Listen, Children!

Hide the parent.
The children follow.

Toggle a parent's visibility and every object beneath it follows — down the whole hierarchy, in the viewport and at render time. Listen, Children! links each recursive child to its parent with drivers, so you show, hide or un-render a full branch by touching one object. Switch a sync off and the links dissolve, leaving each child at the parent's current state.

This addon is also available for free on kunemann.com. This listing exists purely as a way to support development — any purchase here is optional, and gratefully accepted.

Sync viewport

Flip a parent's viewport visibility and every child underneath hides or shows with it. Toggle it from the outliner Disable in Viewports icon or the Show in Viewports checkbox — both cascade down.

Sync render

The same for render visibility. Disable a parent for render and its whole branch drops out of the render at once.

Whole branch, not just kids

Every object under the parent follows — children, grandchildren, the full recursive tree, not only the direct children.

Driver-backed links

Each child reads its visibility from the parent through a driver, so a toggle propagates the moment you make it — nothing to refresh, no bake step.

Toggle on or off

One button per property. Enable to link a branch, disable to cut the links and leave each child at the parent's current state.

Panel or right-click

Reach both toggles from the Listen Children N-panel tab or straight from the object context menu — right-click in the viewport and pick viewport or render.

Blender

4.2 or newer

License

MIT

Also free, always, at kunemann.com.