History Main / DontSplitUsUp

** There's a similar policy in the British military. In WorldWarOne and earlier conflicts, the British Army often mustered "mate regiments": all the young men in a single town or CloseKnitCommunity would enlist together, and the army would form a platoon or unit consisting entirely of young men from a single community who had known each other their entire lives. This tradition was stopped following the disastrous Battle of the Somme in World War One, because of the devastating effect on the community back home when such a unit sustained heavy casualties. Men who enlist together (whether brothers or merely friends) are now nearly always assigned to different units.

* In the backstory of ''ChronoCrusade'', [[TheHero Rosette]] constantly dragged her brother, [[IllBoy Joshua]], out to play in the forest near the orphanage where they lived because she was afraid that Father Remington would split them up by taking Joshua to the Magdalene Order and leave her behind. Joshua himself wasn't quite as bothered by the idea of having to split up with Rosette if it meant learning how to control his powers.
* In the backstory to {{Anime/Monster}}, the Lieberts only wanted to adopt Johan, but he insisted that they take his twin sister as well. [[spoiler: [[CompleteMonster They picked the wrong one.]]]]
* In ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'', Mokuba recounts how everyone wanted to adopt Seto since he was a genius, but he refused to go without his brother. Joey and Serenity also attempt this in their backstory, but are unsuccessful.
* The siblings from ''MazeMegaburstSpace'' who takes their desire NOT to be split up to quite a... unique solution

* Seiya and his sister Seika in ''SaintSeiya'', they were separated after Seiya was chosen to train to become a Saint. His main motivation after becoming one was to reunite with his sister who had gone missing afterwards.

* In the "Quantum Quest" story arc of ''CaptainAtom'', it is revealed that Cap's sister didn't want social services to discover that their mother was an abusive, neglectful drunk because she was afraid that if she and Nate were put in foster care, they would be separated. [[PromotionToParent So even though she was only nine years old, she had to take care of both of them]]. [[spoiler:ItGotWorse]].

* The cenobite from ''HellraiserBloodline'' which turned out to be supernaturally conjoined identical twins, how much of it was their choice is arguable.

* Averted in ''DespicableMe'' where the junior novelization says that the three girls "aren't technically sisters but they spend all their time together."

* In the ''AmericanGirl'' Samantha books, when Nellie's parents die, Samantha helps her and her siblings run away from the orphanage and smuggles them into her (Samantha's) attic so that they'll be able to stay together.

* Henri and Clementa Tod in ''TheStoryOfHenriTod''. They were Jewish children in World War II and the resistance told them that they had to be sheltered separately. In this case they ''were'' split up. This gives Henri Tod a DeadLittleSister mentality which drives the plot.

* The sympathetic noble family in TamoraPierce's ''[[TortallUniverse Trickster]]'' books, which are set in a slave country, promise not to do this to any families when they're forced by the royal family to sell off most of their slaves and other property to prove they're not thinking rebellious thoughts.
* In CSLewis's ''TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader'', [[MadeASlave When Lord Bern buys Caspian]], Lucy begs him not to split up the group, but he tells her he can't afford them all.
* in Passage to Zarahemla, after their mother's death, Kerra and Brock are to be separated, as the foster family that will take Brock doesn't have room for 2. so Kerra packs her stuff, brock packs his, and they set off to Utah to find their missing dad's family.
* This kicks off one of the subplots in ''[[UncleTomsCabin Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'', when the slaveowner's wife is forced to sell the child of her maid. The maid, upon catching wind of this plan, promptly takes her baby and flees to Canada.
* One of the reasons Prosper and Bo are on the run from thier aunt in {{The Thief Lord}} is that she only wanted Bo and was planning to send Prosper OffToBoardingSchool.

* One of the ''BabySittersClub'' mystery specials was based around the girls undertaking work experience at a local shopping mall. They eventually discover that mysterious thefts from the mall were committed by three children, who have been secretly living there since their mother went into hospital - they are afraid of being separated by the local authorities.

* This is a concern for ''{{The Boxcar Children}}''. They assume when their parents die that they'll either be split up or adopted by the grandfather their parents hate and they believe is abusive. By the end of the first book, they're all adopted by the grandfather who they find out is actually quite nice.

* This is the basic premise of PartyOfFive, with the oldest of the five siblings becoming their guardian to avoid seeing them split up in foster care.

* In BuffyTheVampireSlayer, one subplot was how Buffy was trying to make sure that Dawn didn't get taken away from her. Also, technically they weren't family, but Willow and Tara kept a robot-Buffy to hide the fact that Buffy had died in order to keep Dawn with them.
* In BirdsOfAFeather Sharon and Tracey find out that they were both adopted, their parents were only going to adopt one child but decided it would be wrong to split up the sisters.
* When the Fantasia split up in [[MaddigansQuest Maddigan's Quest]] episode ''Plague'', Timon and Eden insist on staying behind with their infected baby sister, even when Garland reminds them that by doing so, they're threatening the entirety of their home town.
* The real-world versions of Hansel and Gretel in ''OnceUponATime'' are fighting to stay together after their mother's death. Emma has to find their father and convince him to take them before Regina makes her take the kids to Boston to be put in foster care.

* {{Suikoden IV}}: This plays a critical role in Akaghi and Mizuki's {{Backstory}}: after their clan was conquered, they were going to be sold as slaves. When Mizuki was about to be sold without him, however, Akaghi made a huge scene, attracting Mister Ramada's attention. Ramada went on to buy and employ the pair, earning their gratitude.

* One time Arthur's and DW's parents were arguing and Arthur imagined what would happen if they split up and neither parent wanted to take them - they'd have to live in an orphanage.

* ''LiloAndStitch'', where Social Services threatens to take Lilo away from sister and guardian Nani.

* An episode of AlvinAndTheChipmunks did this with the Chippettes. The girls stayed with the boys and Dave for a few days while a social worker tried to find a foster home for them, and they got along ''horribly'' with the boys. It wasn't until the social worker said that the only option was to split up the girls (since, as she explains, [[ShownTheirWork many people can't afford to take in siblings together and can only adopt one,]]) that they start to get along.
* PoundPuppies 2010: "Quintuplets". A group of pups are determined to stay together and want to be adopted all together. When the Pound Puppies have a tough time trying to find them an owner and discuss splitting up the siblings, the puppies decide to run away from the pound to stay together. In the end Lucky convinces them to return to the pound but works to find an owner for them. [[spoiler:Eventually the puppies end up getting adopted by a family who has a set of quintuplets of their own.]]

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_brothers Sullivan brothers]], during World War II. Unfortunately, there wasn't a happy ending.
** Which is why they now discouarge close relatives from serving together.
** There's a similar policy in the British military. In World War One and earlier conflicts, the British Army often mustered "mate regiments": all the young men in a single town or CloseKnitCommunity would enlist together, and the army would form a platoon or unit consisting entirely of young men from a single community who had known each other their entire lives. This tradition was stopped following the disastrous Battle of the Somme in World War One, because of the devastating effect on the community back home when such a unit sustained heavy casualties. Men who enlist together (whether brothers or merely friends) are now nearly always assigned to different units.

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* The real-world versions of Hansel and Gretal in ''OnceUponATime'' are fighting to stay together after their mother's death. Emma has to find their father and convince him to take them before Regina makes her take the kids to Boston to be put in foster care.

*** There's one memorable case of an Ottoman governor who'd been trained in the palace school after beign taken in ''devshirme'' and his full brother, the Orthodox Christian bishop of a neighboring district. They had pretty good relations.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* In ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'', Mokuba recounts how everyone wanted to adopt Seto since he was a genius, but he refused to go without his brother. Joey and Serenity also attempt this in their backstory, but are unsuccessful.

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* The cenobite from ''HellraiserBloodline'' which turned out to be supernaturally conjoined identical twins, how much of it was their choice is arguable.

* ''NannyMcPhee'' had Christianna nearly taken by their mother's aunt, Lady Adelaide Stitch so as to better provide for her.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In the ''AmericanGirl'' Samantha books, when Nellie's parents die, Samantha helps her and her siblings run away from the orphanage and smuggles them into her (Samantha's) attic so that they'll be able to stay together.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]
* One time Arthur's and DW's parents were arguing and Arthur imagined what would happen if they split up and neither parent wanted to take them - they'd have to live in an orphanage.

[[AC:RealLife]]

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* The cenobite from ''[[{{Hellraiser}} Hellraiser: Bloodlines]]'' which turned out to be supernaturally conjoined identical twins, how much of it was their choice is arguable.

* In the [[M*A*S*H]] episode "Divided We Fall", the unit plays host to a psychiatrist, after Hot Lips and Frank make disparaging reports about the goings on at the 4077th. The psychiatrist is there to see if the unit needs to be broken up. The unit outwardly behaves itself, but no one can resist the temptation to carry on as usual. Just as the psychiatrist is about to recommend the break up, the usual trope of wounded arriving rears its head, and of course, after seeing our heroes in action, the psychiatrist recommends that the craziest thing to do would be to break the unit up. This was the opening episode of M*A*S*H's second season, when it was moved from Sunday night to the middle of CBS's vaunted Saturday night lineup of [[All in the Family]], [[Mary Tyler Moore]], etc, and served as an introduction to the bigger audience of that night.

** Somewhat subverted, as the girls did end up going to live with Miss Miller, Dave's kind neighbor, though the three of them do stay together.

** There's a similar policy in the British military. In World War One and earlier conflicts, the British Army often mustered "mate regiments": all the young men in a single town or close-knit community would enlist together, and the army would form a platoon or unit consisting entirely of young men from a single community who had known each other their entire lives. This tradition was stopped following the disastrous Battle of the Somme in World War One, because of the devastating effect on the community back home when such a unit sustained heavy casualties. Men who enlist together (whether brothers or merely friends) are now nearly always assigned to different units.

* ''OnOurOwn'' is about four children, Mitch, Kate, Travis and Lori. After being abandoned by their father and with the death of their mother they are forced to move into a children's home. Feared they will have to be separated, they escape and run away.

* ''On Our Own'' is about four children, Mitch, Kate, Travis and Lori. After being abandoned by their father and with the death of their mother they are forced to move into a children's home. Feared they will have to be separated, they escape and run away.

* By comparison the Janisary Tax, which was sort of an Ottoman version of [[Series/{{Firefly}} The Academy]], on a massive scale was explicitly designed to do this. The point was to prepare youths from conquered countries as bureaucrats and soldiers and it was felt necessary to separate them from connections.

*** Many families were eager for their children to have the opportunity to run the empire. Others really, really didn't want to give their kids up. But either way, the tax was designed not to tap anyone or anywhere flat, so siblings would not tend to be together.

* [[{{Narnia}} When Lord Bern buys Caspian]], Lucy begs him not to split up the group, but he tells her he can't afford them all.

* There was also a television series called ''OnOurOwn'', in which the eldest brother, not yet of legal age, had to {{crossdress}} and pose as an older relative so that he and his siblings wouldn't be separated.

* ''On Our Own''
* ''TheParentTrap''

* ''NannyMcPhee''

* An episode of AlvinAndTheChipmunks did this with the Chippettes. The girls stayed with the boys and Dave for a few days while a social worker tried to find a foster home for them, and they got along ''horribly'' with the boys. It wasn't until the social worker said that the only option was to split up the girls (since, as she explains, [[ShownTheirWork many people can't afford to take in siblings together, and can only adopt one,]] that they start to get along.
** Somewhat subverted. as the girls did end up going to live with Miss Miller, Dave's kind neighbor, though the three of them do stay together.

* The ''BlackJack'' story ''The Two Jans'' is all about this. This being ''BlackJack'', of course, they happen to be conjoined twins who share not only an entire body, but also most of their ''head''.

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[[redirect:ptitle1h4mg1rz]]

A group of siblings is threatened with separation by a divorce,death, accident or what not. Depending on the show, one can sometimes expect them to go to [[KnightTemplarBigBrother extreme lengths]] to prevent this.

Compare IWillFindYou. This trope is also commonly associated with PromotionToParent. Not to be confused with NeverSplitTheParty.

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!!Examples:

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]
* In the backstory of ''ChronoCrusade'', Rosette constantly dragged Joshua out to play in the forest near the orphanage where they lived because she was afraid that Father Remington would split them up by taking Joshua to the Magdalene Order and leave her behind. When Joshua eventually decided to join them, she became distraught and went to Chrono to try to get him to convince Joshua to stay--which is how she managed to escape being [[TakenForGranite frozen in time]] with the rest of the orphans when Joshua was given Chrono's horns.
* In the backstory to {{Monster}}, the Lieberts only wanted to adopt Johan, but he insisted that they take his twin sister as well. [[spoiler: [[CompleteMonster They picked the wrong one.]]]]
* In {{Yu-Gi-Oh}}, Mokuba recounts how everyone wanted to adopt Seto since he was a genius, but he refused to go without his brother. Joey and Serenity also attempt this in their backstory, but are unsuccessful.
* The siblings from ''MazeMegaburstSpace'' who takes their desire NOT to be split up to quite a... unique solution

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''On Our Own''
* ''TheParentTrap''
* ''{{Firefly}}'' partly. It is also about saving Mei-mei from a PlaceWorseThanDeath.
* ''SavingSarahCain''
* This troper seems to remember that the kids were worried about being split up by adoption in ''BedknobsAndBroomsticks''.
**This troper doesn't know about the book, but in the FilmoftheBook, the children aren't orphans but Blitz evacuees, like [[TheChroniclesofNarnia Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy]]. They kept trying to run away to get BACK to London and presumably their family, ignoring that ThoseWackyNazis were bombing the everliving hell out of the place at the time.
* The cenobite from ''[[{{Hellraiser}} Hellraiser: Bloodlines]]'' which turned out to be supernaturally conjoined identical twins, how much of it was their choice is arguable.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* In the ''AmericanGirl'' Samantha books, when Nellie's parents die, Samantha helps her and her siblings run away from the orphanage and smuggles them into her (Samantha's) attic so that they'll be able to stay together. Or something like that. It's been a long time. Pretty sure the splitting-up thing was a concern, though.
** Yes, yes it was. The evil matron at the orphanage wants to send Nellie out west on the Orphan Train, i.e., sell her into indentured servitude in the middle of nowhere.
*** The problem is solved when [[spoiler:Samantha's aunt and uncle adopt them.]]
* In ''{{Homecoming}}'', the first book of the Tillerman family series by Cynthia Voigt, four kids are abandoned by their mentally ill mother in a parking lot. The oldest girl leads them on foot to a cousin's house in the next state, where they're threatened with the prospect of one of them being put into foster care and another into institutional special ed. They go on for several more states to find their grandmother, who takes them all in.
* Henri and Clementa Tod in ''TheStoryOfHenriTod''. They were Jewish children in World War II and the resistance told them that they had to be sheltered separately. In this case they ''were'' split up. This gives Henri Tod a DeadLittleSister mentality which drives the plot.
* Joan Lowery Nixons ''Orphan Train'' books are about six siblings sent to Missouri by their mother and divided between four families. They all eventually end up in happy families, with only one child going to live with their mother when she moves out west and remarries.
* The sympathetic noble family in TamoraPierce's ''[[TortallUniverse Trickster]]'' books, which are set in a slave country, promise not to do this to any families when they're forced by the royal family to sell off most of their slaves and other property to prove they're not thinking rebellious thoughts.
* [[{{Narnia}} When Lord Bern buys Prince Caspian]], Lucy begs him not to split up the group, but he tells her he can't afford them all.
* in Passage to Zarahemla, after their mother's death, Kerra and Brock are to be separated, as the foster family that will take Brock doesn't have room for 2. so Kerra packs her stuff, brock packs his, and they set off to Utah to find their missing dad's family.
[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* There was also a television series called ''OnOurOwn'', in which the eldest brother, not yet of legal age, had to {{crossdress}} and pose as an older relative so that he and his siblings wouldn't be separated.
* In {{BuffyTheVampireSlayer}}, one subplot was how Buffy was trying to make sure that Dawn didn't get taken away from her. Also, technically they weren't family, but Willow and Tara kept a robot-Buffy to hide the fact that Buffy had died in order to keep Dawn with them.

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]
* One time Arthur's and DW's parents were arguing and Arthur imagined what would happen if they split up and neither parent wanted to take them - they'd have to live in an orphanage.
-->'''Arthur:''' Please, sir, may I have some 'Ore?\\
'''Mr Ratburn (as Mr. Bumble):''' 'ave some 'ore? 'ave some 'ore? (puts a rowboat oar in Arthur's bowl) that's some oar! I'm hysterical! I should get paid more.
** Later quoth Arthur: "We've got to avoid getting sent to an orphanage at all costs. Especially one that's set in the 1800s."
* ''LiloAndStitch'', where Social Services threatens to take Lilo away from sister and guardian Nani.
* An ''{{Animaniacs}}'' episode spoofs this when Wakko eats too many meatballs and Death comes to drag him away.
--> '''Yakko:''' Oh, ''pleeeeaase'' don't separate us, Mr. Death! We love each other! We're a family! A set! Like Civil War chess pieces from the Franklin Mint!
* An episode of AlvinAndTheChipmunks did this with the Chippettes. The girls stayed with the boys and Dave for a few days while a social worker tried to find a foster home for them, and they got along ''horribly'' with the boys. It wasn't until the social worker said that the only option was to split up the girls (since, as she explains, [[ShownTheirWork many people can't afford to take in siblings together, and can only adopt one,]] that they start to get along.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* In his history of Nile exploration, Alan Moorehead says that some Arab slavers in the region would go out of their way to avoid doing this. If so then EvenEvilHasStandards.
** Averted, of course, in American slavery. Families were split up all the time, often deliberately since uprisings became less common if individual slaves cared more about themselves than their fellow slaves. In fact, "'Til death or distance do you part" was common in marriage vows at the time.
* By comparison the Janisary Tax, which was sort of an Ottoman version of [[{{Firefly}} The Academy]], on a massive scale was explicitly designed to do this. The point was to prepare youths from conquered countries as bureaucrats and soldiers and it was felt necessary to separate them from connections.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_brothers Sullivan brothers]], during World War II. Unfortunately, there wasn't a happy ending.
** Which is why there are now regulations ''against'' close relatives serving together.
***No there isn't.There is no regulation or law that keeps close relatives from being in the same unit. It's discouraged but not forbidden.
** There's a similar policy in the British military. In World War One and earlier conflicts, the British Army often mustered "mate regiments": all the young men in a single town or close-knit community would enlist together, and the army would form a platoon or unit consisting entirely of young men from a single community who had known each other their entire lives. This tradition was stopped following the disastrous Battle of the Somme in World War One, because of the devastating effect on the community back home when such a unit sustained heavy casualties. Men who enlist together (whether brothers or merely friends) are now nearly always assigned to different units.
* There is always a risk of this happening when parents are deemed unsuitable and children are sent to foster care.

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<<|{{SiblingTropes}}|>>
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