Tropes About "Normal" Adoptive Parents.

I'm during a deconstruction of chnageling fantasies, so does anyone know of common tropes surrounding normal people who raise adoptive "special" children that really need to be averted?

Abusive Parents? Usually the normal parents (not biological parents) raising the child in a Changeling Fantasy aren't nice to the child, and the child would always think that his 'real' parents are always better. Try switching places; the normal parents are the nicer and better parents instead of the 'real' parents.

Ok, so this one's a little cliche. But think about it.

edited 26th May '11 11:13:18 PM by MrHollowRabbit

I don't know if it's a trope, but adopting a 'different' child tends to be disaterous for the adoptive parents' town/race/culture.

Happily Adopted might be a place to start from, in terms of "reverse" tropes.

Tell that to Ma and a Kent.

Also ever noticed that even when the parents are nice, they're always dull? In these stories there's never a middle ground between magical and utterly boring.

When they aren't abusive, the Muggle parents are usually completely ignorant of their childrens' true nature.

Make the parents aware of it, and accept it as part of their child. Just like raising any child with special needs.

edited 27th May '11 7:41:09 AM by CrystalGlacia

The clarification of "adopted" being used (read: They aren't the "real" children/parents). The idea that the biological parent's will be anything but dead/worthless sluts.

Must you phrase it like that?

Also I understand that having the biological parents be great heroes is way overdone but why do the real parents have to be terrible people? Why can't they be just regular people who..I dunno got in a car crash?

Also you can always make the adoptive parents interesting characters without giving them powers. Make up their pasts, give them quirks, insecurities and the like. Muggles can still be interesting.

edited 27th May '11 11:46:44 AM by JewelyJ

Hence the "dead" before that?

My mother put up a kid for adoption before she started going out with my Dad. If said kid (who would be 25 now) tracked down her birth mother, she'd find a highly-educated lawyer married to a computer programmer and raising two children. The birth parents were probably badly off when they gave the kid up, but that's no guarantee they'll stay that way.

That's pretty cool and sounds realistic.

How come "normal" parents who are aware of their kid's specialness never tell the kids?

Probably because they want their kid to feel normal. I dunno.