History Main / DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou

** Cyclops himself is eventually forced to abandon his baby son Nathan in a dystopian future in order to save his life, where he grows up to be ComicBook/{{Cable}}.

* In ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'', Daddy had an excellent reason for abandoning Harry -- he was Thor, incarnated as a mortal, whose violent death and grief had driven him stark raving mad, and Odin had to block off his memories to ensure that he stayed sane and Britain ([[PhysicalGod and possibly the world]]) remained in one piece. As soon as he remembers, however, he comes in like the cavalry. It's also later implied that Odin chose to keep him with the Dursleys, since Harry, being in line to the throne of Asgard, would be prime target material for any number of malevolent beings.
** Wanda had an excellent reason for abandoning Harry [[spoiler:and her daughter, Hermione]]. She was Doctor Strange's apprentice and her RoguesGallery was stuffed chock full of one kind of EldritchAbomination or another, while simultaneously having made enemies of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy in particular, both of whom were still on the loose when Harry's parents were murdered, and one of whom commanded unparalleled political influence. As for [[spoiler: her daughter]], the situation was even worse. It was about two years before, the good guys were losing and Voldemort was at the height of his power. Plus, [[spoiler: Hermione's]] father happens to be John Constantine, who is a) not exactly prime father material, b) totally untrustworthy (and had recently proved it), c) public enemy number one for just about every hell dimension in existence. And in both cases, one has to take into account her father's enemies... Also, Doctor Strange said so and people tend to do as Strange says, if only because not doing it tends to make you wish that you had (not because of anything he does, but because the consequences of not doing it tend to be pretty horrible). None of the above stops her being wracked with guilt, or Harry for being - initially - extremely displeased but mellows out fairly quickly. [[spoiler: Hermione]], by contrast, does not take it at all well.

** Viciously subverted in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' and ''Film/TheLastJedi'': [[spoiler:Rey, in a state of denial, convinced herself that her parents were special people who had good reasons for abandoning her and planned to come back. Nothing could be further from the truth; her parents were a pair of selfish junkies who sold her for drinking money and ended up dead in a ditch somewhere on Jakku. They had no justification for their actions and didn’t care in the slightest about finding her again.]] [[DoubleSubversion However]], ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' reveals [[spoiler:that they absolutely had a good reason to abandon her. Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter through her father, and her parents sold her off to protect her shortly before being killed by Palpatine's assassins.]]

** [[spoiler: Reiner Braun's father was absent from his life due to Marley's [[MixedAncestry anti-miscegenation]] laws. His mother claims this is the only thing preventing the family from being together, but this proven to be a complete lie. Just before beginning his mission, Reiner went to meet his father and was promptly rejected by the ''terrified'' man. He claimed Karina was a WomanScorned, so bent on revenge that she'd use her own son to expose their crime.]]

** Wanda had an excellent reason for abandoning Harry [[spoiler:and her daughter, Hermione]]. She was Doctor Strange's apprentice and her RoguesGallery was stuffed chock full of one kind of EldritchAbomination or another, while simultaneously having made enemies of Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy in particular, both of whom were still on the loose when Harry's parents were murdered, and one of whom commanded unparalleled political influence. As for [[spoiler: her daughter]], the situation was even worse. It was about two years before, the good guys were losing and Voldemort was at the height of his power. Plus, [[spoiler: Hermione's]] father happens to be John Constantine, who is a) not exactly prime father material, b) totally untrustworthy (and had recently proved it), c) public enemy number one for just about every hell dimension in existence. And in both cases, one has to take into account her father's enemies... Also, Doctor Strange said so and people tend to do as Strange says, if only because not doing it tends to make you wish that you had (not because of anything he does, but because the consequences of not doing it tend to be pretty horrible). None of the above stops her being wracked with guilt, or Harry for being - initially - extremely displeased (though he mellows out). [[spoiler: Hermione]], by contrast, is entirely ignorant of the truth.

** Also, the reason why Princess Ursa is Zuko and Azula's MissingMom? [[spoiler:She killed her father-in-law, Fire Lord Azulon, to protect young Zuko.]] Or so we think. It is probably what happened, but ones who reveal this information are Azula and Ozai, who are... not the most trustworthy of people.
*** Supposedly, Ursa was meant to come back sometime during the series finale, but the Avatar team didn't want to have to waste a perfectly good plot by squeezing her in. This is probably the [[FanficFuel biggest unresolved plot thread]].
*** ''[[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch The Search]]'' revealed that [[spoiler:she elected to erase her memory of them instead of dedicating her life to watching them grow up from afar. That's one screwed up family.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'': Gender-swapped. As in the [[Literature/TheBookOfExodus original myth]], Yocheved puts her infant son in a basket to float down the Nile to safety, as a [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod mass murder of all male Hebrew babies]] is happening. She's clearly heartbroken to do so.

* ''WesternAnimation/AladdinAndTheKingOfThieves'': Aladdin's DisappearedDad Cassim shows up and explains that he left to find an ancient treasure and secure a fortune for his wife and son. His refusal to come back empty handed meant he kept searching and stealing for years, and by the time he did come back he could not find his loved ones and was too deep in the criminal underworld to easily back out.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', Miguel's family forbids him from playing music and tries to squash his dreams of becoming a musician because his great-grandmother, Mamá Coco, was abandoned by her father, [[spoiler:Héctor,]] a musician/songwriter who found fame while on tour and never came back. [[TheReveal It turns out that]] [[spoiler:on the night Héctor decided to quit show business and go back to raise his family, his best friend and stage partner, Ernesto de la Cruz, poisoned his tequila shot, stole Héctor's music book, and became famous by singing the songs Héctor composed.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime: The Great Longneck Migration'': Littlefoot's father Bron. He tried to look for a new home for his wife and unhatched son, but when he returned, the earth shake had come and his wife had died, and Littlefoot was nowhere to be found. After several days of searching with no success, Bron came across other abandoned young longnecks. So he raised them as his own. And soon more longnecks joined Bron, making him the leader of the longneck herd.
* {{Discussed}} in ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons''--when former DoorstopBaby [[ChildProdigy Lewis]] is rejected by the 100+ adoptive parents, he bitterly complains that even his birth mother didn't want him. [[ParentalSubstitute Mildred]] is quick to point out that that might not be true; she probably did want him but couldn't raise him for some reason. [[GoneHorriblyRight Unfortunately]], this just makes Lewis obsessed with tracking the birth mother down, since he's now convinced that she's the ''only'' one who ever wanted him.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'': Gender-swapped. As in the biblical myth, baby Moses' mother puts him in a basket to float down the Nile to safety, as a [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod mass murder of all Hebrew babies]] is happening. She's clearly heartbroken to do so.

** Also, the reason why Princess Ursa is Zuko and Azula's MissingMom? [[spoiler:She killed her father-in-law to protect young Zuko.]] Or so we think. It is probably what happened, but ones who reveal this information are Azula and Ozai, who are... not the most trustworthy of people.
** Supposedly Ursa was meant to come back sometime during the series finale, but the Avatar team didn't want to have to waste a perfectly good plot by squeezing her in. This is probably the [[FanficFuel biggest unresolved plot thread]].
*** The Search revealed that [[spoiler:she elected to erase her memory of them instead of dedicating her life to watching them grow up from afar. That's one screwed up family.]]

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'', where we have [[spoiler:Della Duck, who decided to take a joyride in an experimental spacecraft shortly before her eggs were due to hatch. The end result was her getting stuck on the moon for a decade and presumed dead by her entire family, with the incident causing Donald and Uncle Scrooge to become estranged for most of that time. When she finally returns in Season 2, everyone is overjoyed, but some of them still call her out on her reckless and immature actions. Scrooge is frustrated that she hadn't seemed to learn much from the harrowing experience when they go on a new adventure, Louie refuses to acknowledge Della as his mother until the end of the season, and the first thing Donald does when he finally sees her in the season finale is scream at her for being a moron.]]

* in ''Webcomic/{{Selkie}}'', Amanda's biological parents, [[spoiler: Todd and Andi]] had different reasons. The former was told that she was stillborn, and the latter was convinced by her mother to give Amanda up for adoption, as the couple were just teenagers at the time and thus not ready for the responsibility of raising a child. Suffice to say, [[spoiler: Andi learning that [[https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie600/ Amanda had been abused]] [[https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie601/ by her foster family]] went... [[ItsAllMyFault poorly]].]]

* ''Manga/{{Oyaji}}'' used the only way his harsh life taught him in order to defend himself and his family, pure violence, to get back the yakuza that tried to burn his home down with him and his family inside. Killing the entire syndicate’s office managed to keep the thugs away, but it also got Oyaji a steep prison sentence, separating him from his dear family, and even when Oyaji got out many years later he tried to keep himself away, reasoning that his existence alone was a violence magnet, so to him being around his family was just putting them in danger. Oayji only goes back to his wife and kids when [[spoiler:he realizes he is going to die soon, so he will try to be the best father and husband he can before the time is up]].

* [[SoapOpera Soaps]] are rife with this. Knowing that viewers aren't interested in seeing their characters parenting children, writers either keep them off-screen, [[SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome rapidly age them]], or invent reasons to send them out of town to live with relatives -- a classic scenario is the kid being shipped off to boarding school or to living with a character's ex-spouse. Occasionally, RealityEnsues -- the teenaged or grown-up child returns to town with complex and often conflicted feelings about the absentee parent.

** After 5 years of wondering where his father ran off to, Eren finally learns the reason Grisha abandoned him: [[spoiler:he was DeadAllAlong. Knowing that he had run out of [[YourDaysAreNumbered time]], Grisha turned Eren into a mindless Titan and allowed himself to be EatenAlive in order to pass the Attacker Titan and the Founding Titan on to his son]].

* Used in season three of ''Series/GossipGirl'' when [[spoiler:Chuck Bass' supposedly dead]] mother shows up. Serena desperately wants to believe that her reason for leaving would play into this trope, since that would make Serena feel less horrid about having been abandoned by her own father. [[spoiler:Chuck's maybe-mama]] crushes Serena's hopes and fantasies however by simply explaining "I didn't want to have a kid and I never regretted giving my child up."

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' has Jecht, who spends most of the game a distant and apparently horribly abusive father to Tidus, who's reasonably pissed off that his father abandoned him and his mother. Turns out that [[spoiler: Jecht was swept to another world and [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed]] himself for the hope of peace]]. Since Tidus is, at the time, in a similar situation...
** [[spoiler: They reconciled (sort of) and Tidus {{Mercy Kill}}ed him because he was in a FateWorseThanDeath.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChroniclesEchoesOfTime'' has an unusual case, in that they actually DIDN'T have a good reason, as far as we know. However it's pointed out multiple times that, had you not been abandoned, it would certainly mean TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyLegendII'' opens with a scene where your father is last seen leaving through your bedroom window. Throughout the game, you wind up bumping into him repeatedly, finding out he's trying to save the universe just like you are. (And you try to convince him to come home more often.)

** Usopp's father abandoned him and his mother and never returned. However, Ussop never resented his father for this, since he was chasing his dreams, which was something Usopp admired.

* in ''Webcomic/{{Selkie}}'', Amanda's biological parents, [[spoiler: Todd and Andi]] had different reasons. The former was told that she was stillborn, and the latter was convinced by her mother to give her up for adoption, as the couple were just teenagers at the time and thus not ready for the responsibility of raising a child. Suffice to say, [[spoiler: Andi learning that [[https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie600/ Amanda had been abused]] [[https://selkiecomic.com/comic/selkie601/ by her foster family]] went... [[ItsAllMyFault poorly]].]]

** Played with in Rollins' backstory. She feels that her father was justified in leaving because her mother "rode his ass, nagging him until he had to leave", but Murphy suggests that maybe her father (who was TheGamblingAddict) was the problematic one and her mother was just trying to get him to clean up his act (although it's later revealed that Rollins' mother has her own issues).