know it from personal experience). There is no excuse for him destroying Ariel's collection but nor the movie neither Triton himself perceieved it as a right thing to do, because he did it out of rage in a moment of anger and immediately felt bad about it, although it is still not a justification for his disturbing act. He should have indeed talked to Ariel instead of comdemning her natural curiosity or romantic feelings, which would have been by far more productive and better for both him and Ariel, because this way Triton would have probably put an effort into learning something he refused to even consider about the human world (prefering to generalize and discriminate all humans instead because of the actions of a few) and Ariel wouldn't have had to rebel or be desperate and miserable due to not being heared or having her opinion at least respected which eventually pushed her into her reckless actions. However, despite the flaws regading Triton's parenting skills, he genuinly loved Ariel and in the end did what was the best for her and for their father/daugher relationship due to the experience either of them gained throughout the movie.

Everything he did was out of love. No one's perfect either. and....Come onnn.