History Main / RemarryingForYourKids

[[AC:{{Live-Action Television}}]]

[[AC: Anime and Manga]]

[[AC: FanWorks]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' AUFic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878527 Second Chances]]'' by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNovelArtist/pseuds/TheNovelArtist TheNovelArtist]], Adrien, as a single father, has trouble finding a nanny for his daughter, until Alya recommends him Marinette. Since she is recently widowed herself, it takes them twenty chapters to have a proper date, and he has no intention to rush her into a marriage... but once the girl starts calling Marinette ''Mommy'', they both realize the matter, one way or another, cannot be delayed.

[[AC: Film: Animated]]

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet''. Jim's lack of father is given an explicit explantation, but Mrs. Dawkins never enters another relationship.

[[AC: Film: Live-Action]]

* In Disney's ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', Robert has an extended relationship with Nancy, but end up with Giselle in the end. Morgan's mother is explicitly mentioned to have 'left,' which is actually pretty dark for a kid's movie.
* ''WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis'' has Chuckie's father decide to remarry because he wants to provide a mom for his son. Unfortunately, he's not very good at telling that Chuckie is ''terrified'' of his new girlfriend Coco. At the end Chaz marries a different woman, Kira, who too is a single parent.

* In Israeli film ''Film/FillTheVoid'' the protagonists live in an Hasidic community where widows and widowers are expected to remarry to give their kids another parent. This one kicks off the plot, as a recently widowed man considers marrying a foreign widow, while his mother-in-law suggests he marry her youngest daughter so her grandson won't be raised by a stranger.

* The case for King Leopold (Snow White's father) in ''Series/OnceUponATime''. He's very much still in love with his late wife Queen Eva, but when Regina saves young Snow White from a charging horse, he offers her himself as StandardHeroReward, thinking that someone who would risk their life to save his daughter would be proper stepmother material. Of course, Regina's social climbing bitch of a mother, Queen Cora, is gleeful about this. (It's also possible that, given Leopold's history with Regina's mother, he was trying to get Regina away from said social climbing bitch) Regina really wants to marry a stablehand instead, but Cora tricks Snow into leading her to the stablehand, which gets him killed. Regina blames Snow White instead of putting the blame where it belongs (leading to Regina being the TropeCodifier EvilStepmother), and proceeds to take out her anger on everyone, including getting Leopold killed.

'''Jeff:''' Okay...but ''just'' for the sake of the children....[[AllMenArePerverts Hey, you don't think the kids would mind having a young stepmom with some big ol' hooters, do you?]]

--> '''Elizabeth:''' What seems like disloyalty to you now, is actually ''loyalty'' to my ''son.'

* Patrick Brontë, the father of [[Creator/CharlotteBronte Charlotte]], [[Creator/EmilyBronte Emily]] and [[Creator/AnneBronte Anne]], made several attempts to find a second wife to care for his six children after their mother Maria died. Most notably, he wrote to his first love Mary Burder, but she turned him down. He ultimately never remarried.

* In the 1912 stage play of ''Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' (the basis for [[Film/SnowWhite1916 the 1916 silent film]]), Snow White's father is said to have married [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen]] [[WickedStepmother Brangomar]] because "someone had to mind the baby" after the first queen's DeathByChildbirth.

* In Film/EverAfter, Danielle's father remarries when she is eight. Unfortunately, he dies shortly afterward, and her stepmother turns out to be a [[WickedStepMother wicked one]]
* In Israeli film ''Film/FillTheVoid'' the protagonists lives in an Hasidic community where unmarried widows are expecte to rematty for giving the kids a parent. This one kicks the plot, as a recently widowed man considers marrying a foreign widow, while his mother-in-law suggests him to marry her youngest daughter so her grandson wouldn't be raised by a stranger.

* There was an incident in Alberta, Canada where a man hears of a recently widowed woman who was having trouble supporting herself and her children after the death of her husband--feeling sorry for the woman, the man (who had apparently been a bachelor for a long time) offered to marry her so that she'd at least have a husband to help support her family and a man to act as a fatherly-figure to her kids.

* In the ''Raven's Home'' oneshot ''Fanfic/AndEverythingsGonnaChangeNow'', HeterosexualLifePartners Raven and Chelsea get married. However, their [[MarriageOfConvenience marriage is not related to any romantic feelings]]. Neither just wants their children to be motherless if anything were to happen to them. As the story goes on, they [[ClosetKey realize]] that they're [[BiTheWay not as heterosexual as they thought]].

* In the 1912 stage play of ''Literature/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' (the basis for [[Film/SnowWhite1916 the 1916 silent film]]), Snow White's father is said to have married [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen]] [[WickedStepmother Brangomar] because "someone had to mind the baby" after the first queen's DeathByChildbirth.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* A major plot point of ''Film/NannyMcPhee'' is Cedric Brown's necessity to get remarried after his wife's death, due to pressure put on him by the great aunt. By the end of the movie, he marries Evangeline.
* ''Film/LoveActually''. Liam Neeson's character's wife dies at the beginning of the movie and he is forced to raise their child alone. By the end, he is paired up with another woman, be this is an unusual variant of the trope, considering the son is his by marriage.
* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet''. Jim's lack of father is given an explicit explantation, but Mrs. Dawkins never enters another relationship.

* In Disney's ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', Robert has an extended relationship with Nancy, but end up with Giselle in the end. Morgan's mother is explicitly mentioned to have 'left,' which is actually pretty dark for a kid's movie.
* ''WesternAnimation/RugratsInParis'' has Chuckie's father decide to remarry because he wants to provide a mom for his son. Unfortunately, he's not very good at telling that Chuckie is ''terrified'' of his new girlfriend Coco. At the end Chaz marries a different woman, Kira, who too is a single parent.
* In Film/EverAfter, Danielle's father remarries when she is eight, shortly after he dies. Unfortunately, her stepmother turns out to be a [[WickedStepMother wicked one]]

* Averted in ''Disney/TreasurePlanet''. Jim's lack of father is given an explicit explantation, but Mrs. Dawkins never enters another relationship.
* ''Disney/TheAristocats''. O'Malley says that the kittens need a father around, but it's more of an indirect way of telling Duchess he wants to be with her than him genuinely believing they do. Duchess agrees, but at this point, her attraction to O'Malley has been very well established. So it's more of a "remarrying for ourselves, but won't it be great for the kids?" type of thing. (The kittens' lack of a biological father is never mentioned or explained.)

May involve a plot that features ParentWithNewParamour, though those cases are not always for the children's sake. Contrast GlamorousSingleMother, who makes being a single parent look easy. Compare GiveTheBabyAFather, which is when a pregnant woman gets married so she won't be a single parent in the first place.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': QuirkyBard Elan faces a [[spoiler:LotusEaterMachine]] scenario where his mother remarries his EvilOverlord father to give him the happy family he always wanted. [[spoiler:The scenario falls apart when Elan remembers that his mother ended their marriage to protect him from his viciously evil father in the first place, and comes to terms with the fact that his family's problems don't have such a simple fix.]]

* In the ''Series/RavensHome'' oneshot ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/12463548 And everything's gonna change, now]]'', HeterosexualLifePartners Raven and Chelsea get married. However, their [[MarriageOfConvenience marriage is not related to any romantic feelings]]. Neither wants their children to be motherless if anything were to happen to them. As the story goes on, they [[ClosetKey realize]] that they're [[BiTheWay not as heterosexual as they thought]].

* There was an incident in Alberta (a province in Canada), where a man hears of a recently widowed woman who was having trouble supporting herself and her children after the death of her husband. Feeling bad for her, the man offered to marry her so that way she'd have a husband to help support her family and a man to act as a fatherly-figure to her children.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', the [[MissingMom Missing Mom's]] disappearance was eventually explained, saying she died when the kids were really young. Ray ends up getting remarried in the series finale to a woman named Noelani, who's a cousin of his friend, Tito, and
Ray married shortly after this was mentioned.

* There was an incident in Alberta (a province in Canada), where a man hears of a recently widowed woman who was having trouble supporting herself and her children after the death of her husband. Feeling bad for her, the man offered to marry her so that way she'd have a husband to help support her and her children.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', the [[MissingMom Missing Mom's]] disappearance was eventually explained, saying she died. Ray married shortly after this was mentioned.

* There was an incident in Alberta, Canada, where a man proposed marriage to a widow for the sake of her children.

[[AC:{{UsefulNotes/Television}}]]

--> '''Elizabeth:''' What seems like disloyalty to you now, is actually ''loyalty'' to my ''son.''

[[AC:Literature]]
* Deconstructed a bit in ''Literature/WivesAndDaughters'', Molly's mother dies when she's a little girl. When she's teenaged, her father thinks she really needs a mother-figure and marries because of it. However, while not being exactly WickedStepmother, she's a difficult woman and not helpful at all.
* Annie marries Philip in ''Literature/EnochArden'' largely for her children's sake, and also because he reveals that he has [[DoggedNiceGuy loved her for a long time]]. She [[MarriageBeforeRomance comes to return his affection later]].
* In the second ''Literature/{{Deverry}}'' book, a middle-aged widower marries a woman who was divorced by her husband for barrenness because she needs a new home and he needs a wife to help raise the children from his first marriage (whose existence means that her inability to conceive children isn't an issue). In the following book, she gives birth to a son, which causes a great deal of political difficulty, because it implies that her first husband was the sterile one, which means that his lands could be up for grabs once he dies...

[[AC:Legend]]
* Min Ziqian was a Chinese model of filial piety. After his father discovered that his WickedStepmother was dressing her own children warmly, and not his first son, he told her he had married her to have someone to look after his son, and she is not doing it, so he would divorce her. Only Min Ziqian's intervention, reminding him that without her there, ''none'' of the children would be looked after, saved her.
* In ''[[http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/greenknight.html The Green Knight]]'', the king remarries because his daughter begs him to.

* The case for King Leopold (Snow White's father) in ''Series/OnceUponATime''. He's very much still in love with his late wife Queen Eva, but when Regina saves young Snow White from a charging horse, he offers herself as StandardHeroReward, thinking that someone who would risk their life to save his daughter would be proper stepmother material. Of course, Regina's social climbing bitch of a mother, Queen Cora, is gleeful about this. (It's also possible that, given Leopold's history with Regina's mother, he was trying to get Regina away from said social climbing bitch) Regina really wants to marry a stablehand instead, but Cora tricks Snow into leading her to the stablehand, which gets him killed. Regina blames Snow White instead of putting the blame where it belongs (leading to Regina being the TropeCodifier EvilStepmother), and proceeds to take out her anger on everyone, including getting Leopold killed.

* TruthInTelevision. This wasn't uncommon through much of human history, especially due to DeathByChildBirth being much more common. (Which often left behind children, and sometimes MassiveNumberedSiblings) The widower left behind would be expected to remarry to provide his children with a mother. A dead father would often produce a similar result. This was often motivated by the idea that children needed to be raised by a 'mother' and 'father' to flourish.
* This was common enough in the Victorian-era that etiquette books even had guidelines for how long Wife #2 should mourn her dead predecessor (assuming the male remarried during his mourning period).
* In UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity, married men can become priests, but someone who's already a priest can only get married with special permission. The usual allowance is for widowers who still have young children.

* In the ''Series/RavensHome'' oneshot ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/12463548 And everything's gonna change, now]]'', HeterosexualLifePartners Raven and Chelsea get married. However, their [[MarriageForConvenience marriage is not related to any romantic feelings]]. Neither wants their children to be motherless if anything were to happen to them. As the story goes on, they [[ClosetKey realize]] that they're [[BiTheWay not as heterosexual as they thought]].

!Examples

* In UsefulNotes/OrthodoxChristianity, married men can become priests, but someone who's already a priest can only get married with special permission. The usual allowance is for widowers who still have young children.