I Miss Mom - Television Tropes & Idioms

"There are plenty of kids who miss their mothers; that's the world we live in."

— Rufus Shinra, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Distinct from Missing Mom or other Parental Abandonment tropes in that the parent of the character in question was an active force in their life, for good or bad, but is now permanently gone. Character Death, or maybe just certifiably dead from the beginning.

The character in question states to another character, who may be a rival, love interest, sibling, or another parent about how badly they miss their other parent. Expect Ocular Gushers or Manly Tears and a reply of "I miss her too". May be a Freudian Excuse, or something slightly more poignant. Examples with "I miss dad" are harder to come by for some reason.

Examples:

Advertising

One advert for Norwich Union life insurance featured a man (played by Paul Whitehouse) chatting to the camera while his family ignores him as they run around the house doing some last-minute packing for their holidays. The daughter stops just as they're about to go out the door to the taxi:
"Mum...It won't be the same without Dad."

Anime and Manga

In Ranma 1/2 Nabiki of all people pulls this on Ranma to try and get him to confess his curse to his mother (basically emotionally blackmailing him by saying at least he has a mother while her and her sisters no longer do). It's possible she may even mean it as she takes a lot longer to get to the Extortion than usual.
Little Al says this in a flashback after their mother dies in Fullmetal Alchemist.
Shiro from Mazinger Z is a ten-years-old kid lost his parents when he was barely a baby. He miss them -and his older brother Kouji in Great Mazinger-, but he mainly and badly misses his mother. How badly? The tile of an episode is "Shiro misses his mother" (at least in the Latin dubbing). In that episode, a woman came to the Institute claiming she was Kouji and Shiro's mother and wants to get reunited with their children again. Kouji was -rightfully- suspicious, but Shiro was too glad and happy for questioning anything.
Appears in Neon Genesis Evangelion, where pretty much everyone -but Ritsuko- misses their mothers.
- While avoiding the exact phrase, the series includes a scene of Shinji and Gendo visiting Yui's grave that kind of carries the feel of this trope. Rather then the standard "I miss her too" sentiment though, Gendo instead discusses how he was fortunate to have what time he did with her and how important it is to rise above the loss, which Shinji finds rather inspiring.
  - Then again, the ultimate goal of the masterplan that Gendo is scheming throughout the series, is using an apocalyptic event to reunite his soul with Yui.
- The irony is that while Shinji and Asuka miss their moms, really though, they've never been closer to them.
In Monster, Eva's frail chance at happiness with one of the only men who treats her well is foiled by the man's daughter, who misses mommy. When said mother comes back home from her adulterous ways, his daughter's happiness erases Eva out of the equation completely.
A rare example where someone says this about both parents is seen in episode 25 of Tiger & Bunny ; Barnaby (whose parents were murdered when he was four) visits their grave and ends up in tears, saying "I miss you...Mum, Dad! I wish...I could've spent more time with the two of you."
Clannad After Story: "What was Mom like?"

Film

In the Star Wars prequels, Anakin Skywalker's descent to the dark side began with this.
Sleepless In Seattle had a helping of this.
The first Spider-Man film has Peter Parker telling Aunt May how much he misses Uncle Ben after his graduation.
Signs has Abigail Breslin and Mel Gibson sharing this moment.
A bit of a darker version here; Bambi 2 had Bambi yell "I wish Mother were here instead of you!" after he finds out that his father was going to give him to another doe because he didn't know how to take care of him.
In Alaska, the protagonist angrily tells his father that he wishes he had died instead of the mom. Of course, the father then goes missing after his plane crashes, invoking a guilt trip.
Invoked in Trick 'r Treat, when Stephen (a Serial Killer, which creates a few rather eerie implications) complains to himself about his son's whining.
Daddy, I wish Mommy was still alive.
Played rather sweetly in Shadowlands, when C.S. Lewis (played by Anthony Hopkins) is mourning the death of his wife, and sees his stepson, Douglas, crying about this. Lewis breaks down and joins him ("I miss her too"), in the first moment of real bonding between the two of them in the film.
A major thread throughout Super 8 is the kid protagonist trying to reconnect with his father after the death of the mother. The problem is that whenever the kid tries to initiate this kind of moment, the dad, in his determination to be strong, becomes emotionally distant. There's also something about an alien in the movie, too.

Literature

In Diane Duane's Young Wizards series after Nita and Dairine's mother dies of cancer.
This is Pretty much the plot for Mitch Albom's "For One More Day"
in Pillage, Beck states this to the reader on more than one occasion, following it quickly with explanations that he misses the mom he might have had.
In The Stand, Harold says something like this to Fran. She doesn't know how to react.
"I miss Dad" is common in A Brother's Price, as in the culture of that book, men are rare and protected and seen as the primary caregivers, and both POV characters have dead fathers.

Live-Action TV

Carla says this in Scrubs after the death of her mother.
Example of an "I miss Dad" from Smallville after Jonathon Kent dies of a heart attack. Lex Luthor and Lana Lang both play it straight though.
Used in Full House.
Turns up in Buffy where Dawn tries to solve this problem by raising the dead. Never a pitfall free solution to this problem.
- Climaxes in a real Tear Jerker scene when Buffy confronts Dawn over her use of dark magic. Dawn accuses Buffy of not even missing her, prompting Buffy to break down in tears, revealing that she was just trying to stay strong for Dawn's sake. Dawn is so moved and Buffy is so distraught after opening the floodgates to her grief that they end up switching positions on the resurrection spell, with Buffy rushing to greet "mom" at the door and Dawn deciding to undo the spell at the last second and let their mother rest in peace.
- In "Afterlife" the Scoobies are hitting the books for info on the Monster of the Week when Buffy (who isn't even pretending to help) says out of the blue, "I miss Giles". The Scoobies naturally assume their research skills aren't up to scratch, being unwilling or unable to see just how depressed Buffy is over being brought back from the dead.
Supernatural.
Frasier, when he starts dating a woman who looks like his mother. After most of the episodes' Oedipus jokes, Marty points out, quite poignantly "Maybe you just miss your mom. I know I do."

Theater

The death of Mary's alcoholic mother in the finale/epilogue of Vanities: The Musical.

Video Games

In EarthBound, "Homesickness" is a Standard Status Effect which exclusively affects Ness at random. To get rid of it, you actually have to call your mother on the telephone. Or "use" a newly-hatched chick; it's not clear what this entails, but it removes the baby bird from the character's inventory.
Chapter 6 of MOTHER 3 is primarily centered around Lucas missing his deceased mother.
Guild Wars: "Mother told me we see people again after we die. I miss her."
The subplot of Super Mario Galaxy Especially Chapter 7...

Web Animation

Teen Girl Squad: "I miss video games." "I miss my mom."
- Though in this case it seems that she's alive and well; the guy is just on vacation.

Webcomics

In Gunnerkrigg Court, this is the cause of the first crack in Antimony's stoic facade.
xkcd turns a Your Mom joke into a Tear Jerker.
As of Act 5 of Homestuck, John started missing his dad and got quite annoyed when things got in the way of finding him; the one time they almost met up on the Battlefield was cut short by Vriska waking him up. Needless to say, he did not take finding his dad dead at Jack Noir's hand well.

Web Original

In Worm, the two worst days of Taylor Hebert's life were the day her mother died and the day she had her Traumatic Superpower Awakening. Even a simple reminder of her mother's death is still like a punch in the gut two and a half years after the fact.

Western Animation

Comes up in Avatar The Last Airbender a few times, what with all the war-orphans. One particular Tear Jerker in the episode "The Runaway" has Sokka confessing that as much as he misses her, he can't even remember his mother's face anymore. When he thinks of her, all he can picture is Katara, his younger sister who took over mothering him when their mom was killed. Toph also finally admits that she misses her parents (though they are still alive) and feels bad about making them worry all this time.
One South Park episode featured a fake, live-action commercial a fictional product based on the episode. The family in the commercial happily enjoys the product until the little girl randomly says "I wish Dad was still alive," momentarily causing the cheery music to falter and the mom's smile to fade.

RealLife