History Main / TakingTheKids

For extra drama, you can make one of the two abduct the kids and take them far away from the other.

* Micheal Corleone's wife Kay plans to do this in TheGodfatherPart2. He refuses to let her, but frames his refusal with pleas for her to stay and work out their problems. When she reveals that she didn't miscarry their last child but instead had an abortion, he makes it clear he no longer wants anything to do with her--he slaps her--but again states that "you won't take my children!" She refuses to be cowed by this, stating "they're my children too!"

* ''TheSpiderwickChronicles'' is built on this. The mother took the kids and left because her husband was cheating, and one of the kids still idolizes the dad because he was LockedOutOfTheLoop.

* Used as an EstablishingCharacterMoment in ''Anime/{{Monster}}'' : early into his first [[ADayInTheSpotlight spotlight episode]], Inspector Runge comes home from work to find his wife and daughter standing by the door with their bags packed, waiting for a taxi. [[InspectorJavert He barely notices.]]

* In ''[[LightNovel/KureNai Kure-nai]]'' Souju managed this ''posthumously'' by getting Benika to promise to kidnap Murasaki and take her away from the Kuhoin estate.

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* [[TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]] did this when Homer bought a gun.

* Lois is ''FamilyGuy'' when Peter gets amnesia and starts going and having sex with other women.
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* Used as an EstablishingCharacterMoment in ''Anime/{{Monster}}'': early into his first [[ADayInTheSpotlight spotlight episode]], Inspector Runge comes home from work to find his wife and daughter standing by the door with their bags packed, waiting for a taxi. [[InspectorJavert He barely notices.]]

* Lois is ''FamilyGuy'' when Peter gets amnesia and starts going having sex with other women.

* Lois is ';'FamilyGuy'' when Peter gets amnesia and starts going having sex with other women.

* Used in ''TheShield''. At one point, [=Mackey's=] wife leaves with the kid and he doesn't know where they are. [=Mackey=] is the hero [[SociopathicHero well, at least we ''think'' he's the hero]], so he's still portrayed positively.

* Used in ''TheShield''. At one point, [=McKay's=] wife leaves with the kid and he doesn't know where they are. [=McKay=] is the hero ([[HeroicSociopath well, at least we ''think'' he's the hero]]), so he's still portrayed positively.

* A rather unusual perspective on this trope is used in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' with the {{backstory}} of villain Sela. She explains that she was raised on Romulus where her mother (a [[TimeTravel time-traveling]] Tasha Yar) was a prisoner of war. One night her mother tried to flee the planet and was taking the girl with her -- but Sela was afraid of the idea of leaving her home and raised the alarm. When her mother was executed, Sela says "Everything in me that was human died... all that remains is Romulan!"

* The "divorced dad as a hero" angle is so common that it was parodied in ''ArrestedDevelopment'' with the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within a Show]] ''Homeless Dad'': "I just want my kids back

If the estrangement explicitly turns into a divorce proceeding, usually the wife either gains full custody or the lion's share of the joint custody arrangement- which makes this trope general TruthInTelevision as custody cases tend to tilt toward the mother unless the father holds a very clear monetary advantage over his ex-wife. Sadly, where the father does [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney hold a monetary advantage]], this usually outweighs any DomesticAbuse that may have been going on. And on the other hand, wives are ''very'' prone to pull a WoundedGazelleGambit and [[http://www.fact.on.ca/Info/pas/willia90.htm falsely accuse the husband of abuse so they can take all of the custody and keep him from seeing the kid]].

* In ''{{Kure-nai}}'' Souju managed this ''posthumously'' by getting Benika to promise to kidnap Murasaki and take her away from the Kuhoin estate.

* This conflict drives the plot of ''[[MrsDoubtfire Mrs. Doubtfire]]''.

[[{{Casino}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/casino_00341.jpg]]
[[caption-width:300:[-Gets complicated when the kid is a MafiaPrincess.-] ]]

If the estrangement explicitly turns into a divorce proceeding, usually the wife either gains full custody or the lion's share of the joint custody arrangement- which makes this trope general TruthInTelevision as custody cases tend to tilt toward the mother unless the father holds a very clear monetary advantage over his ex-wife. Sadly, where the father does [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney hold a monetary advantage]], this usually outweighs any DomesticAbuse that may have been going on. And on the other hand, wives are ''very'' prone to pull more than one WoundedGazelleGambit and [[http://www.fact.on.ca/Info/pas/willia90.htm falsely the husband of abuse so they can take all of the custody and keep him from seeing the kid]].

If the estrangement explicitly turns into a divorce proceeding, usually the wife either gains full custody or the lion's share of the joint custody arrangement- which makes this trope general TruthInTelevision as custody cases tend to tilt toward the mother unless the father holds a very clear monetary advantage over his ex-wife. Sadly, where the father does [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney hold a monetary advantage]], this usually outweighs any DomesticAbuse that may have been going on. And on the other hand, wives are ''very'' prone to pull more than one WoundedGazelleGambit and falsely the husband of abuse so they can take all of the custody and keep him from seeing the kid.

* This is the whole premise behind the 1970s sitcom ''One Day At A Time'': The mom took the daughters and left her husband. Why? [[WallBanger Just because she wanted to prove that she could]].

* In the film ''Amadeus'', when Costanze loses her patience with Wolfgang Mozart's obsession with the hooded stranger, she gives him an ultimatum. When he sneaks out at night and then returns the next morning, he finds all her clothes gone, then discovers that neither she nor their son is in the apartment.