History Main / RaisedByRobots

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy2019'': Grace/Mom is robot designed by Reginald Hargreeves to care for the Umbrella Academy when they were children.

Compare RaisedByWolves, RoboFamily. SubTrope of PromotionToParent.

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An artificial lifeform raises a human (or alien) child. The reasoning can be different each time; sometimes the parents are [[ParentalNeglect absent, but still around]], leaving the robot as their only friend. Other times the parents are [[DeathByOriginStory dead outright]] leaving the robot to be the [[PromotionToParent only parental figure the child has]]. Sometimes it's just how the society works, though this is usually a sign of a {{dystopia}}.

Given that one of the suggested uses for the humanoid robots currently being developed is childcare, there is a possibility of this trope becoming TruthInTelevision in the not too distant future.

* Shiki from ''Manga/EdensZero'' was raised from childhood by the robotic attractions and employees at the Granbell Kingdom amusement park, with the one who first discovered him being his "grandfather", the Demon King. They were friendly with him and gave him a good home, but this meant he never really interacted with real humans until Rebecca came along. Once off planet, [[NoSocialSkills he has trouble adjusting to talking and meeting with other people]]. [[spoiler:The robots loved him so much that they pretended to turn against him to drive him offworld because their power supplies were nearly empty and they didn't want him to waste his life trying to repair them.]]
* The titular Age from ''Anime/HeroicAge'' was raised by the AI in the crashed ship he lived in. While it fits this trope, the result is more like RaisedByWolves, as the AI didn't have much to teach in the way of [[WildChild social interaction with other people.]]

* Ruri in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' was raised by a prerecorded program that was meant to be "the perfect parents". Also her best friend was a robot.
* Happens ''multiple times'' in the future chapters of Creator/OsamuTezuka's ''{{Manga/Phoenix}}'' saga. In ''Resurrection'' the mass-production Robitas are often used as nannies, which leads to some nasty consequences when one is wrongfully accused of killing the human child it once looked after. ''Nostalgia'', meanwhile, has what is probably the most twisted example of this trope. After her husband, who was the only other adult human on the small desert planet they bought with money from a bank heist dies, the protagonist, Romy goes into [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] and leaves her son to be raised by a robot until he comes of age [[ParentalIncest so they can populate the planet]]. When she comes out her son has no memory of her and believes the robot to be his real mother. ''Life'' has a semi-example, where a little girl is being raised by her grandmother who is so old that she's become a full-body cyborg who looks like a TinCanRobot.

* Steve Gerber's ''ComicBook/OmegaTheUnknown'' kicks off with young James-Michael Starling's discovery that his "dead" human parents had been robots all along.

* In the ''ComicBook/{{Sillage}}'' Prequel Series ''Nävis'', the title character is raised on a jungle planet by a robot. However, she can also apparently talk to the local animals and has a tiger-like creature for a friend, so it kinda overlaps with WildChild.

* There's some {{Fanon}} floating around that [[WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons Wilbur Robinson]] was primarily raised by the family robot Carl, due to Wilbur's parents Cornelius and Franny being a highly successful inventor and musician respectively. Since many of those same fans also believe that Cornelius had a paternal relationship with Carl during his early years, this comes off more as a mild PromotionToParent.
* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. Captain Janeway scoffs at the suggestion that [[StayInTheKitchen women lack the natural authority]] to command a rocketship, saying that attitude results from men being raised in community crèches by robots, [[GoodOldWays instead of at home by their mothers]].

* ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars''. Nanelia touches Shad when he turns up on her space station, mistaking him for one of their androids, and is startled to find that he's warm-blooded.
-->'''Shad:''' Of course I'm warm; I'm organic. Haven't you ever seen an organic form?
-->'''Nanelia:''' No, except [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter my father]]. There are only the androids.
* The 1982 TV movie ''Film/TheElectricGrandmother'' has a robot grandmother taking the place of a dead human mother. The kids, after an initial adjustment period, turn out fine, and we see a WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue that proves it.
* The Netflix film ''Film/IAmMother'' has a facility that stores countless frozen embryos, overseen by an AI that calls itself Mother whose job is to raise them and repopulate humanity in an AfterTheEnd scenario. Naturally, the story takes some [[AIIsACrapshoot pretty dark turns]]. [[spoiler: The AI had decided that humanity had become so corrupt that the only fix was to kill 'em all and start over under its own expert guidance.]]

* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** "Literature/{{Robbie}}": The central conflict is Gloria's mother trying to eliminate Robbie, Gloria's mute RobotBuddy, for fear of her daughter coming out strange due to his influence. Gloria, on the other hand, wants to keep her best friend around, and is depressed/listless without him.
** This would eventually become the norm for Spacers, who tended to live on large private estates and treated procreation as a social duty rather than something desirable. On Solaria, the resident Spacers had become utterly averse to human contact of ''any'' kind, and delegated all child-rearing duties to robots.
* This was discussed in a short story by Creator/SpiderRobinson, in which a time traveler, interested in studying the nature of humans, travels through time to ask a wise man whether an experiment was ethical: kidnapping children otherwise doomed to die in order to have them raised by robots using a language stripped of all religious references to see if they develop religion. The catch? The intensely curious wise man doesn't get to know the outcome of the experiment if he says it was unethical to kidnap the doomed children.
* In a couple of Creator/PhilipKDick's stories a totally sociopathic character is this due to robots replacing families.
* In ''Literature/TheAvatarChronicles'''s ''Edda'' by Conor Kostick, the main character, Penelope, was raised by a sentient artificial intelligence being. From his virtual world, he is able to control the life support in the real world that keeps Penelope alive, and he raises her: her body is kept alive by his controlling the machines, and her mind is hooked up to the virtual reality equipment that puts her in Edda.
* ''Literature/BeyondTheBlueEventHorizon'', the second of the ''Literature/HeecheeSaga'' series. has Wan as the sole human survivor who has been raised by AIs simulating humans on an alien space station.
* Played with in ''Birthdays'' by Creator/FredSaberhagen. A boy in hypersleep is awakened every year on his birthday for over sixty years. Each day he visits and observes a small community of people raised by the ship, seeing them having grown a year each time. In the end, it turns out his yearly "visits" are intended to teach him psychology, preparing him to raise the next generation of people who will actually settle the world being journeyed to.

* In the short science fiction story, "The Island" by Creator/PeterWatts, the narrator wakes from cryosleep to meet a young engineer who'd been born on the ship and raised in isolation by the ship's sub-human AI.
* Hester Shaw from ''Literature/MortalEngines'' by Phillip Reeve was raised for several years by a Stalker named Shrike (think ''Series/DoctorWho'''s Cybermen mixed with Rampancy-stage AI from ''VideoGame/{{Halo}}'') after her parents were murdered. Actually, she gets worried that she is little more than a piece in his collection of doll children, and runs away, breaking his heart in the process. Throughout the series, Shrike is one of the few people that Hester shows genuine affection and care for.
* In ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', Han Solo and Princess Leia have a robot nanny for their children. Well, when they aren't letting C-3P0 handle the task.
* Deconstructed in Creator/RayBradbury's short story "Literature/TheVeldt". A family's children spend so much time in a virtual-reality nursery, running simulations of the African wilderness and lions eating carcasses, that their parents become concerned and consult a child psychologist, who suggests they turn off the nursery and take the children to the countryside. [[spoiler: The children beg for one last playtime in the nursery before they go, lock their parents in it, and [[SelfMadeOrphan have the virtual lions tear them apart]], having grown to consider the nursery more important than their own parents.]]
** But played more straightly in "I Sing the Body Electric" (sometimes also called "The Electric Grandmother"). A widower needs additional help in raising his children, particularly since his own mother died young. So, he sends for an android grandmother who turns out to be ''incredibly'' good at the job and astute at human psychology. The widower and two of the children quickly grow attached to the android and consider her part of the family. It's just the middle child, who is still grieving for her mother, whom "grandma" needs to win over.
* ''Voyage from Yesteryear'' by Creator/JamesPHogan. A probe is sent to Alpha Centauri containing a genetic bank to escape an impending world war. The children are raised by robots in a PostScarcityEconomy, so they end up forming a community where money and authoritarianism are meaningless. This causes problems when the authoritarian Earth governments established during the war decide to send an expedition to bring them back into the fold, leading to severe CultureClash.

* Technical Officer Jeffers in ''Series/{{Hyperdrive}}'' was raised by a computer simulation of his dead father, until they got into a fight and he deleted the program.

* An episode of ''Series/WelcomeToParadox'' was about a facility where humans are raised by androids, and free humans from outside trying to free them.

* This is the very premise of the Award winning 2004 Manhua, ''Manhua/MyBelovedMother'', by Wang Xiao-yang. The protagonist, Sinbell, is an orphan raised by a robotic mother and often dwells on his birth mother, whom he refused to believe have died, and repeatedly tries running away from home much to the chagrin of his robotic guardian. The epilogue flashback provides one hell of a {{Tearjerker}} with TheReveal: [[spoiler: Sinbell's birth mother gave up her life to save Sinbell when he was four years of age from a stray nuclear explosion, and her DyingWish is for her mind to be transplanted into a robot's body for her to continue her motherly duties, making her a first-generation robot mother, which Sinbell is completely oblivious for most of his life]].

* ''Music/SteamPoweredGiraffe'' has a ballad called "Turn Back the Clock", in which Rabbit the robot struggles to accept her favorite little girl's growth through the phases of her life.

* The four people left of a GenerationShip in the '80s BBC Radio Drama ''Radio/{{Earthsearch}}'' were raised by robots and two [[ArtificialIntelligence supercomputers]] called Angel One and Angel Two. The rest of the crew were killed by a meteoroid strike [[AIIsACrapshoot arranged by the Angels]] while the survivors were just infants, as the Angels wanted to raise a crew that was completely under their influence.

* One of the stories on ''Roleplay/CerberusDailyNews'' is about parents leaving their children with robot nannies. There's a debate on the effects it has on a child, and whether parents are neglecting their children or just simply don't have the time to be with them.

* Escha Malier from ''Videogame/AtelierEschaAndLogyAlchemistsOfTheDuskSky'' kinda fits into this. While she did grew up with her real mother teaching her alchemy, Escha's mother died when Escha was still very young and her father, while alive, was too busy with his work to make time for her. Escha was instead raised by Clone, an automaton who has been close friends with the Malier family for generations.
* Shay from ''Videogame/BrokenAge'' was raised by his ship Bossa Nostra's AI. At the beginning of the game he's starting to realize that his "mother" has been keeping secrets from him, and he longs to be free. [[spoiler:[[UnroboticReveal Except]] that "mother" is his ''[[SubvertedTrope actual]]'' mother.]]
* There seems to be several cases of this in ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman'' since many androids are [[RobotMaid housekeeper models]] which often include caring for children. Most significantly, the character Kara is a general domestic android, but in particular, raises Alice more or less due to her MissingMom and abusive drug addict dad. [[spoiler:Subverted in the end when it is revealed that Alice is herself an android.]]

** The [[AllThereInTheManual Vault Dweller's memoirs]] in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'''s manual mention that the Vault Dweller was raised by a robot in Vault 13.
* ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': [[spoiler:The first generation of new humans, after the Earth was wiped clean of life]], were raised by three robot personalities: A doctor (Healer), a nurturer (Mother), and a disciplinarian (Father). They did reasonably well, but the children ended up staying in their care for far longer than intended because [[spoiler:a fourth personality intended to educate them and guide them into adulthood had been erased]], and they were never designed to handle angry teenagers. The children viewed Father and Healer as AbusiveParents (Father wouldn't let them do anything and defended himself when they attacked, Healer did nothing to stop him), but had a more positive view of Mother. [[spoiler:After the children left the Cradle facility and became the Nora tribe, the last lessons of Mother became central to their culture]].

* Flora Reinhold from ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheCuriousVillage'' fits this trope to a T. After Flora's mother died, her father had [[spoiler:a robot version of her late mother]] built to make her happy. However, Flora was frightened of it. After her father died, the villagers took care of her, [[spoiler:all of whom happen to be robots built to amuse her and keep her company.]]
* Zed, the RobotMaid of the SS Tetra in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyoTetris'' acts as the surrogate father for the ship's navigator Ess, who lovingly calls him "Papa". [[spoiler: He was actually built to serve this purpose by Ess's true father Ex, who couldn't raise her due to his work as the Keeper of Dimensions. Zed did such a good job at it that Ess legitimately believes Zed is her father and doesn't even recognize Ex (which WordOfGod states is not because of Ex's inability to be remembered, but because Ess is repressing her memories of him). [[BerserkButton It's a sore spot for him]].]]
* ''VideoGame/TheSims'' series features Servos, Simbots and Plumbots (introduced respectively in ''VideoGame/TheSims2'': ''Open For Business'', ''VideoGame/TheSims3'': ''Ambitions'' and ''VideoGame/TheSims3'': ''Into The Future''). Since they are fully sapient and are for all intents and purpose robotic Sims, they can marry (either other robots or [[{{Robosexual}} Sims]]) and adopt children and care for them just as well as organic Sims.
* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': One of the new robot star nation types introduced in ''Synthetic Dawn'' is the Rogue Servitors, effectively the end result of an organic species building robotic caretakers and servants and delegating the running of all aspects of their society to the machines to the point where the organics have been reduced to "bio-trophies" living out blissful lives in post-scarcity habitats maintained by the robots, [[GildedCage having everything they could ever want except for their freedom]]. Not satisfied with merely subjecting their creators to this fate, they want to go out into space and do this with ''all'' organic life. Whether they're [[CreepyGood well-intentioned]] [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul or not]] depends on your interpretation.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Exaggerated in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': post-Scratch [[spoiler:Dirk Strider]] was raised by robots... that he [[GadgeteerGenius built himself]].
* In ''Webcomic/RobottoJukujo'' When Tomo's real mom left, his dad ordered a Robot Mom to look after him and do the chores

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': During "The Super-Batman of Planet X!", Tlano, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, mentions that he was raised from childhood by his RobotButler, Alpha-Red.
* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' has a less dramatic example: one episode features a human girl adopted by robot parents, but in this world robots are sapient and emotive, so it's not really any weirder than, say, a white family adopting a black kid.
* In the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck cartoon "Modern Inventions", Donald sees a robot nanny in an exhibition and decides to test her out by pretending to be a baby. Turns out the robot is still a little buggy and treats him rather roughly.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' with the [[UnnecessarilyCreepyRobot Nannybots]] manufactured by Mom's Friendly Robot Company.
-->SLEEP LITTLE DUMPLING, I HAVE REPLACED YOUR MOTHER.

** There's also the episode of ShowWithinAShow ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 The Scary Door]]'' where a lazy scientist builds a DoAnythingRobot and orders it to assume all his obligations. This naturally ends up with the robot taking over his entire life to the point of the scientist's human son [[ParentalSubstitute recognizing the robot as his father]].
* Irkens from ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' are so far past TheSingularity that they are grown in factories. Zim loved the cold unfeeling robot arm that raised him.
** [[HeroAntagonist Dib]] and [[EnfantTerrible Gaz]] come pretty close--their dad, [[ReluctantMadScientist Professor Membrane]], is such a {{Workaholic}} that he usually communicates with them through a floating screen, and at least some of the messages seem to be recordings.
* Rosie, the robotic nanny from WesternAnimation/TheJetsons.
* On ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes2006'', [[CanonForeigner Superman-X]] was cloned from Superman's DNA and raised by the robot(s) who created him.
* [[ImpliedTrope Implied]] with [[GadgeteerGenius Entrapta]] in ''WesternAnimation/SheraAndThePrincessesOfPower'', as a family portrait in her castle shows Entrapta with two robots in place of any biological parents.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' reveals that Miss Heinous was raised by a Robot named "Saint Olga" after [[spoiler:King Shastacan decided to replace the queen's illegitimate child for being half-monster]]. Living up to the BoardingSchoolOfHorrors named after her, Saint Olga was incredibly repressive and controlling, though she was apparently programmed to be that way.

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] by Sari from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''. She's a human raised by a human, who later loses her father to kidnapping and has to live with the Autobots in a warehouse until he is rescued. [[spoiler: Then it's revealed that she's a techno-organic, which means that she was a robot raised by a human raised ''as'' a human later partly raised by robots.]]

** {{Inverted|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E44TheLatenessOfTheHour The Lateness of the Hour]]". [[spoiler:Jana Loren is a robot who was "raised" by humans, namely her creator Dr. William Loren and his wife. As they were unable to have children of their own, they programmed memories of a fictional childhood into her. [[TomatoInTheMirror She eventually discovers the truth]] when she realizes that the family album contains no photographs of her.]]
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E100ISingTheBodyElectric I Sing the Body Electric]]", Mr. Rogers purchases a robotic grandmother from Facsimile Ltd. to raise his children Tom, Karen and Anne after the death of his wife.

* On ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperHeroes'', [[CanonForeigner Superman-X]] was cloned from Superman's DNA and raised by the robot(s) who created him.

* There's a Geico ad where a woman tries to save money by enrolling her children in a daycare run by robots. It does not go well.

* This is the very premise of the Award winning 2004 Manhua, ''Manhua/MyBelovedMother'', by Wang Xiao-yang. Set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, the protagonist, Sinbell, is an orphan raised by a robotic mother and often dwells on his birth mother, whom he refused to believe have died, and repeatedly tries running away from home much to the chagrin of his robotic guardian. The epilogue flashback provides one hell of a {{Tearjerker}} with TheReveal: [[spoiler: Sinbell's birth mother gave up her life to save Sinbell when he was four years of age from a stray nuclear explosion, and her DyingWish is for her mind to be transplanted into a robot's body for her to continue her motherly duties, making her a first-generation robot mother, which Sinbell is completely oblivious for most of his life]].

* An episode of ''Welcome to Paradox'' was about a facility where humans are raised by androids, and free humans from outside trying to free them.

* The sociopathic villain of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]" was raised by robots. Having more empathy for them than his fellow humans, he decides to create a RobotUprising.

* The sociopathic villain of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "The Robots of Death" was raised by robots. Having more empathy for them than his fellow humans, he decides to create a RobotUprising.

* The 2020 HBO Max series ''Series/{{Raised by Wolves|2020}}'' is about a "seedship" type colony world where two androids named Father and Mother raise human children.