Line #70 Main/StandInParents


1	This trope is common in sitcoms and animation.
2
3	There's a father/child or mother/child event coming up, and the kid is either embarrassed of how lame their parent is, or knows their parent is not capable of doing the event and will lose it for them -- ''again'' -- if they come. Or they're afraid if their parent comes to the event, the kid will get in some sort of trouble.
4
5	So they find someone else to [[ASimplePlan pretend to be their mom or dad.]]
6
7	The gambit usually fails, and the outcomes tend to fall into three predictable categories:
8
9	* The parent finds out, is hurt that their child thinks so little of them.
10	* The parent finds out and makes a disastrous attempt to be what their child wants, and that brings them closer because the parent cared enough to try for their child's sake.
11	* The parent never finds out (or not until after the fact).
12
13	AnAesop about being honest and loving someone just the way they are is usually intended.
14
15	The other main variations are:
16
17	* when the character is not really a child but pretending to be one for whatever reason;
18	* the character looks like a child but is ReallySevenHundredYearsOld;
19	* the character is an orphan;
20
21	...in which case they need stand-ins for parents who don't or may have never existed.
22
23	Related to PaidForFamily.
24
25	----
26	!!Examples
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28	[[foldercontrol]]
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30	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
31	* In the second ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' [[RadioDrama Sound Stage]], Fate's surrogate mother figure Linith asks her biological mother Precia (who generally treats Fate like trash) to act as a real mom to Fate for just one dinner. Yeah, Fate had a crappy childhood.
32	* Miu does this once in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple''. When she applied to the high school, she gave false data about her parents (including the lie about them being still alive), because she wanted to present herself as a girl with a normal family. This backfires on her when the representatives of her school come to Ryouzanpaku to check up on her. HilarityEnsues when she eventually chooses the jerky (although [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold good-hearted]]) Sakaki and the LadyOfWar Shigure with NoSocialSkills to pose as her parents.
33	[[/folder]]
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35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* In ''Comicbook/BillyBatsonAndTheMagicOfShazam,'' orphaned Billy can pretend to be his ''own'' father due to having an OlderAlterEgo. He uses this to rent an apartment for him and ComicBook/{{Mary\|Marvel}}, and then to attend a parent-teacher conference (where, of course, [[ButHeSoundsHandsome he praises Billy]] while warning what a troublemaker Mary can be).
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
40	* In ''Film/Angel1984'', Miss Andrews arrives at Molly's apartment building to do a welfare check on her and speak with her mother. Mae knows that Molly is a MinorLivingAlone and that her mother is an InventedIndividual, so while Miss Andrews is arguing with the landlady Solly, Mae uses a spare key to let herself into Molly's apartment. When Miss Andrews arrives, Mae claims to be Molly's mother. As Mae is a very masculine looking transvestite, Miss Andrews is not fooled for a moment.
41	* Dodo from ''Film/HeartOfDragon'', an autistic {{manchild}}, was roped into playing a "father" for one of his friends (all whom are elementary-school kids) during a parent-teacher conference. Being a mentally-ill adult, Dodo's antics during the meeting results in a massive case of HilarityEnsues, and by the end of the day the kid Dodo's supposed to stand-in as a parent for ends up in ''even more trouble''.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Literature]]
45	* In ''[[Literature/DifferentSeasons Apt Pupil]]'', by Creator/StephenKing, Dussander attends a parent/teacher conference at Todd's school, impersonating his grandfather, so they can manage to keep Todd's parents from finding out that his grades are in free-fall. The teacher falls for it at the time, but later decides that something's fishy when he realizes that for the entire conference, Dussander referred to Todd as "the boy" instead of by name.
46	* In Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/JinxHigh'', the villain [[spoiler:who {{Body Surf}}s to her daughter each generation]] appears to be under 18, and has an artificial construct that masquerades as her aunt/guardian while her mother is in a mental hospital [[spoiler:with the personality of the daughter just evicted from her original body in Mom's body]].
47	* In Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy, [[AgentMulder Neric's]] parents were Berry addicts living in squalor (as close as Kindar society allows it) and died from their addiction shortly before Neric was Chosen. The priesthood dutifully appointed stand ins to play the role, which only embittered Neric further.
48	[[/folder]]
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50	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
51	* In the ''Series/ThirtyRock'' episode "The Moms", the mothers of the ''TGS'' cast and writers are invited to be featured on the [[ShowWithinAShow show]] for the Mother's Day episode. Pete finds out that the show's star Tracy has no clue about his mother's whereabouts, so casts a professional actor to pretend to be his mother for the episode.
52	* One ''[[Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir Fresh Prince]]'' episode had Will pretending to be Ashley's father for a parent-teacher conference and he ends up attracted to the said female teacher. After the conference ends and he begins flirting with her, she seemingly is reciprocating his advances [[BaitAndSwitch only to realize that his mustache is fake by ripping it off]] and deciding to get to the bottom of the situation by calling Ashley's ''real'' parents.
53	* In ''Series/GhostWhisperer'' One episode features children pretending to be their own mother after she had died, for fear of social services splitting them up on finding out they had no parent or guardian.
54	* ''Series/GoodLuckCharlie'' Gabe cons PJ and Teddy into standing in as his parents for a parent-teacher conference so their real parents don't find out.
55	* Kenan once felt the need to hire stand-ins for a conference with his school principal on an episode of ''Series/KenanAndKel'', not wanting to tell his parents that they were called in by the school to meet the principal and knowing that the principal had no idea what his parents looked like. He settles on a [[ShakespearianActors classically trained actor]] and a total [[TheDitz ditz]] who says she's seen a lot of movies and thinks she can wing it. Unfortunately, TheDitz ruins everything by not remembering the name of the person she's supposed to pretend to be and inviting the school principal to their home for a family dinner, which the principal accepts, requiring Kenan to get his ''real'' parents to leave the house for a night so he can stage a dinner with his mock parents. HilarityEnsues. The ''real'' kicker, however, was that the reason for the meeting with the principal was to discuss how ''great'' Kenan's grades and schoolwork was.
56	* In the ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' episode "I, Ava" features a more serious and rather unique twist on the trope. In the episode, the Legends find out that Ava, the director of the Time Bureau and Sara's ex-lover, is actually a custom made clone from the year 2213, who was recruited by Rip and given false memories to hide her real origin. Rip even hired two actors to pretend to be her parents in order to uphold Ava's fake background story; something that even Ava herself was unaware of. When visiting said parents, it doesn't take long for Sara to see through the lie.
57	* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': Reece finds some incriminating letters on his neighbour's old laptop. He uses this to blackmail the neighbour into doing his bidding. His last act is to get the neighbour to pose as Hal at a meeting with the principal. After this, the neighbour now has material to use against Reece, and he is certain that Reece is more scared of Lois than he is of his wife.
58	* On ''Series/{{Psych}}'', Shawn gets his uncle Jack to stand in for his dad at school. Shawn's dad finds out and is irritated rather than hurt. Especially since Jack really ''is'' cooler than he is.
59	* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'': In one episode, Mr. Belding wanted to have a conference with Zack's father, as his mother proves to be far more forgiving of his misdeeds. To keep his workaholic dad from finding out about, Zack gets a waiter friend at the Max to pretend to be his father instead. (Since that guy was an out-of-work actor he decided to ham it up.) His dad actually finds out about the conference, so Zack's waiter friend pulls double duty as a stand-in for Belding. The gambit naturally fails when -- despite Zack's best efforts -- Belding and Zack's dad run into each other at a school function.
60	* The short-lived show ''Series/SonsOfTucson'' is based on this. Three brothers hire a fake dad to keep up appearances after their real father is put in prison.
61	* On ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'', Raven posed as her own mother at a parent-teacher conference to prevent her mother from finding out how bad her grades were. When her mother (inevitably) found out, she was both angry that Raven had lied to her and offended because of the insulting fat suit Raven had used for the disguise.
62	[[/folder]]
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64	[[folder:Manhua]]
65	* The sci-fi / drama manhua ''Manhua/MyBelovedMother'' have the protagonist Sinbell asking for his neighbor, Aunt Slado, to attend a parent-teacher meeting in his mother's stead. Though it isn't because his results are mediocre (on the contrary - Sinbell's grades are ''highest in class'') but it's because Sinbell doesn't want his adoptive mother, a ''robot'', to appear in class due to FantasticRacism and prejudice towards children RaisedByRobots.
66	[[/folder]]
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68	[[folder:Western Animation]]
69	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': Cindy Vortex has an aunt stand in for her mother at Retroville's parent/child sporting day.
70	* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender,'' Aang gets in trouble while attending a Fire Nation school, and the teacher wants to see his parents. This will be hard, since a.) Aang was raised by monks, and b.) ''EVERYONE'' in the Air Nomads except him has been dead [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld for a hundred years]]. Sokka and Katara stand in as "Wang and Sapphire Fire," with him wearing a ridiculous-looking fake beard and her doing a PillowPregnancy.
71	* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'' once used his ghost powers to overshadow his Dad for a school function.
72	* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory''
73	** Dexter uses MadScience to make [=Dee Dee=] impersonate his mother for a parent-teacher meeting.
74	** At another time, he tries to create his vision of a "perfect father" because he doesn't want to bring his dad in for Parents Day.
75	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'', Tiffany hires a model to act as her mother in a mother/daughter beauty contest (though, since we never see her parents, it's unclear why). She simply asks for the prettiest model that the agency had, which results in an African-America "mom" with an Asian "daughter."
76	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' episode "Doug and the Weird Kids" has him getting to know twin classmates Al and Moo Sleech for an assignment and when he requests to meet their father, they instead have Moo dress up as their father, much to Doug's frustration [[PaperThinDisguise who wasn't fooled in the slightest]]. It appears that the boys are ashamed of their father (and proceed to freak out when he comes home in the middle of Doug's visit), but turns out their father is a simple NiceGuy baker who himself is flabbergasted at having two geniuses for sons.
77	* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'': In "Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!", a number of guests at Doofus's birthday party fake being guardian and child to get at his money-- in particular, Louie brings Goldie O'Gilt, having her pose as his aunt. Things go wild when Doofus decides to claim her for his own, to fill in for his deceased "Gemeemama".
78	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''
79	** Timmy Turner uses a wish to try out his friends' dads for a scouting event because his own dad was too busy.
80	** He also has Cosmo and Wanda stand in as his parents for a parent-teacher conference, and {{hilarity ensues}}.
81	* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'':
82	** Zim has robots to stand in as his parents, and despite them horribly malfunctioning, nobody notices.
83	** [[DarkActionGirl Tak]] brainwashes a local business tycoon into believing that she's his daughter, then keeps him in a tube whenever he's not needed.
84	-->"I only let him out when I need to keep up appearances. Kind of like Zim's robot parents--only good."
85	* ''WesternAnimation/KickButtowski'': Kick goes around the neighbourhood trying to find someone to act as his dad for "bring your father to school" day. His father finds out and is hurt that Kick asked Wade to pretend to be him. He then shows up and tries to be cool, with unfortunate results. They end up meeting each other halfway.
86	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has a variant involving siblings with the two episodes revolving around the Sisterhooves Social:
87	** [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E5SisterhoovesSocial "Sisterhooves Social"]]: Sweetie Belle was angry at Rarity at the time while thinking Applejack was a CoolBigSis and manages to persuade Apple Bloom to let her "borrow" her for the Social for One. Day.
88	** [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS5E18BrotherhoovesSocial "Brotherhooves Social"]]: Applejack is called away on a friendship mission to Manehattan at the worst possible time, so Apple Bloom asks her brother Big Macintosh to pretend to be cousin Orchard Blossom to fill in. [[spoiler:This was before they realize the organizers have a really loose definition of "sister" and wouldn't have cared about a stallion participating.]] We also see Rainbow Dash act as a surrogate big sister for Scootaloo in the episode despite not being related.
89	* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' [[PlayingWithATrope plays with the trope]]. Mr. Fletcher after stumbling into Perry's lair and getting [[LaserGuidedAmnesia mindwiped]], is replaced by Agent P operating a robot duplicate of him for Candace's father/daughter picnic and competition.
90	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' Spinelli hires a biker couple to pretend to be her parents because of how incredibly dorky and humiliating her real parents are. This backfires on her when the couple decides to blow her cover by taking her money by force in front of everyone.
91	* The ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "Fusion Cuisine" has this trope occur twice. In the first instance, Connie's mother calls when she is over at Steven's house and insists on speaking to Steven's mother. Steven having a MissingMom makes this not possible, but Connie is so worried that her parents will forbid her from hanging out with Steven if he doesn't have a traditional nuclear family that they ask [[TheStoic Garnet]] to pose as his mother over the phone. This leads to arguably one of Garnet's funniest moments in the series:
92	--> '''Garnet:''' Hello. This... is Mom Universe. Yes. The children are playing swords. Sorry— playing with swords. They're bleeding. Oh no, they are dead. Don't call again. (''Hangs up the phone and returns it to Steven'') Sorry, I panicked.
93	** Later, Connie's parents invite Steven's father and "mother" out to dinner, and Steven is unsure about which of the Gems would best pull off the mom role for the occasion. Instead, he decides to TakeAThirdOption and has Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl fuse into Alexandrite for the dinner so all three can technically attend.
94	* ''WesternAnimation/TeachersPet'' had Leonard and Spot try to impersonate the mom. Leonard's problem was that his teacher ''was'' his mom, and Spot (who was under the guise of Scott Leadready II) had none.
95	* Early on in ''WesternAnimation/ThreeBelow'', Señor Uhl demands a meeting with Aja and Krel's parents, which proves problematic due to the fact that their parents are currently regenerating their bodies in healing pods. They solve the problem by programming two robots to take on the forms of humans...from fifty years ago.
96	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / StandInParents