History Main / TakingTheKids

Another scenario involves relatively little animosity between the two at all- if the husband has gotten embroiled in a crazy UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory and the wife thinks he is losing his mind, then she can leave while Taking the Kids without any real hard feelings. Sure, the theory that LittleGreenMen are preparing to invade the planet might actually be ''true'', but usually the husband and the audience can understand why the wife is skeptical and worried about the situation and don't hold it against her. In this situation, you can usually expect a happy reunion at the end once all the craziness is over with.

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. Even then the usual outcome is not sole but joint custody.

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** At the beginning, Jim Carrey's ex-wife is threatening to take their son and go move with her boyfriend in Boston- something which the lying, immature Carrey doesn't take seriously, and the audience sympathizes with her decision. However, by the end of the movie after Jim Carrey has realized just how important his son is to him, he makes a dramatic effort to stop her- and the audience is hoping he succeeds.

-->'''Fletcher''': But... you said he was a good father!
-->'''Samantha''': [[KickTheDog So?]]

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* In Alice Hoffman's ''Turtle Moon'', one of the plot points is that the female lead insisted on taking the kid after her divorce, even though said kid despises living in Florida with her and has his calendar rather spectacularly marked for when he goes to visit his father in New England for the summer - he refers to it as "home".

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* Dropkick Murphys' song "The State of Massachusetts" is about child services doing this to a woman because of her husband who is "violent, malicious, and distant."
* Montgomery Gentry's "I'll Keep the Kids" has the narrator telling his wife that she can take whatever she wants, including his favorite shirt that he hopes fits old what's-his-name, but that he'll keep the kids.

Another scenario involves relatively little animosity between the two at all- if the husband has gotten embroiled in a crazy UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheory and the wife thinks he is losing his mind, then she can leave while TakingTheKids without any real hard feelings. Sure, the theory that LittleGreenMen are preparing to invade the planet might actually be ''true'', but usually the husband and the audience can understand why the wife is skeptical and worried about the situation and don't hold it against her. In this situation, you can usually expect a happy reunion at the end once all the craziness is over with.

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. Even then the usual outcome is not sole but joint custody.

Closely related is FinancialAbuse, where one(if not ''both'') parties only want the kids for the financial benefits.

Another scenario involves relatively little animosity between the two at all- if the husband has gotten embroiled in a crazy ConspiracyTheory and the wife thinks he is losing his mind, then she can leave while TakingTheKids without any real hard feelings. Sure, the theory that LittleGreenMen are preparing to invade the planet might actually be ''true'', but usually the husband and the audience can understand why the wife is skeptical and worried about the situation and don't hold it against her. In this situation, you can usually expect a happy reunion at the end once all the craziness is over with.

* When Ekaterin walks out on Tien in ''[[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Komarr]]'', she takes Nikki with her, which presents several unfortunate legal complications in the next book. [[spoiler: In spite of Tien being ''dead'', not least because Miles had to go to great lengths to prove he didn't [[MurderTheHypotenuse bump the man off to get a clear shot at Ekaterin]].]]

** However, the case could be made that her behavior isn't entirely justified. She seems more concerned with her own public image than her husband's apparently deteriorating mental state, negatively overreacts to everything as though it's an attack on her, and the children are really just feeding off of her negative emotions. She makes no attempt at helping or even understanding her husband, and simply demands that he stop being "crazy". When it becomes clear that he can't, she again doesn't even think to take him to a doctor, she simply loads their kids into the car and abandons him, even though he isn't causing any physical harm and can't control himself long enough to take stock in the barely justifiable emotional grief he's apparently causing.

* In ''About a Boy'', though the main character's mother is his primary guardian (which she arguably doesn't deserve to be, since she's refusing to seek treatment for mental illness in a way that's fairly damaging for her son), she actually wants to work out a visitation arrangement with Will, Hugh Grant's character, who isn't related to her or her son at all. It's a father/son story where the father still has no involvement with the kid (he appears for three minutes in the film at a Christmas dinner).

* The movie ''My One and Only'', set in the 50s, starts with TheDitz wife catching her rich husband with another woman, so she hits the road with her two sons. The sympathy's initially less with her than with the OnlySaneMan son, though eventually she gets some CharacterDevelopment. The mostly unlikeable husband spends the movie waiting for them to come back because he's quite certain they'll never learn to support themselves, [[spoiler:though when he finds out otherwise, he seems willing enough to let them go before he dies]].
* Micheal Corleone's wife Kay plans to do this in ''Film/TheGodfather Part II''. 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!"

* [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]] did this when Homer bought a gun. She does it again in [[TheMovie the movie]].

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* This happened to Ayu in the ''DeepLove'' adaptation as a child when her parents divorced her mother took her to her new lover and the father never visited her again even though he had shown her nothing but love when he was allowed to see her.

* Somewhat [[GenderFlip gender-flipped]] on ''{{Lost}}'': Susan is able to take Walt from Michael partly because she's the mother and partly because she's the one with the money and the good job.

* A comic for TheFarSide showed an angry female insect telling her husband "I'm leaving you and taking the grubs with me!" Larson was going to have her say "And I'm taking the maggots with me!" but the publisher said that was too gross.

* KevinHart describes in one of hits bits how he couldn't storm out after arguments with his ex-wife because his son would always want to go with him. He talks about how dumb it sounded when he was cursing out his wife while swinging a diaper bag behind him.

* 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.]]

* [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]] did this when Homer bought a gun.
** She does it again in [[TheMovie the movie]].

* When Ekaterin walks out on Tien in ''[[VorkosiganSaga Komarr]]'', she takes Nikki with her, which presents several unfortunate legal complications in the next book.

* Also shown in a subplot of ''American Gangster''.
* Attempted in ''{{Casino}}'', but the wife comes back, given that her husband is in the mob.

* 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.
* Used in ''KramerVsKramer''; the positive angle is on the divorced dad.
* At the beginning of ''Liar Liar'' Jim Carrey's ex-wife is threatening to take their son and go move with her boyfriend in Boston- something which the lying, immature Carrey doesn't take seriously, and the audience sympathizes with her decision. However, by the end of the movie after Jim Carrey has realized just how important his son is to him, he makes a dramatic effort to stop her- and the audience is hoping he succeeds.

* An unusual variation in ''TheMaskOfZorro'': Don Diego's baby Elena is esentially abducted by his arch nemesis Don Rafael, who then raises the girl as his own. He justifies this (in his own mind, at least) by his [[LoveMakesYouEvil unrequited love for Diego's wife]] (apart from this, though, he does at least seem to be a relatively good father to her).

* In ''ThePursuitOfHappyness'', which is based on Chris Gardner's RealLife. Gardner's wife, after an argument, leaves while Gardner is away and takes his son with her. Gardner catches up to them at his son's school the next day, and tells his wife in no uncertain terms never to take his son away from him again, regardless of any problems they might have. The wife, who has her own issues, eventually becomes an AbsentParent. At least in the movie.

* This is part of the storyline of ''TheSantaClause''. Tim Allen's character's wife wants full custody of his son now that she's getting married, which is something neither he nor his son want. Of course, it doesn't help that he's slowly turning into Santa Claus, and his wife thinks he's going crazy, going so far as to arrest him when he goes out with his son on the fateful Christmas sleigh ride. It also doesn't help that her new husband is a shrink (and a bit of an ass).

** A line uttered by Tom Jane, who in ''{{Hung}}'' went on to say "Who do I have to fuck around here to get my kids back?!"
* Happened in an episode of ''CriminalMinds'' where Hotchner took back his decision to transfer to Virginia with his wife and son to a less time consuming job. The episode ends with Hotchner coming home and finding it empty.

* Used in ''TheShield''. At one point, [=Mackey's=] wife leaves with the kids 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.

* ''TwoAndAHalfMen'' has the antagonist ex-wife use this as a threat from time to time in order to drum up zany sitcom conflict so that the main characters try to find some way to appease her.

* Used for drama in ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick''. [[spoiler: Vaarsuvius goes crazy with power and terrifies hir mate. After V leaves to try and singlehandedly defeat the BigBad, hir partner sues for divorce and full custody of their children. With V having undergone an enormous MyGodWhatHaveIDone realization in the meantime, shi does not fight the motion, thinking that it is far better for hir now former partner and their children to be safer away from hir adventuring.]]

* In ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', Roy Neary appears to be going crazy over his obsession with [[FlyingSaucer UFOs]] and creating sculptures of mountains, causing his wife and children severe emotional distress. His wife finally takes the kids and leaves him.

* Your typical LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek involves a woman who is married with kids will usually portray this trope with the father as a villain, and may contain undertones of TheUnfairSex if the writer don't do a good enough job of showing ''why'' the father is a bad person.

* In ''CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', Roy Neary appears to be going crazy over his obsession with [[FlyingSaucer UFOs]] and creating sculptures of mountains, causing his wife and children severe emotional distress. His wife finally takes the kids and leaves him.

For extra drama, you can make one of the two abduct the kids and take them far away from the other. For extra funny, have them argue over who gets the dog instead.