History Main / RemarryingForYourKids

* 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.

* 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.

* UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln's mother died of milk sickness when he was nine. A short time later his father went off for a week and brought home a WidowWoman specifically to be the new mother to his children. The new Mrs. Lincoln already had three children of her own, so the replacement went both directions.

->''"Aunt Polly, you know what it's been like since Martha died. […] Truth is, my kids have been running bloody rings around me. Running barefoot with the dogs until all hours. […] What the kids need is a mother. So that's why I'm getting married."''

[[AC:Anime and Manga]]
* Hiromi Nakata of ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfJewelerRichard'' remarried so her son Seigi would have a father that ''wasn't'' an abusive asshole.

[[AC:Fan Works]]
* 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 not as heterosexual as they thought.

[[AC:Film -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/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.)
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cinderella}}'': Cinderella's father is said to have remarried because he felt his daughter needed a mother's care. Unfortunately, [[WickedStepmother it doesn't work out the way he hoped.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/DavidCopperfield1993'' features this. Clara's own words were that [[BigBad Mr.]] [[AbusiveParents Murdstone]] was [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter "Just the man to give David a proper upbringing."]] It's at least implied that she wised up because she made a new will leaving everything to David rather than her husband two days before she died from [[IncurableCoughOfDeath her illness.]]The implication is driven home by David early on when he frustratedly states "Mother doesn't love Him. She thinks I need a Father. THAT'S why she married him."
* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet''. Jim's lack of father is given an explicit explanation, but Mrs. Dawkins never enters another relationship.
* ''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.

[[AC:Film -- Live-Action]]
* 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.
* In Disney's ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', Robert has an extended relationship with Nancy but ends 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.
* 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 live in a 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.

[[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.

[[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 children's book, ''Sarah, Plain and Tall,'' Kansas farmer Jacob Whitting sends away for a MailOrderBride a few years after his wife dies because he needs help raising his children, Anna (age 10) and Caleb (age 6).

[[AC:LiveActionTelevision]]
* Used in ''Series/{{Glee}}''. Kurt originally [[ShipperOnDeck tried to pair up his dad and Finn's mom]] so he would have an excuse to spend more time with Finn. They eventually married, quite appropriate, considering they had both been widowed.
* ''Series/PeakyBlinders'': John Shelby cites his kids as the main reason he needs to remarry.
-->'''John:''' All right? Because, ''I'' need someone. All right, ''the kids'' need someone.

* In ''Series/{{Poldark}}'': When explaining to Ross why she has decided to marry his ArchEnemy George, Elizabeth uses this as one of the reasons. George is rich and can financially provide for her son, Geoffrey Charles.
--> '''Elizabeth:''' What seems like disloyalty to you now, is actually ''loyalty'' to my ''son''.

[[AC:StandUpComedy]]

'''Jeff:''' ''({{beat}})'' You're teasing, right?\\

'''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?]]

[[AC: {{Theatre}}]]
* In the 1912 stage play of ''Literature/SnowWhite'' (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:{{Webcomics}}]]
* ''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 [[spoiler:accepts that his family is irretrievably broken]].

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:RealLife]]

-->Thomas Lincoln: "I have no wife and you no husband. I came a-purpose to marry you. I knowed you from a gal and you knowed me from a boy. I've no time to lose: and if you're willin' let it be done straight off."
* 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.

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, and MarryTheNanny, which a single parent might do ''because'' the employee already has a good relationship with the kids.
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* In ''WesternAnimation/RocketPower'', the [[MissingMom Missing Mom's]] disappearance was eventually explained, saying that 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 who also happened to have been very close friends with their mom when she was still alive.