History Main / MotherhoodIsSuperior

-->''"Oh, Sean. You're the best father. But you're not a mother."'
--->''Literature/HandleWithCare''

* This quote from anthropologist Margaret Mead: "Fathers aren't biological necessities, but social accidents."
* Belief in this trope was on of the reasons that for decades, custody after divorce was defaulted to the mother rather than the father, and even today courts will regularly default to ruling in the mother's favor. Partly as a result of fathers not even asking for custody, stemming from the belief.

Compare DisappearedDad, WhenYouComingHomeDad, RaisedByDudes, AllAbusersAreMale, WellDoneSonGuy, MyBiologicalClockIsTicking, MadonnaArchetype, and NotWantingKidsIsWeird. Contrast ThePatriarch, HouseHusband, PapaWolf, StandardFiftiesFather, MaternallyChallenged, MyBelovedSmother, and EvilMatriarch. Compare and Contrast AbusiveParents, GoodParents, ParentsAsPeople, and WickedStepmother.

** This is also largely the case in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', which also has children tied to the mothers (with the exception of [[TheHero Chrom]] and the [[PlayerCharacter Male Avatar]]). ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' inverts this, where the children are tied to their fathers (again, with the exception of Azura and the [[PlayerCharacter Female Avatar]]). Both games do make a point of giving the children [[RelationshipValues supports]] with the parent they aren't tied to, however. ''Awakening'' lampshades it in Laurent's first support with his father: his father asks if Laurent inherited ''anything'' from him, and after some thought, Laurent answers, "My hair color?" (As it happens, child character's hair colors ''are'' determined by who their father is.)

* Defied in VideoGame/SilentHill. Harry Mason is a NonActionGuy forced to go ToHellAndBack to [[PapaWolf save his adoptive daughter]], while slowly uncovering just how shitty a mother Dahlia Gillespie is. It's notable that the film adaptation felt the need to gender flip Harry, the director believing that that kind of drive would be more believable on a mother.
** The other games in the series swing back and forth with this. Some of the most tragic characters have been broken by their abusive fathers like delusional fanatic Claudia and BrokenBird Angela while a lot of the mothers in the series are just as horrible, like Margaret Holloway. Due to the minimalistic and isolating nature of the stories, many characters are only shown interacting with one parent, if even that, so for most, it is simply not clear. Some of the few that had both parents were damaged by both, like Alex and the above-mentioned Angela.

* Defied in VideoGame/SilentHill. Harry Mason is a NonActionGuy forced to go ToHellAndBack to [PapaWolf save his adoptive daughter], while slowly uncovering just how shitty a mother Dahlia Gillespie is. It's notable that the film adaptation felt the need to gender flip Harry, believing that his drive would be more believable for a father.

* Defied in ''VideoGame/SilentHill1". Harry Mason is a NonActionGuy forced to go ToHellAndBack to [PapaWolf save his adoptive daughter], while slowly uncovering just how shitty a mother Dahlia Gillespie is. It's notable that the film adaptation felt the need to gender flip Harry, believing that his drive would be more believable for a father.
** The other games in the series swing back and forth with this. Some of the most tragic characters have been broken by their abusive fathers (like delusional fanatic Claudia and severely depressed Angela) while a lot of the mothers in the series are just as horrible (Margaret Holloway stands out in particular).

* Belief in this trope was on of the reasons that for decades, custody after divorce was defaulted to the mother rather than the father, and even today courts will regularly default to ruling in the mother's favor.

* Averted in ''Manga/GiantRobo''. Many characters are motivated by their relationships with their fathers. The end credits dedicate the film to fathers.

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* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' puts quite a bit of focus on this with the Vi Britannia siblings, whose mother gave them all the affection in the world prior to her death while their father was a stern distant figure who banished them following said mother's death and the younger sister's crippling. [[spoiler: The end of the series puts this trope in the shredder as the two are shown to be as loved by Charles as his wife and their actual relationship being a lot more faulty and messed up than Lelouch or Nunnally thought.]] Nunnally is likely unaware of this fact, while Lelouch [[spoiler: learns this truth first hand, and does not take it well for several reasons up to and including an ongoing instrumentality plot]].

** ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', prior to the reveal that Luz's father [[spoiler: was a huge part of her life prior to his death and that said death still greatly affects her]], fanfics would generally write him as absent and unimportant to her life. Divorced, dead, and uninvolved, there was little to do with him in Luz's life most of the time while Camila, Luz's mom, is given extensive focus and attention, frequently as the only person to care about Luz and her only positive relationship prior to the Boiling Isles, even if it wasn't perfect as per canon (with the two generally staying on different wavelengths, but the idea that the two love each other is never in doubt). In fact, prior to the canon explanation, most fanfics and fan art frequently defaulted to takes on the man that enforced the idea that only Camila was close to Luz.

* In ''Film/{{Suffragette}}'', Maud's husband loves their son so little that he [[spoiler: gives the child up for adoption rather than allow Maud, whose only crime was to be a suffragist, to raise him on her own,]] when he's decided that he doesn't want to live with Maud anymore. He justifies his behaviour by pointing out that it's completely legal.

* Inverted in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', as it is men's responsibility to care for the children ... [[GenderRarityValue if]] there is a man in the family. Also, it is expected of teenage brothers to care for their baby sisters, and the failure to do so ''is'' noticed by potential wives - Balin Brindle leaves it to his frail old father to care for the babies - Summer Whistler does ''not'' approve. She understandably wants to marry a man who is good with children.

* In ''Literature/TheRedTent'', Leah and her sisters dote on Dinah. They don't pay much attention to the boys after they finish nursing since they go off to tend the herds with their father. [[spoiler: Except for Bilhah, who has an affair with Reuben once he grows up.]] Likewise, Jacob pays more attention to his sons than he does to his daughter, again on the grounds that men and women operate in different spheres of their semi-nomadic society.

* A subtle example in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books. Despite James and Lily sacrificing their lives to protect their son, [[spoiler: it's Lily’s love that protects Harry from Voldermort.]] Additionally, in a segment called ''The Women of Harry Potter'', J.K. Rowling admits that she intentionally used this trope in various ways throughout the series. Justified since Lily, unlike James, was given the choice to stand aside, and she refused.

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'': Second-generation characters except Seliph and Leif are naturally bonded to their mothers, as their fathers could be anyone in Sigurd's army. While most conversations express the kids' loves and desires to find their lost mothers, they tend to avoid discussing the same about the fathers altogether, [[spoiler: except Lewyn and Finn, if they are married.]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' plays this straight character-wise with Mikoto. She's the Avatar's mother, and is depicted as TheHighQueen and epitome of IncorruptiblePurePureness [[spoiler: who sacrifices herself to save her child even after being separated from them for years]] in a chapter whose title draws attention to her motherhood in both English and Japanese. Additionally, [[spoiler: unlike their other relatives, Mikoto really ''is'' the Avatar's biological mother]]. By contrast, the Avatar's adoptive father Garon is an AbusiveParent and all-round GenericDoomsdayVillain who kidnapped them as a baby, [[spoiler: and their ''biological'' father, Anankos, is a MadGod and the true villain of the game]].

Also TruthInTelevision that there are more single mothers than there are single fathers in the world because of the different roles in human reproduction; a man can easily leave after sexual intercourse while a woman must deal with the pregnancy and birth. This is not to the say that a father cannot raise a child or that fathers are unimportant, but it asks whether the fatherhood role in humans is [[NatureVersusNurture naturally occurring or if it is a cultural creation]].

Compare DisappearedDad, WhenYouComingHomeDad, RaisedByDudes, AllAbusersAreMale, WellDoneSonGuy, MyBiologicalClockIsTicking, MadonnaArchetype, and NotWantingKidsIsWeird. Contrast ThePatriarch, HouseHusband, PapaWolf, StandardFiftiesFather, MaternallyChallenged, MyBelovedSmother and EvilMatriarch. Compare and Contrast AbusiveParents, GoodParents, ParentsAsPeople and WickedStepmother.

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* An ''incredibly'' common trope in fanfictions of various series, particularly ones where both parents are dead or the father is not present. For some common examples of this trope.
** ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', prior to the reveal that Luz's father [[spoiler: was a huge part of her life prior to his death and that said death still greatly affects her]], fanfics would generally write him as absent and unimportant to her life. Divorced, dead, uninvolved, there was little to do with him in Luz's life most of the time while Camila, Luz's mom, is given extensive focus and attention, frequently as the only person to care about Luz and her only positive relationship prior to the Boiling Isles, even if it wasn't perfect as per canon (with the two generally staying on different wavelengths, but the idea that the two love each other is never in doubt). In fact, prior to the canon explanation, most fanfics and fan art frequently defaulted to takes on the man that enforced the idea that only Camila was close to Luz.

** ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' follow similar trends that largely play down the affection that either son gives or gets from their father while more often than not keeping or expanding the relationship with their mothers regardless if they are dead or alive. Minato and James will generally be bashed, shown as not really caring for their chidlren, or presented as worse than in canon and as parents, whose only worth to their sons is in familiar inheritance. Their mothers, often spared their canonical deaths or revived in some way, are frequent vessels for changing their stories as being raised by them, and typically only them, leads to 'better' versions of Naruto and Harry. In many such stories, the mothers are sources of love, additional powers, and confidence, while the father are just sources of money, land, and titles left to their only children after their deaths as many, including their sons and widows, note their flaws and failures as human beings real or imagined.
** To a lesser extent than the above, it is not uncommon to see ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' fanfics continue the home series tradition of putting all the emphasis on Ash's familiar relations through his mother and not his father, with fanfics just as prone to expanding the influence and love of Ash's father compared to his mother or downplaying it, depicting Delia as his most important familiar source of love. A notable example of this more split application of the trope comes in the form of Ash's aura abilities, a fan-loved topic of fanfic stories frequently inherited. If Ash inherits them from his father the man has a roughly equal chance of being alive and showing up as a important figure in Ash's life, or having died and his legacy being a mixture of approaches while playing up his bond with his mother, or inheriting them from Delia at which point the man is more often dismissed as a nobody not worth any affection or part in Ash's life or a villain.

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* ''Film/TheForgotten'': Julianne Moore plays a mother still grieving over the loss of her son in a plane crash some time previously and suddenly wakes up to find that no one remembers he existed, not even her own husband. She talks to the father of another child who died in the crash and he doesn't remember either and only when shown physical evidence of her does he finally remember only to be taken away by the mysterious force stalking them. At the end this is all revealed to be part of an alien experiment to test the "mother-son bond", and whether it could be destroyed. Apparently not, since despite the aliens' best efforts, her memories cannot be erased. Eventually the kids are brought back and the dads don't remember a thing.

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* Turns up in a lot of Creator/JodiPicoult books. In ''Literature/HandleWithCare'': Charlotte says, "Oh, Sean...You're the best father. But you're not a mother." However, many books have the mother of the protagonist family as the one who drags them all down into hell and this belief is the cornerstone [[MartyrWithoutACause of their martyr complex]].

* In ''Literature/TheRedTent'', Leah and her sisters dote on Dinah. They don't pay much attention to the boys after they finish nursing, since they go off to tend the herds with their father. [[spoiler: Except for Bilhah, who has an affair with Reuben once he grows up.]] Likewise, Jacob pays more attention to his sons than he does to his daughter, again on the grounds that men and women operate in different spheres of their semi-nomadic society.

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* A sort of inversion happened in an episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'' ("Hanley Waters"): the mother throws all the standard accusations at the father claiming that since he stopped doing things like celebrating their dead child's birthday, he didn't care about him. However, she also going on a psychotic rampage caused by her grief, while the father's subdued reaction is portrayed as more appropriate.

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** ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' follow similar trends that largely play down the affection that either son gives or gets from their father while more often than not keeping or expanding the relationship with their mothers regardless if they are dead or alive. Minato and James will generally be bashed or presented as worse than in canon and as parents, whose only worth to their sons is in familiar inheritance. Their mothers, often spared their canonical deaths or revived in some way, are frequent vessels for changing their stories as being raised by them, and typically only them, leads to 'better' versions of Naruto and Harry. In many such stories, the mothers are sources of love, additional powers, and confidence, while the father are just sources of money, land, and titles left to their only children after their deaths as many, including their sons and widows, note their flaws and failures as human beings real or imagined.

** ''{{Manga/Naruto}}'' and ''Literature/HarryPotter'' follow similar trends that largely play down the affection that either son gives or gets from their father while more often than not keeping or expanding the relationship with their mothers regardless if they are dead or alive. Minato and James will generally be bashed or presented as worse than in canon and as parents, whose only worth to their sons is in familiar inheritance. Their mothers, often spared their canonical deaths or revived in some way, are frequent vessels for changing their stories as being raised by them, and typically only them, leads to 'better' versions of Naruto and Harry. In many such stories, the mothers are sources of love, additional powers, and confidence, while the father are just sources of money, land, and titles left to their only children after their deaths.