A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family

There's also the family pets, but who's counting?

Or a Boy, a Girl, and Baby siblings (sometimes called "2.5 kids"). Not only are families with three kids common in TV land, but often they are made with a boy, a girl and a baby of either sex (nearly 50/50 ratio).

That kind of family usually has certain features:

• The two elder siblings are close in age: twins, between one and three years, occasionally four or five years.
• The eldest sibling can be either sex, but is usually a girl. The larger the age gap, the more likely the oldest is a girl (possibly making her a Bratty Teenage Daughter, and the boy an Annoying Younger Sibling).
• The boy and girl have ages between 6 and 17 years: neither too young as children nor too old as teens.
• The baby is usually a toddler between six months and two years old, between four and 17 years younger than the older siblings, and can be either sex..
• Just because one can't walk or talk yet does not mean that the baby sibling is always good for nothing or powerless. On the contrary, the infant is often shown to be the most powerful in the family (if applicable), a Brainy Baby, an Enfant Terrible, or a Little Miss Badass. Even when they are only the Plucky Comic Relief for most of the story, the baby can save the day at the very end as the Big Damn Hero.
• The baby is never the child of one of the older siblings.

The reason? Brother and Sister have the target audience's age and allow everyone in the audience to identify with the sibling of the same gender. The baby could also be a substitute for a child while the siblings are "parents". It also allows the writers to have starring characters for Always Male and Always Female plots or tropes, and the baby as a child substitute, a third man or younger sibling role. The sex of the baby varies as gender doesn't make as much of a difference for infant characters. Alternatively, the baby can take the role of a Team Pet.

See also Sibling Team and Resentful Outnumbered Sibling. Subtrope of Nuclear Family. The kids are likely a type of Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio, since the baby has no obvious secondary sex characteristics. Can sometimes be an example of Practically Different Generations.

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Examples:

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• The Silentnight Beds hippo and duck family has Dee-Dee, Hugo, and Henry.

Anime & Manga

• Ken and Miyako's children, at the end of Digimon Adventure 02, which consist of an older sister, a younger brother and a baby.
• In the manga Kocchi Muite Miiko, the Yamada family has Miiko, Mamoru, and their baby sister Momo.

Comic Books

• The Sunny Series: Sunny's parents have three kids in her Nuclear Family: her, her older brother Dale, and her younger brother Teddy. Dale isn't present though as he's separated from the family for some time due to his substance abuse; his absence and issues weighs emotionally on Sunny.

Comic Strips

• Katy, Clayton and Nick from Adam@home.
• Zoe, Hammie and Wren from Baby Blues, eventually.
• For Better or for Worse, back when April was still a baby.
• The family from FoxTrot would have followed this back when Jason was a baby (more or less — Paige would have only been four or five), although we never get to see that time except in the rare Flash Back.
• For a short time after Rerun was born, there's Lucy, Linus, and Rerun van Pelt in Peanuts.

Fan Works

• After the Jungle Series: The Shortmans are this—a lot of the future-set stories take place about 25-years after the events of the original series, and at this point: Andy's a 9-year-old 4th-grader, Megan's a 5-year-old Kindergartener and Henry's a year old (and obviously too young to be in school). Andy and Megan are also both students are P.S. 118 (and are former students at Urban Tots Preschool), just like their parents were when they were kids.
• At the very end of the Superjail! fanfic Extended Stay, the Warden and the Mistress's family has been established as this with their mixed-gender twins Matilda and Ethan and the "baby" Edward. (Although at this point, the twins are twenty years old; their brother being about four years younger than them.)
  • Foreshadowed earlier in a dream Mistress has in Chapter 11.
• Kyoshi Rising, Kyoshi is the youngest of three (her older sister being approximately nine years older), and also the only Bender in the entire family (not to mention the latest incarnation of the Avatar).
• In the epilogue of Son of the Sannin, Naruto and Hinata are shown to have an infant daughter named Urara in addition to their canon son and daughter.

Films — Animated

• Fievel, Tanya, and Yasha Mouskewitz in An American Tail.
• LaShawn, Kahlil, and Pee-wee in Bébé's Kids.
• Eep, Thunk, and Sandy in The Croods.
• Pacha and Chicha's children in The Emperor's New Groove, even though the baby was only seen for a few brief seconds at the end of the film.
• The "warm" side of the Family Madrigal in Encanto consists of young adult daughter Dolores, teenage son Camilo, and The Baby of the Bunch Antonio, who celebrates his fifth birthday at the start of the movie.
• Middle school girl Violet, elementary school boy Dash, and baby Jack-Jack Parr in The Incredibles. The Immediate Sequel keeps that dynamic.
• Peter Pan: The Darling family has a teenage girl, a 10-year-old boy and a small toddler named Wendy, John and Michael respectively.
• Robin Hood (1973): Despite Mother Rabbit having a large number of children, the most prominent of her kids are Skippy (a boy), Sis (a girl) and Tagalong, who is relatively younger than the other two which makes her The Baby of the Bunch.

Films — Live-Action

• The Addams Family always had the son and daughter, Pugsley and Wednesday. Addams Family Values gave them a baby brother called Pubert. He never appears again but an offhand reference in Addams Family Reunion says the family ate him.
• The Cooper Family from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day consists of two boys (Anthony and Alexander), a girl (Emily) and a baby (Trevor).
• In the short 1950s film A Date With Your Family (seen on Mystery Science Theater 3000), the family in question included teenaged "Son" and "Daughter" and their little brother "Junior." They're an older variant on the trope; "Junior" is around eight.
• Halloween: In the timelines where Laurie is Michael's long lost sister and before Michael became a homicidal maniac, the Myers family included Michael (a boy), Judith (a girl) and Laurie, who was shown to be a baby/toddler during her time with her biological family.
• Nick, Amy and Adam Szalinski in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise (although they didn't appear together, since Amy had left home for college by the time Adam was introduced in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid).

Literature

• Babar has two boys (Pom and Alexander), a girl (Flora), and a baby (Isabelle).
• The Berenstain Bears, at least since the addition of baby Honey Bear.
• In the children's book ''Boundless Grace" by Mary Hoffman, Grace laments that she doesn't have a "real family" like in her stories with a Mom, Dad, brother, girl, baby, cat, and dog. A trip to Africa to visit her father, helps her understand that families take many different forms.
• The later books in the Clémentine series, beginning with Clementine and the Family Meeting, feature Clementine dealing with the fact that her family is soon to be this. In Clementine and the Family Meeting, she and her little brother first found out about it at the titular meeting. At first, Clementine is not at all happy about it because she feels their family is perfect as it is, and also doesn't see how the addition of a baby to the family is going to solve any of her problems. She begins, however, to warm up to the idea, due to a number of factors, such as learning from her grandparents that she was a very responsible and protective big sister to her little brother when he was born.
• In the old Dick and Jane books, the two eponymous characters along with their toddler sister, Sally.
• Both families in The Doll People have a tween daughter, a slightly younger son, and a baby. It's lampshaded, too.
• In the Flossie Teacake books by Hunter Davies, the title character has two siblings (a brother and sister) who are seven and nine years older than her. All three characters are based on the author's real-life children.
• Tash and Zak Arranda in Galaxy of Fear are being looked after, with some difficulty, by their uncle. When they find a baby they want to adopt him and make this, but he's actually a Tyke-Bomb.
• Lillebror from Karlsson on the Roof is seven or eight years old, so not a baby nor a toddler anymore. But his older siblings Bosse and Bettan are teenagers, so the family would have fitted into the trope a few years earlier.
• Little Critter has had the main family like this since the late 80s, with the additions of Little Critter's younger siblings Little Sister and an unnamed baby brother (originally also a sister.)
• The Misadventures of Max Crumbly has Max, Megan and Oliver Crumbly.
• Olivia, Ian, and William in Olivia.
• At the end of Return to Planet Tad, the title character Tad and his Child Prodigy / Annoying Younger Sibling sister Sophie learn that their family will soon become this, with a new baby boy on the way. Neither is very enthused at first, but Tad begins to warm to the idea after learning that he will be a role model for his little brother, someone who can teach him right from wrong (he and his father agree that they can't count on Sophie for that) and that he'll be getting his own room.
• The Baudelaire siblings from A Series of Unfortunate Events.
• The Balicki family from The Silver Sword.
• Star Wars Legends has Han and Leia's kids: the twins Jaina and Jacen Solo, and their little brother Anakin.
• The 10-year-old twins Kestrel and Bowman Hath and their infant sister Pinto in The Wind Singer. In the later books of The Wind On Fire, the characters age.

Live-Action TV

• In the fourth season of ALF, the Tanner family consisted of this, with Lynn, Brian, and Eric.
• Robbie, Charlene and Baby Sinclair in Dinosaurs.
• Good Luck Charlie started out as a series with two boys (P.J. and Gabe), a girl (Teddy) and a baby (Charlie). As the series progressed, Charlie grew up and Toby was born, making it a series with two boys, two girls, and a baby.
• Mad Men has the Draper children; Sally, Bobby, and baby Gene, although their parents split up soon after Gene's birth, so the "family" aspect is downplayed.
• In The Riches, close in age siblings Cael and Didi are the boy and girl, and their seven-year-old brother Sam is the baby, to their parents Wayne and Dahlia.
• As in the books, A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017), Klaus, Violet, and baby Sunny are one of these, especially as they're orphans.
• Stranger Things: The Wheelers have Nancy, Mike, and their barely-relevant toddler sister, Holly.
• Wizards of Waverly Place has girl Alex, boy Justin, and their older-than-average little brother Max. In fact, the age spacing between the three of them seems suspiciously believable.

Podcasts

• Brain Leak: If said baby is BB, this counts for Sean, Evelyn and BB.

Theatre

• 2:22: A Ghost Story: Sam, Jenny, and Phoebe.

Video Games

• The Beamish family in The Adventures of Willy Beamish includes teenage daughter Tiffany, grade schooler Willy, and preschooler Brianna.
• If you make it back to Funkotron at the end of ToeJam & Earl, Toejam is revealed to have two younger twin sisters and a baby sibling in his family.

Webcomics

• Riyuokoan, Mimi and Enigma in Fiyora Nya.
• Holy, Polo and Elis in Irregular Elis.
• Rudy, Lindesfarne and Coney Dewclaw of Kevin & Kell. Until they started aging up.

Western Animation

• Arthur, DW and Baby Kate in Arthur.
• BB3B: We have the 6-year-old twins Lucy and Louie, and the baby Billy Bob.
• Birdz has pre-teen Eddie, teenager Steffy, and baby Abby.
• Bobby's World: Starting out, the Generic Family consists of teenaged Kelly, preteen Derek, and not quite a baby, but preschool aged Bobby. From the fourth season onwards, twins Jake and Al are born into the family, promoting Bobby from his baby status and making the arrangement a girl, two boys, and two babies.
• On Chip and Potato, Chip and Spud's baby sister is born a little more than halfway through the first season of the series; Little Momma is shown pregnant with her beforehand. Chip is just starting kindergarten and Spud is maybe a year or two older.
• Doug, Judy and Cleopatra "Dirtbike" Funnie in Doug when the last one was born in the Disney version. The episode "Doug's Thanksgiving" even lampshades this by having a PR exec scouting for the quintessential "average" family, which must have "2.5 children^*A play on the fact that 2.5 children was the much-touted size of the average American family at the time — a boy, a girl, and a baby with a quirky name!" No points for guessing who he picks.
• Done with Duncan, Kimberly, and Jing in Duncanville, but with Jing as a preschooler rather than a baby.
• Seth MacFarlane's shows:
  • Chris, Meg and Stewie Griffin in Family Guy.
  • Done in The Cleveland Show with Cleveland Jr., Roberta and Rallo, but Rallo is a kindergartner rather than a baby.
  • Averted in American Dad!, where the baby role is instead taken by a 1,600-year-old alien. Subverted in "Rabbit Ears" when said alien diguises himself as a baby.
• Perkin, Posie, and Pootle (boy, girl, and toddler, respectively) in The Flumps.
• Theresa Maria (girl), Petey (boy), and Gina (toddler) in Fugget About It.
• Buzzbee, his older sister Rubee, and the baby Babee on The Hive.
• The Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors episode "The Slaves of Adelbaren" contains a reversal of this trope, with the Lightning League encountering a teenaged girl whose much younger brother and sister are being held hostage by the Monster Minds.
• The Legend of Korra, Sequel Series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, reveals that Aang and Katara had three children together: Bumi, Kya, and the "baby" Tenzin.
• Played with with the Freemaker trio in LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures, with Zander (boy), Kordi (girl) and Rowan (another boy), who is the youngest, but as a preteen, not a baby.
• The Lionhearts has Kate, Spencer and Judy.
• An animated series based on the Fisher-Price toys called "Little People" (one episode can be seen here) involved a family whose children were Timmy, Penny, and "Baby Sister," who apparently didn't get her own name.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has the Apple siblings: Applejack, her older brother Big Macintosh, and their younger sister Apple Bloom. It's relative in this case, as Apple Bloom is the only one who is still a kid.
• PB&J Otter: Peanut (brother), Butter (baby sister), and Jelly Otter (sister). Another slight aversion from the normal rules — Baby Butter is old enough to talk a little at least, and while the ages aren't certain, she may be only about three or four years younger than Peanut and Jelly.
• Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson in The Simpsons who provide the page image.

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