History Main / IsThatCuteKidYours

* {{Inverted}} in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. When Goku's friends see Gohan the first time, they think Goku is babysitting someone else's child. They're left completely shock to learn that the cute little boy is Goku's son.

* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', Pearl tags along with Phoenix and Maya, but whenever Maya is not present, some of the [=NPCs=] believe Pearl is Phoenix's daughter. On the other hand, it works entirely backwards in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' with Trucy, who says Phoenix is her father despite her being in her early teens and Phoenix having no children seven years before. It takes a while till we realize she's adopted.

** FridgeBrilliance: In a world where the average marriage age seems to be about 16, its a bit easier to accept that the school might not find Katara and Sokka's youth too unbelievable. Now, the fact that both of Aang's 'parents' seem to have a significantly darker skin tone then him on the other hand...
*** Maybe they thought he was adopted? [[WarIsHell There are a lot of orphans on this show...]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Meg gets mistaken for her brother Stewie's mother, and then goes along with it to get a job and tips.
** And then Promptly gets Stewie taken away by Child Services when she fabricates hardships to increase her tips.
** Stewie initially protests being used this way but changes his mind after the diner's fry cook gives him some pancakes. Stewie develops a bit of an addiction for them.
* MonstersInc had an unusual example. Waternoose finds Boo and asks if she is Sully and Mike's. They both say no, hiding her with the fact that she's Sully's "cousin's sister's daughter," instead.

** In ''Empire of Ivory'' when he, {{Temeraire}}, several uniformed crewmen, and a twelve-year-old girl attended an Aerial Corps fundraiser. His father Lord Allendale, after the latter cheerfully admitted to Laurence and Temeraire personally tutoring her; cornered his son and quietly made diffident, embarrassed, and evasive inquiries as to the health of the young girl's mother. To deny the unspoken accusation would have made Laurence look even worse, he could not reveal her [[TheSquadette true status]] in public, and his attempt at a bare bones[=/=]true-as-far-as-it-went explanation ("She is the natural daughter of... a gentlewoman living in Dover, whose education I have taken as my charge") did ''nothing'' to allay suspicion[[note]]said [[TheLadette "gentlewoman"]], who he had in fact been sleeping with occasionally since they met four years prior, laughed herself sick when she heard about the mixup[[/note]].

* Lucy from SeventhHeaven took the twins out for a stroll and was mistaken for their mother, which opened her eyes to the plight of single mothers.

* In the fourth volume of ''KimiWaPetto'' (''Tramps Like Us'' in English), Sumire and Momo are taking care of six year old genius for a few days and people in the park comment on cute those young parents are.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. Pearl tags along with Phoenix and Maya, but whenever Maya is not present, some of the [=NPCs=] believe Pearl is Phoenix's daughter. On the other hand, it works entirely backwards in ''Apollo Justice'' with Trucy, who says Phoenix is her father despite her being in her early teens and Phoenix having no children seven years before. It takes a while till we realize she's adopted.

* In ''Manga/GakuenAlice'', Sakura Mikan asks the elementary-school-age Hyuuga Natsume if the 3-year-old Hijiri Youichi is his. Then again, Mikan's a little [[TheDitz dumb]].

* In ''ElfQuest: Siege at Blue Mountain'', Cutter pays a visit to the human couple Nonna and Adar and assumes that the three children living with them are theirs even though they are too old. His misunderstanding is due to the elves' low birth rate, and their general ignorance of human gestation periods and growth rates.

* ''Anime/SoukouNoStrain'' has an interesting twist, although it looks the same as other examples of the trope. For one, the apparent 16-year-olds are technically much older due to a TechnoBabble-explained paradox with sub-lightspeed travel. For another, the apparent little girl is ReallySevenHundredYearsOld.

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In ''LoveHina'', Otohime Mutsumi asks if Narusegawa Mei (about 10 or 12 years old) is Narusegawa Naru's (17) and Urashima Keitaro's (20) child. Of course, Mutsumi acts rather dim much of the time.

** Also played with in R ''before'' Chibi-Usa showed up. They were taking care of a baby boy: Minako said called the kid "their child" in good tease spirits, but An/Natsumi was peeved. Also, Chibi-Chibi was sometimes mistaken as Usagi's little sister (and introduced as such, sorta. Ikuko says so).

* ''RanmaOneHalf'' has a unique variation where Ryoga (16) is [[FountainOfYouth turned into a five-year-old]] and mistaken to be ''his own son''. Then again, they might have not jumped to that conclusion if Ranma didn't introduce him as such just to mess with him.

* In ''GakuenAlice'', Sakura Mikan asks the elementary-school-age Hyuuga Natsume if the 3-year-old Hijiri Youichi is his. Then again, Mikan's a little [[TheDitz dumb]].
* ''SoukouNoStrain'' has an interesting twist, although it looks the same as other examples of the trope. For one, the apparent 16-year-olds are technically much older due to a TechnoBabble-explained paradox with sub-lightspeed travel. For another, the apparent little girl is ReallySevenHundredYearsOld.

* Parodied in ''SayonaraZetsubouSensei'', the girls mistake Itoshiki's nephew for his son and proceed to accuse him of children neglect.

* In ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' during the HotSpringsEpisode, Kiyal asks Yoko (who she just saw a couple weeks ago, and who is 14 years old) whether Darry and Gimmy (who are about five to seven) are her kids. Cue SpitTake.

* Used a bit more seriously in ''BunnyDrop,'' with the nearly-thirty Daikichi and six year-old Rin. A slight subversion in that Rin is biologically Daikichi's ''aunt.''

* In the ''YamiNoMatsuei'' manga, [[TheHero Tsuzuki]] meets [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Doctor]] [[BigBad Muraki]] in a MeetCute version, when Tsuzuki catches a fainting little girl and Muraki treats her and asks if she's his daughter. Of course, as it's [[StalkerWithACrush Mur]][[MagnificentBastard aki]], it's a deliberately InvokedTrope.
* In ''HoneyAndClover'', a ryokan receptionist asks Professor Hanamoto if the gang are here for a family reunion and if Hagu is the Prof's middle school age daughter (She isn't).

* One of the epilogue side-stories to ''VictorianRomanceEmma'' shows that Grace Jones is occasionally mistaken for Colin or Vivian's mother. She does not take it well.

* In ''Manga/{{Yotsuba}}'', when Yotsuba succeeds in delivering milk to Fuuka, someone thinks she's Fuuka's child. For clarification, Fuuka is 16 (hence why she gave her "15 years old" shirt to Yotsuba for recycling), and Yotsuba is 5 (and even if they don't know that, she's clearly able to converse somewhat), so while it wouldn't be ''impossible'', it's kind of improbable.

* In ''{{Berserk}}'', Casca finds a mysterious boy on the beach and the group brings him back to their lodging. While there, antics ensue which ends with the child being simultaneously held by Casca and Guts. The others in the group remark how family-like the three of them look before Guts and Casca split apart (at this point of the story, Casca was very fearful to be around Guts which made the display all the more surprising). [[spoiler: However, it's widely insinuated that the child in question ''is'' Guts and Casca's biological child that was lost due to miscarriage two years prior, brought back by supernaturally-induced events.]]

* In ''FamilyGuy'', Meg gets mistaken for her brother Stewie's mother, and then goes along with it to get a job and tips.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'', Lee gets this in regards to the girl he's protecting, Clementine, a lot. It helps that he's a 30-something black man and she's a 10-year old AmbiguouslyBrown girl.

* Possibly a variation: In ''KyouKaraMaou'' a young girl shows up claiming to be Yuuri's daughter, and his [[AccidentalMarriage fiance]] [[{{Tsundere}} Wolfram]] flips out, thinking that Yuuri has "cheated" on him...without considering the fact that Yuuri is ''15'', and the girl is about 8.

* Ironically, numerous people in ''SailorMoon'' comment on Chibi-Usa (8, or 900+), depending on source) being Mamoru's (17-19) and Usagi's (14-16) child. The irony being she ''is'' their child... but [[KidFromTheFuture not yet]].

* DCNation: Troia was asked several times if Lian was "hers." Because of her Truth Sense, she would have to answer "no," but Lian would cheerfully answer "Yup!" Part because Lian cannot stand her super-villainess mother, and part because Donna's been "Mom...in all the ways that count!" They met half-way; Donna is now Lian's ''stepmother.''

* In ''Manga/Yotsuba'', when Yotsuba succeeds in delivering milk to Fuuka, someone thinks she's Fuuka's child. For clarification, Fuuka is 16 (hence why she gave her "15 years old" shirt to Yotsuba for recycling), and Yotsuba is 5 (and even if they don't know that, she's clearly able to converse somewhat), so while it wouldn't be ''impossible'', it's kind of improbable.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''PhoenixWright''. Pearl tags along with Phoenix and Maya, but whenever Maya is not present, some of the [=NPCs=] believe Pearl is Phoenix's daughter. On the other hand, it works entirely backwards in Apollo Justice with Trucy, who says [[spoiler:Phoenix is her father despite her being in her early teens and Phoenix having no children seven years before. It takes a while till we realize she's adopted.]]

* [[ButtMonkey William Laurence]] gets subjected to an age-appropriate variant when he, {{Temeraire}}, several uniformed crewmen, and a twelve-year-old girl attended an Aerial Corps fundraiser. His father Lord Allendale, after the latter cheerfully admitted to Laurence and Temeraire personally tutoring her; cornered his son and quietly made diffident, embarrassed, and evasive inquiries as to the health of the young girl's mother. To deny the unspoken accusation would have made Laurence look even worse, he could not reveal her [[TheSquadette true status]] in public, and his attempt at a bare bones[=/=]true-as-far-as-it-went explanation ("She is the natural daughter of... a gentlewoman living in Dover, whose education I have taken as my charge") did ''nothing'' to allay suspicion[[note]]said [[TheLadette "gentlewoman"]], who he had in fact been sleeping with occasionally since they met four years prior, laughed herself sick when she heard about the mixup[[/note]].