Basic Trope: A character feels the need to get married and have a baby ASAP.
- Straight:
- Alice reaches her 35th birthday, and starts to worry about her single status and the fact that she has no children.
- Bob reaches his 40th birthday, and is worried about the fact that he has no wife or kids.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is doing this even though she's still in college.
- Alice begins doing this the first day she gets her period.
- Alice is Driven to Madness over this issue and becomes the local Crazy Cat Lady.
- Alice asks Bob about "where this is going", etc. on the first date.
- Every character thinks this way.
- Downplayed:
- Alice occasionally stops by the local playground on her way home from work to watch mothers playing with their children with a slightly wistful look on her face, but never mentions it to anyone and is overall quite satisfied with her life, children or not.
- Alice would prefer to be a "family woman" if possible, but knows she can lead a fulfilling life even without a husband and 2.4 children by her side, so she instead pursues other goals and lets the Powers That Be decide whether she gets to be married and have children. If the marriage and kids happen, great. If not, Alice still has a great life.
- Alice has one child but has always wanted more.
- Justified:
- Alice is living in a world where it's Mate or Die.
- Alice feels that procreation is her duty as a fertile woman.
- Alice lives in a dangerously underpopulated area; therefore, procreation really is her duty.
- Due to the Forever War's massive population reduction, both sides employ the Propaganda Machine to make sure everybody is having as many children as possible to replace the ones who grow up to die in battle. As such, remaining single is treated as unpatriotic.
- Procreation is a requirement of Alice's religion.
- Alice believes that Babies Make Everything Better.
- There is a limited window of time in which a woman can have biological children, and Alice is reaching the tail end of that time period.
- Alice has a family history of early menopause, meaning that Alice's window really is (or could be) smaller than the average woman's.
- Inverted:
- Her parents or others want Alice to have children, but she doesn't want to; she may also be a Child Hater.
- Alice has ten children, and the first thing she feels when she wakes up every day is regret that she got sidetracked being a mother instead of fulfilling her ambitions.
- Subverted: Alice is single and childless at 35, and some people think she has a problem with it but doesn't seem to spend a lot of time worrying about it.
- Double Subverted: But she has six online dating service accounts, all seeking a man who is eager to settle down and raise a family.
- Parodied: Alice has an actual biological clock in her brain, and its ticking is a constant reminder of her situation.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice is a Friend to All Children and spends much time playing with her younger nieces and nephews or the children of her married friends, making it appear that she wishes for a child of her own. When asked, however, Alice insists that she enjoys being able to return the children to their parents and have some time to herself at the end of the day, but secretly does worry about having no children.
- Averted:
- No one thinks this way.
- All the adults in the work have exactly as many children as they want and none of them wants any more.
- Enforced:
- The executives are male and believe that all women think this way.
- The executives know that adding a baby to the cast would increase the work's appeal.
- Lampshaded: "Cut the crap, Bob! My biological clock is ticking, and I want babies, now!"
- Invoked:
- Alice is having a midlife crisis.
- Alice realizes that all of her friends who are close to her in age have at least one child at home.
- Alice's parents tell her that they want grandchildren "before it's too late". While Alice didn't want children before, she suddenly realizes that her biological clock is ticking.
- Exploited:
- Bob is a jerk who can't seem to get a wife no matter what he does but needs one for some reason (Heir Club for Men, Citizenship Marriage, etc.), so he takes out a personal ad for a woman between the ages of 30 and 35, knowing that Alice is desperate to have children and would accept any man as her husband by this point.
- Alice's friends Charles and Diane have unprotected sex. Diane gets pregnant, but doesn't believe in abortion. Alice agrees to take their unwanted baby off their hands and raise it as her own.
- Defied:
- Alice decides to focus on other goals.
- Alice gets sterilized to keep herself from getting distracted from her other goals. After all, the clock can't tick if you take its batteries out! If she decides later on that she wants children, her only option is adoption.
- Alice adopts a child.
- Alice receives a sperm donation.
- Alice arranges to raise a niece or nephew.
- Discussed: "Now that I'm thirty, maybe we should start thinking about having kids? I won't be young forever!"
- Conversed: "Isn't it funny how women in TV shows always want kids? You'd think human women went through Pon Farr after they hit thirty!"
- Implied:
- Alice is a Friend to All Children and often babysits for her married friends, but it's never stated whether this is because she wants a baby of her own or just because she knows her friends need some time off and she happens to be good with kids.
- Alice aggressively pursues dates with Bob, Charles, and Daren, but it's never stated whether this is because she's desperate for a husband and father to her future children, or if she's a nymphomaniac, or if she's simply a woman with an assertive personality who doesn't mind being the chaser instead of the chased.
- Deconstructed: Alice is so obsessed with marriage and babies that it makes her look desperate (which does tend to put men off).
- Reconstructed: Luckily for Alice, Bob is a desperate man (possibly for the same reason) seeking an equally desperate woman.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice hears ticking in her head, and thinks it's her "biological clock". Bob points out that "biological clock" is just an expression.
- Alice will take any man — literally, any man — just so she can have kids. She even comes up with elaborate schemes to trick guys into getting her pregnant.
- Played for Drama: Alice is an intelligent and powerful businesswoman, but all her parents care about is getting grandchildren, and favor her less accomplished sister Betty simply because of her many kids. Alice feels pressure to get married and pregnant simply to make her parents happy.
- Played for Horror: Alice's lifespan is connected to her "biological clock". If she never becomes pregnant, she'll die a gruesome death, something like what she's seen happen to Betty and Carol.
It's no good... I'm running out time and I have always needed tropes, quick Troper! Let's go and find My Biological Clock Is Ticking!
