History Main / CaretakerReversal

** When the family realizes [[spoiler: that [[IllGirl Beth]] is dying]], Marmee again stretches out her arms to Jo "as if for help," and Jo goes to comfort her mother. Both the 2017 miniseries and [[Film/LittleWomen2019 the 2019 film]] have Marmee [[CryIntoChest crying into Jo's chest]], although the latter moves the scene to [[spoiler: the morning after Beth dies.]]

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* In ''Manga/KamisamaKiss'' Nanami is an OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent who winds up with a LittleBitBeastly {{Kitsune}}, Tomoe, as familiar. However, [[spoiler: when Nurakami uses a magical artefact that turns Tomoe into a child]] Nanami ends up caring for him. Also, when Nanami winds up playing around with time travel [[spoiler: she winds up rescuing a wounded Tomoe from a riverbank in the past and nursing him back to health.]]
* In ''Mini VideoGame/SengokuBasara'', Motonari has a fever and Motochika insists on trying to cure him by strapping a fish to his head and cooking up some stew which looks...kinda like [[LethalChef the inside of a black hole]]. Later Motochika gets sick and receives a visit from Motonari, who [[EvilChef repays him in kind]].
* A variant occurs in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. A flashback shows that Ash and Serena first met in a summer camp when Ash came upon an injured and lost Serena in the woods, bandaging her injured leg and leading her back to their camp. In the present time, during, coincidentally enough, another summer camp, Ash and Serena fall off a cliff, but this time around, Ash is the one who got an injured leg in the process, so Serena had to take care of him until help arrived.
* Subverted in ''Manga/HimoutoUmaruChan'': In one arc Umaru gets sick and expects her brother Taihei to baby her, but he has to work. When Taihei ends up catching Umaru's cold, she plots her revenge by subjecting him to nasty "cures" like [[AssShove shoving a leek up his butt]]...but then she feels genuinely guilty when she sees how sick he is and actually proper care of him.
* Invoked, then subverted in ''[[Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kanna's Daily Life]]''. Kanna takes care of Saikawa when she comes down with a fever, then tries to catch a cold herself a few days later so Saikawa can take care of her. Being a dragon, she has IdealIllnessImmunity, so her attempts to get sick fail.
* The minuscule mummy Mii-kun of ''Manga/HowToKeepAMummy'' is generally too small to be able to take care of Sora during the show's SickEpisode. He's still able to help by using his own body as a cool washcloth for Sora's forehead. It's all well and good, except by the next day it turns out Mii-kun has caught Sora's cold.

* ''Film/MurderByDeath'': Happened during the backstory, where [[Literature/MissMarple Miss Marbles]] has a nurse but Miss Marbles takes care of the nurse, rather than the other way around.

* In the Creator/AkiraKurosawa film ''Film/RedBeard'', Dr. Yasumoto takes care of a feverish girl, abused to the point of madness, named Otayo. When the doctor himself falls ill, Otayo tends him, which helps her mental recovery. (In an amusing bit, she even tries reading his medical texts to stay awake.)

* In ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}'' Rebecca first acts as Ivanhoe's caretaker, then Ivanhoe acts as her champion.

* Flip-flopping through this trope is how Jaime and Brienne's friendship gets started in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. Originally, Brienne is Jaime's guard, and has to protect him from all kinds of dangers (including some that he gets into on purpose to get on her nerves). Later on, when the two of them [[spoiler: are taken prisoner by the Bloody Mummers]], Jaime winds up spending a lot of time protecting *her*, [[spoiler: since of the two of them, he's the hostage who's too valuable to kill, and therefore has a little bit of leverage.]] By the time they're freed, they're pretty much protecting one another.
* The ending of ''Bear Feels Sick'' in Karma Wilson's ''Bear'' series has all the other animals catching Bear's cold and Bear taking care of them the way they took care of him.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': A Caretaker Reversal ''revolving door'', in "Old Age Plan."
** The story begins with Mrs. Davis having cared for her sister Angela, and falling ill from Angela's complaining. By the end of the episode, Mrs. Davis has recovered and Angela has again become ill from Mrs. Davis' complaining.
** ''Meanwhile'', Miss Brooks had spent the episode shilling Mrs. Davis and Angela's club's old age plan to Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin. The two men end up suffering psychosomatic symptoms of old age.
** Miss Brooks decides to invite them over to Mrs. Davis' house, and fake the symptoms of old age to distract Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin from their symptoms. The climax of the episode has Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin rapidly experiencing illness and being placed on the sofa with a blanket and ice pack in turn.
* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Carry on, Hawkeye" is mostly about the majority of the camp (including three of its four doctors) falling ill, leaving Hawkeye and Margaret to run things. At the end, Hawkeye finally succumbs to the flu as the rest of the camp begins to recover. In the final scene, he's a) almost alone in the post-op and b) the recipient of the camp's gratitude.
* In an episode of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'', Robin is sick and Ted takes care of her. When he goes to kiss her, she tries to refuse, but he goes ahead anyway. Immediately after, we see Ted in bed, Robin taking care of him.
-->'''Ted:''' [[WorthIt So worth it]].
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': in season 1, Sheldon gets sick and makes Penny take care of him. In season 3 Penny gets injured and makes Sheldon take her to the hospital and take care of her afterward. What connects these two instances most solidly is the song "Soft Kitty." Sheldon teaches the song to Penny to sing to him ('cause that's what his mother did when he was sick as a youngster). Then when Penny is injured she makes him sing it to her.

* ''Series/KungFu'': in "Besieged: Cannon at the Gates", Caine is lying on the ground mortally wounded after he sabotages a cannon firing at the Shaolin Temple, and his GirlOfTheWeek is leaning over his body comforting him. Then the DragonWithAnAgenda stabs her; she becomes limp, and Caine reverses positions with her as she dies. Suddenly he's fine. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHAQBqzPzCA#t=3m55s See it here, starting at 3:55.]]
* On an episode of ''Series/TheRifleman'' Lucas takes care of Mark who has the measles. At the end, Lucas has the measles while Mark takes care of him.

* In the ''Series/ClarissaExplainsItAll'' episode "The Flu," the parents both get sick, and Clarissa and Ferguson have to [[ADayInHerApron take care of them and of the house.]] In the end, the siblings get sick just as their parents get well, and in the last scene the parents are shown bringing them [[SoupIsMedicine soup]] as they rest on the couch.

* Happens in the ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' episode "Yarn Benders", which begins with Filburt getting sick after being caught in the rain and ends with Rocko and Heffer catching the illness after mangling a few fairy tales that they're reading to Filb.

* ''Literature/LittleWomen'' has an emotional variation: when the family realizes [[spoiler: that [[IllGirl Beth]] is dying]], Marmee, who has always been a pillar of quiet strength, wisdom and comfort to her daughters, stretches out her arms to Jo "as if for help," and Jo goes to comfort her mother. Both the 2017 miniseries and [[Film/LittleWomen2019 the 2019 film]] have Marmee [[CryIntoChest crying into Jo's chest]], although the latter moves the scene to [[spoiler: the morning after Beth dies.]]

Another manifestation of the trope is when a parent/protector used to take care of the child and, a few years later, the child takes care of the parent/protector.

It doesn't have to be illness or injury. Sometimes, it's when a parent used to take care of the child and, a few years later, the child takes care of the aging parent. May also happen to the CloudcuckoolandersMinder if they take a blow to the head or visits {{Cloudcuckooland}}.

[[quoteright:307:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caretaker_reversal.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:[[Series/HowIMetYourMother 307:"Give and take" in relationships isn't supposed to go this far.]]

[[quoteright:309:[[Series/HowIMetYourMother https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/caretakerreversal.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:309:"Give and take" in relationships isn't supposed to go this far.]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga ]]

[[folder: Fan Works ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* Invoked, then subverted in ''[[Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Kanna's Daily Life]]]''. Kanna takes care of Saikawa when she comes down with a fever, then tries to catch a cold herself a few days later so Saikawa can take care of her. Being a dragon, she has IdealIllnessImmunity, so her attempts to get sick fail.

[[quoteright:309:[[Series/HowIMetYourMother http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_caretakerreversal.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:309:[[Series/HowIMetYourMother http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_caretakerreversal2.png]]]]

* In an episode of ''Manga/MidoriDays'', Seiji accidentally drinks a bottle of sake, and Midori tries to take care of him. When he wakes up, he feels great, but Midori is sick. However, in the manga, Midori gets sick first.

[[AC:Anime & Manga]]

[[AC:{{Fan Works}}]]
* In ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', Ash gets badly injured saving his Pikachu from a flock of Spearow, and Misty takes him to the Viridian City Pokémon Center. Later, Misty gets poisoned by Vileplume pollen, so Ash has to take her to a hospital in Cerulean City.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Film/MurderByDeath'': Happened during the backstory, where [[Literature/MissMarple Miss Marbles]] has a nurse but Miss Marbles takes care of the nurse, rather than the other way around.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Carry on, Hawkeye" is mostly about the majority of the camp (including three of its four doctors) falling ill, leaving Hawkeye and Margaret to run things. At the end, Hawkeye finally succumbs to the flu as the rest of the camp begins to recover. In the final scene, he's a) almost alone in the post-op and b) the recipient of the camp's gratitude.

[[AC:Theatre]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

** Another episode had Leonard trying to help Sheldon get over his stage fright by playing therapist. In doesn't take long for Sheldon to become the therapist, impartially listening to Leonard rant about his [[WellDoneSonGuy issues with his mother's treatment of him as a child]].

* "Nurse Stimpy" from ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow''.

* In the TV adaptation of ''Literature/CuriousGeorge'' The Man with the Yellow Hat comes down with a cold and leaves George to take care of him.

* This happens between River and Simon on ''{{Series/Firefly}}''.

* ''TheBigBangTheory'': in season 1, Sheldon gets sick and makes Penny take care of him. In season 3 Penny gets injured and makes Sheldon take her to the hospital and take care of her afterward. What connects these two instances most solidly is the song "Soft Kitty." Sheldon teaches the song to Penny to sing to him ('cause that's what his mother did when he was sick as a youngster). Then when Penny is injured she makes him sing it to her.

* PlayedForDrama in the second episode of ''DrQuinnMedicineWoman'', Dr. Mike works herself to exhaustion during a deadly flu epidemic and must be cared for by Sully when she catches the disease herself.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9939848/1/Pokemon-Reset-Bloodlines Pokémon Reset Bloodlines]]'', Ash gets badly injured saving his Pikachu from a flock of Spearow, and Misty takes him to the Viridian City Pokémon Center. Later, Misty gets poisoned by Vileplume pollen, so Ash has to take her to a hospital in Cerulean City.