History Main / MaternallyChallenged

* ''Literature/JuniperSawfeather'': June's mom is MarriedToTheJob as an environmental lawyer. She had no experience with kids before June was born and didn't really know what to do with her, so June's dad did most of the childcare. Now that June is in her late teens, she can connect with her mom better than she ever could before.

* Despite her rough background, post-Eclipse Casca from ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' actually (and surprisingly) averts this trope, as she is seen to take care of the mysterious moonchild [[spoiler:(implied to be her own child)]] very well. Her lover, Guts, [[RaisedByDudes on the other hand...]]

* When Arika of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' appears in [[spoiler:her son Negi's LotusEaterMachine, she's completely awkward around her son, unaware of how to properly interact with him. It's unknown if the real Arika would've reacted this way, since she never appears in the present time of the series]].

* ''Literature/JuniperSawfeather'': June's mom is MarriedToTheJob as an environmental lawyer. She had no experience with kids before June was born and didn't really know what to do with her, so June's dad did most of the childcare. Now that June is in her late teens, she can connect with her mom better than she ever could before.

* Rosa, from ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'', will always be [[MemeticMutation BEST MOM EVER]], including [[spoiler:making her own kid [[SelfMadeOrphan willing to kill her horribly]]]] in one arc, though that's implied to be AllJustADream.

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'': Raiden Ei created Scaramouche as a puppet body and holder for the Electro Gnosis. However, [[spoiler:when she saw him crying in his sleep, this made her believe that he was unfit to use the Gnosis. But rather than dispose of him or control him, she decided to let him go so that he could forge his own path. Unfortunately, while Ei’s intentions were good, Scaramouche saw this as abandonment and betrayal, which would serve as the first stepping stone for him to walk down a path of darkness, and eventually joining the Fatui to steal the Electro Gnosis]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Cynthia Frady from the original ''WebVideo/MaddisonAtkins''.
[[/folder]]

* Creator/DianeKeaton's character in the 1987 film ''Film/{{Baby Boom|1987}}''.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The series revolves around the [[MagicalGirlWarrior Crystal Gems]] raising the teenage son of their former leader. Although they [[ParentsAsPeople usually]] do a good job, "Steven's Birthday" has him revert to a baby, and his father Greg has to take over because they have no idea how to take care of him. This is pretty {{Justified|Trope}}, since they're [[NoBiologicalSex asexual]] aliens who are all BornAsAnAdult. Their inability to understand babies (and ''especially'' Steven given he's a hybrid) is best shown in a flashback episode where they visited a baby Steven to bring him presents. Their gifts were a razor blade (He'll need it in the future), adult diapers (expecting him to shape-shift into them), and a dictionary (so he can learn how to talk).

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13249131/1/Croft-and-Son Croft and Son]]'', it's heavily implied that Lara is struggling with this, as she's stumbled more than once in how to raise Nero, and self-deprecating about how little she knows about him in comparison to Sam.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'': At one point during the running shootout between the Mando and his allies against Moff Gideon's Stormtroopers in the season 1 finale, [[ActionGirl Cara Dune]] is forced to carry the Child so IG-11 [[spoiler:can tend to the grievously wounded Mando]]. Cara anxiously retorts that she "doesn't do the baby thing" when the droid places the infant in her arms. Ramping up the absurdity of the exchange is that IG-11, who had been caring for the Child throughout the episode up until then, is an ''[[KillerRobot assassin droid]]'' reprogrammed as a nurse.

* Christina on ''Series/PrisonBreak'' lampshades this and seems quite resentful about it--much more so about Lincoln [[spoiler: who was adopted]] than about Michael.

** [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?id=63 Syphile, who is completely unqualified, is forced to care for Ariel since the latter was an infant]]. Syphile ends up calling her out on this, telling Quain'tania just how poisonous of a mother she is, right before Quain' ''[[spoiler: kills her]]''

** In a meta example, the author has mentioned in the past that he doesn't want kids...[[https://somethingpositive.net/comic/time/ until January 2018]].

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' has an example of a mother who was separated from her children from before they hatched (as they are ducks) to when they are about ten and struggles to figure out how to parent from a combination of inexperience, her own personality being more 'one of the kids' than anything, and some sanity damage from being gone for so long. That being said, [[spoiler: Della Duck]] is hard at work trying to figure it all out, and everyone around her is willing to help and give her some slack while she learns the ropes a decade in.

* Subverted as far as we can tell in her ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' with Cheshire. Unlike her comic counterpart, she does genuinely care for her daughter and goes to confront the father to help get him up to code about it. Played a bit more straight in Season 3, where it is revealed that at some point during the three-year time skip she left her family to return to the assassin life, having ultimately been unable to adapt to living in a normal family with Will and Lian and believing that her daughter would be better off without her.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': The series revolves around the [[MagicalGirlWarrior Crystal Gems]] raising the teenage son of their former leader. Although they [[ParentsAsPeople usually]] do a good job, "Steven's Birthday" has him revert to a baby, and his father Greg has to take over because they have no idea how to take care of him. This is pretty {{Justified}}, since they're [[NoBiologicalSex asexual]] aliens who are all BornAsAnAdult. Their inability to understand babies (and ''especially'' Steven given he's a hybrid) is best shown in a flashback episode where they visited a baby Steven to bring him presents. Their gifts were a razor blade (He'll need it in the future), adult diapers (expecting him to shape-shift into them), and a dictionary (so he can learn how to talk).

* [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask Given her background]] and [[TheOphelia her current state]], post-Eclipse Casca from ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' actually (and surprisingly) averts this trope, as she is seen to take care of the mysterious moonchild [[spoiler:(implied to be her own child)]] very well. Her lover, Guts, [[RaisedByDudes on the other hand...]]

This is a not-so-rare subversion of women-as-maternal which occurs when a [[AlwaysFemale female character]], usually a [[HighPoweredCareerWoman successful career gal]], is revealed to know little or nothing about taking care of a baby. This will almost always be revealed by a plot in which she is [[ChildrenRaiseYou forced to take care of a baby]], [[StatusQuoIsGod temporarily]] if it's in a {{series}}. If it's not in a series, the Maternally Challenged will probably be adopting the baby permanently. Often, other characters will just ''assume'' she knows what to do since she's a woman. But she doesn't, and HilarityEnsues.

* Subverted in the ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/23658952/chapters/56791102 Lemon Cakes and Late Confessions]]'': Katarina is an infamous scatterbrain, so her friends and family are worried when she gets pregnant. They think she likes the idea of a child but doesn't understand what would actually be required to take care of one. They're very surprised when she proves fully capable of handling the child on her own, even correcting the way her husband holds their newborn. In her [[MediaTransmigration past life]], Katarina worked at a daycare, so she has far more experience than anyone expected.

** One episode featuring Dani Beck, she develops a bond with a little girl who had been abused by her foster parents and takes her back to her apartment as a temporary living arrangement at the request of the girl. Unfortunately, this doesn't end as well as many of the other examples of this trope when the girl in question thanks Beck for her hospitality by ''attempting to torch Detective Beck's apartment so that they would be eternally together after they die in the resulting fire.'' Beck transfers out of the SVU the next morning, never to return.
** Olivia becomes the legal guardian of a young boy whose drug-addict mother abused him and was declared to be an unfit mother. This example goes much better than the Beck example as the boy Calvin is very appreciative of Olivia's efforts despite the fact she has admitted a few times throughout the series that she wouldn't make a good mother due to a number of reasons, the most frequently cited one being her job (hours, stress, etc.). The arc still ends in a bittersweet way, with Calvin sent to live with his paternal grandparents. The final scene of the episode consists of Calvin repeatedly screaming Olivia's name as he's dragged away, with Olivia standing there, visibly upset and unable to do anything (the birth mother got an order against her). However, the next season at least revealed Olivia and Calvin were still allowed to keep in touch.

Compare to RaisedByDudes, which is a rough male equivalent. Subtrope of ParentsAsPeople. Frequently paired with CareerVersusFamily. This trope is for women who are well-intentioned but simply clueless as parents; for mothers who are ''actively malevolent'' towards their offspring, see EvilMatriarch, and for mothers who are just nasty in general, see OneBadMother.

This is TruthInTelevision. Humans are one of the few mammal species who do not instinctively know how to care for their offspring. Partly because it's a lot more complicated for us, what with the time they take to grow, but mostly because we are social animals that learn child care from our elders instead of having instinctive reactions. The former has the advantage of more flexible behavior that can quickly adapt to new situations while the latter does, of course, not require any parent or social group and no learning effort, which saves the animal time and resources.

Compare to RaisedByDudes, which is a rough male equivalent. Subtrope of ParentsAsPeople. Frequently paired with CareerVersusFamily.

* [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask Given her background]] and [[TheOphelia her current state]], post-Eclipse Casca from ''{{Manga/Berserk}}'' actually averts this trope, as she is seen to take care of the mysterious moonchild [[spoiler:implied to be her own child]] very well. Her lover, Guts, [[RaisedByDudes on the other hand...]]

* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi Sharp'' - how the hell would a kid know how to take care of a newborn (thankfully, the parents did help out a bit with this starting out)? Momoko went through some of the same trouble in ''Motto'', and moreso because the other girls were now pretty experienced at this.
* In the ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' episode "Hello, Baby", none of the girls in the Masaki household has a clue how to look after a baby - until Washu decides to take charge. [[spoiler:Namely because she's done this before.]]
* Subverted in ''Manga/VinlandSaga'' when Thorfinn hands a screaming baby to the girl of the group and tells her to feed it. She can't, not because of this trope, but because she's not pregnant/recently pregnant and therefore isn't producing milk (which comes as news to the rest of the all-male group).

* PlayedForDrama in ''ComicBook/{{Persepolis}}'': the narrator/lead character Marjane mentions how in a time of crisis, her neighbour handed her her baby and ran off, and since then she has always been very sceptical towards the concept of 'maternal instinct'.
* This is subverted with Cheshire from ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' and ''ComicBook/SecretSix''. There have been moments where she's seen as somewhat loving and nurturing towards her daughter Lian, but it's blatantly implied that Jade has no actual love for either of her children beyond simply using them to keep their dads under her control when the situation calls for it. So it's more that she knows when to ''pretend'' to not be maternally challenged. It's probably better to say that Cheshire's maternal feelings are DependingOnTheWriter -- some making Lian her MoralityPet, others consider her too evil to have any sort of loving relationship.

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13249131/1/Croft-and-Son Croft and Son]]'', it's heavily implied Lara is struggling with this, as she's stumbled more than once in how to raise Nero, and self-deprecating about how little she knows about him in comparison to Sam.
* In ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11536013/11/Hyperemesis-gravidarum Hyperemesis Gravidarum,]]'' Miss Alice Band freely states she has the maternal instincts of a concussed housefly. However, confronted with several pregnant colleagues...

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' women are not expected to care for babies, so Captain Tern's attitude (she left home because her baby sisters annoyed her so much) is considered unremarkable. Balin Brindle's lack of competence around small children, however, is considered highly unusual, and a reason to ''not'' marry him.

* Mentioned in the ''{{Anime/Robotech}}'' ExpandedUniverse novelizations. One of the chapter quotes mentions that Max Sterling had taken over the familial and maternal roles since his wife was from a race of ArtificialHumans with no concept of childbirth or childcare. When a visitor asked if she could hold the baby, Miriya threw him at her. The latter actually happens in ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross''[=/=]''Anime/{{Robotech}}'', where Miriya cheerfully lobs her newborn daughter to Misa[=/=]Lisa - while Max looks on, smiling.

* Unsurprisingly, the title character of ''Series/{{Bones}}'' is discovered to be Maternally Challenged in the episode "The Baby in the Bough". She got better at it by the end of the episode.

* Rosa, from ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' will always be [[MemeticMutation BEST MOM EVER]], including [[spoiler:making her own kid willing to kill her horribly]] in one arc, though that's implied to be AllJustADream.

** Olivia becomes the legal guardian of a young boy whose drug-addict mother abused him and was declared to be an unfit mother. This example goes much better than the Beck example as the boy Calvin is very appreciative of Olivia's efforts despite the fact she has admitted a few times throughout the series that she wouldn't make a good mother due to a number of reasons, the most frequently cited one being her job (hours, stress, etc.). The arc still ends in a bittersweet way, with Calvin being forcibly taken back to his birth mother. The final scene of the episode consists of Calvin repeatedly screaming Olivia's name as he's dragged away, with Olivia standing there, visibly upset and unable to do anything (the birth mother got an order against her).
** Amanda expresses concern that she will be this while in labor with Jesse, though it's fueled a lot the stress of her complicated delivery. Carisi assures her everything will be okay and there isn't anything she can't handle. Amanda is only truly portrayed as being this trope when Jesse is a newborn, and she is understandably overwhelmed and exhausted; [[FriendToAllChildren Carisi]] beings his transition into being ParentalSubstitute when he shows Amanda a few tricks to get the baby to stop crying. However, this trope weighs heavily on Amanda's mind, since she's trying [[BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting not to repeat patterns]] from her own childhood, and is hyper-aware she's already repeated a few that are the root cause of her issues with intimacy and self-esteem. In "Must Be Held Accountable," she engages in some EpiphanyTherapy with a fellow cop who has taken her hostage, expressing her fear that her daughters will grow up "feeling like they don't deserve to be happy," just as Amanda did watching her mother chase men who treated her poorly (an issue Amanda also struggles with, at least until season 22).

* Diane Keaton's character in the 1987 film ''Film/BabyBoom''.

* Raiden Ei, from ''VideoGame/GenshinImpact'' is ''infamous'' for [[spoiler:abandoning Scaramouche - her only creation and 'son' - because she deemed him imperfect as a puppet body and holder for her Gnosis. Poor Scara wasn't even given the chance to bond with his mother, psychologically traumatizing him and emotionally scarring his psyche over the perceived 'betrayal'. Giving Scaramouche the ''literal'' mother of all mommy issues.]]

** Amanda expresses concern that she will be this while in labor with Jesse, though it's fueled a lot the stress of her complicated delivery. Carisi assures her everything will be okay and there isn't anything she can't handle. Amanda is only truly portrayed as being this trope when Jesse is a newborn, and she is understandably overwhelmed and exhausted; [[FriendToAllChildren Carisi]] beings his transition into being ParentalSubstitute when he shows Amanda a few tricks to get the baby to stop crying. However, this trope weighs heavily on Amanda's mind, since she's trying [[BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting not to repeat patterns]] from her own childhood, and is hyper-aware she's already repeated a few that are the root cause of her issues with intimacy and self-esteem. In "Must Be Held Accountable," she engages in some EpiphanyTherapy with a fellow cop who has taken her hostage, expressing her fear that her daughters will grow up "feeling like they don't deserve to be happy" because Amanda doesn't, and that is reflected in the guys she dates, just as her mother did.

** Amanda expresses concern that she will be this while in labor with Jesse, though it's fueled a lot the stress of her complicated delivery. Carisi assures her everything will be okay and there isn't anything she can't handle. Amanda is only truly portrayed as being this trope when Jesse is a newborn, and she is understandably overwhelmed and exhausted; [[FriendToAllChildren Carisi]] beings his transition into being ParentalSubstitute when he shows Amanda a few tricks to get the baby to stop crying. However, this trope weighs heavily on Amanda's mind, since she's trying [[BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting not to repeat patterns]] from her own childhood, and is hyper-aware she's already repeated a few that are the root cause of her issues with intimacy and self-esteem. In "Must Be Held Accountable," she engages in some EpiphanyTherapy with a fellow cop who has taken her hostage, expressing her fear that her daughters will grow up "feeling like they don't deserve to be happy."

** Amanda expresses concern that she will be this while in labor with Jesse, though it's fueled a lot the stress of her complicated delivery. Carisi assures her everything will be okay and there isn't anything she can't handle. Amanda is rarely portrayed as being this trope, though Carisi begins his path to ParentalSubstitute when he sees that Amanda is overwhelmed and exhausted and shows her how to soothe newborn Jesse when she cries. And as Jesse (and later Billie) get older, this trope weighs heavily on Amanda's mind, as she wishes to BreakTheCycleOfBadParenting but is aware she's already repeated a few patterns from her own childhood that are the root cause of some of her issues.