History Main / ParentNeverCameBackFromTheStore

* ''Film/IronMan3'': When Tony meets Harley, a kid in Tennessee, he says his dad went to a 7-Eleven to get lottery scratch-offs, six years ago. He's bitterly aware he's dad left him and his mother, regardless of whether lottery was actually involved. Tony, being Tony, responds with his usual tact:

--> '''Hiori:''' ...Like maybe if mom knew all the light bulbs worked, she wouldn't have needed to go buy new ones...I always get scared someone will go away whenever a light goes out.

* In the ''{{Literature/Slayers}}'' OVA "Jeffrey's Knighthood", Jeffrey's father left to get milk and disappeared for ten years. Presumably he was trying to get away from his [[AxCrazy crazy]] wife [[MyBelovedSmother Josephine]].

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* Subverted with ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}''. Dilbert's mother's explanation for Dilbert's DisappearedDad is that they lost him at an all-you-can-eat buffet. In a much later strip, though, Dilbert visits his father, who is indeed still at the buffet restaurant because he's so resolutely LiteralMinded that he refuses to leave until he has actually had "all he can eat". It should be noted that this took place in ''December of 1992'', and by all accounts Dildad is still at the buffet today.

[[folder:FanWorks]]
* Played for laughs by ''Fanfic/CodeGeassAwesomeOfTheRebellion'', a TrollFic that had a ScheduleSlip of four years. When the author returned with a new chapter, he claimed in the author’s note that he got lost in the woods while heading out for milk. (In a WebSite/YouTube interview, he stated the reality was that he had initially lost interest in writing the story, but a DramaticReading rekindled his motivation)

* In ''[[Manga/ADistantNeighborhood Quartier Lointain]]'', the protagonist's father says he's going out to buy some bread on the night of his 40th birthday. He doesn't come back.
* ''Film/IronMan3'': When Tony meets Harley, a kid in Tennessee, he says his dad went to a 7-Eleven to get lottery scratch-offs, six years ago. He's bitterly aware he's dad left him and his mother, regardless of whether lottery was actually involved. Tony, being Tony, responds with his usual tact:
-->'''Tony:''' ...Which happens. Dads leave, [[QuitYourWhining no need to be a pussy about it]].
* Mentioned in 1995's ''Film/ManOfTheHouse1995'' during Ben Archer's OpeningNarration that his father packed up his things and drove away, saying he needed to "find himself." He took his cute secretary along to help him look. The abandonment was rather transparent, so Ben and his mother Sandy begin their single-parent life right from go.

** [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]] in the final episode when Tracy Jordan's father returns from the store with cigarettes....about thirty-five years after he went out.

-->"You're still here! You didn't go to the store for milk and heroin and then never come back!"
** Subverted when Jack is talking about his father:
-->“Thirty-five years ago my father, Jimmy Donaghy, went out for a pack of cigarettes, came back, smoked one, told my mother he was leaving forever, and walked out the door.”

-->'''Mr. Douglas:''' What did your father have to say about these meetings?
-->'''Paul:''' I never told him.
-->'''Mr. Douglas:''' Why not?
-->'''Servo:''' He hasn't come back from buying cigarettes yet...

* Told from the parent's perspective in "Hungry Heart" by Music/BruceSpringsteen:
-->Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack\\
I went out for a ride and I never went back.

-->'''Dru''': This is the part where your dad goes out on a cold Christmas Eve to get some more milk, but he never comes back because seventeen years later you find out he's had a whole fucking family with some Spanish bitch and ''he doesn't even know your fucking name anymore!''
-->'''Stefan''': Shut the ''fuck'' up!
-->'''Dru''': ''(crying)'' I'm sorry...

* Parodied in ''Webcomic/CyanideAndHappiness'': [[http://explosm.net/comics/4901/ The father just needed to get enough cigarettes for everyone.]]

* Subverted in one of WebVideo/StuartAshen's videos about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byHbd_1NVu4 cheap Fathers Day gifts]]:

* Invoked in [[https://youtu.be/jDJPfETkj_E?t=177 THE SIMS 4 IN REAL LIFE]] (at 2:57) about ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' being realistic with one of the Sims upon knocking up their new female neighbor deciding he needs to get away from her fast.
-->'''Sim:''' I got to go to the store to buy a pack of smokes so [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial I'll totally be right back]]. (subsequently tries to leave the house but [[CruelPlayerCharacterGod slams into a wall that so happens to spawn right in front of the door, causing him to run right into it and faint]].)

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Dilbert}}'' has a variant in which young Dilbert's father abandoned him by going to an [[BuffetBuffoonery All-You-Can-Eat]] restaurant, refusing to leave until he's ''really'' had [[LiteralMinded all he can eat]]. It's PlayedForLaughs, but Dilbert seems to have been truly traumatized by the abandonment.

* {{Inverted}} on ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''--since [[MyBelovedSmother Mama Cosma]] didn't approve of Wanda, Cosmo pulled this trick when the two got married. To be fair, he ''did'' come back... 9,975 years later, when he mistakenly believed that Wanda had forgotten their anniversary.

[[folder:RealLife]]

* Not exactly a parent, but one could apply this trope to Damian in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''. He told his Charmander to wait for him on top of a large rock with no intention of ever returning for it. Had it not been for Ash Ketchum and his friends, the Charmander would've died in the rain. [[Manga/TheElectricTaleOfPikachu One of the manga versions]] had him get into an accident that left him hospitalized for quite some time.

* ''Anime/BlueReflectionRay'' the Hirahara sisters mother, whom had been [[StrugglingSingleMother raising them alone]], said she was going out to buy light bulbs and never returned. In the [[SequelInAnotherMedium followup game]], ''VideoGame/BlueReflectionSecondLight'' Hiori further confides in Ao about this.

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[[folder: FanWorks]]

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[[folder: {{Film}} -- Live Action]]

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[[folder: WesternAnimation]]

[[folder: RealLife]]

* In the ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}'' OVA "Jeffrey's Knighthood", Jeffrey's father left to get milk and disappeared for ten years. Presumably he was trying to get away from his [[AxCrazy crazy]] wife [[MyBelovedSmother Josephine]].

* ''Series/TheCosbyShow''. A janitor at Cliff's hospital mentions that after a year of marriage, her husband went out for cigarettes and never returned.
* Will's dad in ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' disappeared when his son was five and used this excuse.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Phoebe's dad for his second family. He went to the drugstore four years ago, so he should be back any minute now.
* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': Seven's parents went to "get cigarettes". Al notices they used the excuse to leave town and leave Seven with them.

* ''Series/TheGeorgeLopezShow'': George's father, Manny, also went off to get some cigarettes, though Benny already knew he wouldn't be returning because they already had cigarettes.
-->'''Manny''': I'm gonna get some smokes!\\
'''Benny''': We've got smokes right here. Pick another lie.\\
'''Manny''': I'll stick to my first one! ''[leaves]''.
* ''Series/MidnightCaller'': Jack's father went to buy a pack of cigarettes and never returned, leaving the family $486 and an overdue rent bill.
* Played very seriously once on ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' where a father really didn't come home from the store because he got killed in a holdup. This does not do good things for the mother's sanity, and it ''really'' doesn't turn out well for the children.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' has Brennan's parents. One episode has her say they went Christmas shopping and never returned due to going on the run. However, another version is told in another episode as well.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': When Nick Torres was five years old and living in Panama, his father left in the middle of the night, claiming that he wanted to be first in line to pick up something from a bakery in a nearby town. The truth was that he was helping the CIA overthrow Manuel Noriega, and leaving his family was his way of protecting them.