Socrates: My friend, I am a man, and like other men, a creature of flesh and blood, and not 'of wood or stone,' as Homer says; and I have a family, yes, and sons, O Athenians, three in number, one almost a man, and two others who are still young
Of course, mothers and fathers can be important in fiction, whether or not they are actually around.
For the other side of things, see Son of Trope, Daughter of Index.
Not to be confused with Super-Trope or The Parent Trap.
Tropes:
- Abandoned War Child: Women are left single mothers during or after a war.
- Absurdly Elderly Mother: Mothers are too old to have children.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: Mothers are too young to have children.
- Action Dad: A father who is an Action Hero.
- Action Mom: A mother who is an Action Girl.
- Adoptive Peer Parent: The parents adopted a child who appears too old to be their biological offspring.
- Almighty Mom: A mother who succeeds in telling off anyone, even the worst antagonists.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: A character has an absentee parent, but it's never explained or addressed.
- Amicable Exes: A split couple who are still friends.
- Ancestral Name: A parent named their child after themselves, their parent or their more distant ancestors.
- And Your Reward Is Parenthood: Games give your character a child as a reward for completing some task or requirement.
- Antagonistic Offspring: The Hero's kid is their nemesis.
- Antics-Enabling Wife: A wife or mother who does nothing to stop the antics of a Bumbling Dad despite knowing better.
- Anti-Climactic Parent: A parent is revealed to have a bad rep.
- Anti-Education Mama: Parents that frown upon their child getting an education.
- Anti-Smother Love Talk: Someone tries to talk a parent concerned for their child's safety into letting them take risks.
- Appeal to Familial Wisdom: Quoting something your parent once said to you.
- Archnemesis Dad: The villain is the protagonist's father.
- Asian Babymama: The male lead discovers he has a child and the mother is an ex who is an "exotic" Asian lady.
- Babies Ever After: The story ends when the main couple has kids.
- Baby-Doll Baby: Looking after a baby doll like it's your actual son or daughter.
- Baby Fever Trigger: Seeing someone else's child makes someone want to be a parent themselves.
- Because I Said So: Someone says that their inferior (often their child) should obey "just because".
- Because You Can Cope: A character (usually a child) is ignored by a loved one because said loved one has decided to look after someone else.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Someone is born shortly after someone else dies.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: A parent or parental figure who is shown as a better parent than their own.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: A father who strongly opposes boys who try to date his daughter.
- Bumbling Dad: A klutzy and/or unintelligent father.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Someone calls their parents by their given names, rather than "Mom", "Dad", or what-have-you.
- Changeling Fantasy: The hero's "real" parents are different, more interesting people than the ones who raised them.
- Children Raise You: Character Development comes from looking after a kid.
- Child Supplants Parent: A child wants to overthrow, replace, or supersede their parent.
- Chosen Conception Partner: Someone wants a child and picks someone who is not their spouse to be the other parent.
- Cub Cues Protective Parent: The human characters find a baby wild animal and are chased by its parent.
- Dads Can't Cook: When the father has to take on cooking duties, things go badly.
- Dad's Off Fighting in the War: A parent who is absent due to being in the military.
- Dad the Veteran: A parent who is a retired military person.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: An adolescent girl or young woman living with her parents brings home her boyfriend, whom her dad disapproves of.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: The Good Parents die.
- Deliver Us from Evil: An evil person turns good after starting a family.
- Delusions of Parental Love: Parents are supposed to love their kids, so the children cling to this belief despite evidence to the contrary.
- Department of Child Disservices: Child Services works stupidly.
- Designated Parents: A group of friends have two people the same age who are more mature, acting like the parents of the others.
- The Diaper Change: Changing a baby's diaper.
- Disappeared Dad: A dad is not present.
- Disowned Parent: A child (of any age) disowns one or more of their parents.
- Divine Parentage: A child of one or two gods.
- Doesn't Know Their Own Child: A parent's knowledge on their own children is so small or so outdated that it is clear they don't know them.
- Don't Tell Mama: People do bad things but want to keep their mothers from knowing about the bad things they do.
- Doting Parent: A parent who believes their kid is the best child in the world.
- Education Mama: A parent who worries a lot about their child's education.
- Egg Sitting: Learning about parenting by having to care for an egg, or a doll, or a sack of flour.
- Elder Abuse: When the now-old parent is abused.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: When someone (often their parent) shows the protagonist a photo of them as a child which, for whatever reason, embarrasses them.
- Empty Nest: A couple whose children have left home, miss them.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Tough or even bad guys being affectionate to their mothers.
- Evil Matriarch: A villainous mother.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Villains want their children to be good.
- Extra Parent Conception: Someone is somehow the biological child of three people.
- Family Man: A man who's very loyal to his family.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: A parent or guardian forbids their kid to take part in any hobbies outside their job because they view the hobbies as a "distraction" or a "waste".
- Father's Quest: A parent (mostly a father) goes to rescue their child.
- Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: A daughter is much more tomboyish than her mother.
- Financial Abuse: Someone needs money but another character is keeping it away from them.
- First Father Wins: A divorced father is the lead and the mother takes custody of the kids, but then the stepdad turns out to be evil and gets killed off or otherwise "loses".
- Fostering for Profit: Someone fosters a child purely for business.
- Freudian Excuse: The villain is the way they are because something bad happened to them somewhere along the line.
- Funny Conception Story: A baby was conceived in an amusing way.
- Generation Xerox: Kids have very similar lives as their parents or even distant ancestors.
- Gift for an Outgrown Interest: A gift-giver's idea of what the recipient (usually a parent to their child) would like is based on very outdated memories.
- Give Him a Normal Life: Superheroes have kids and give them up for adoption to protect them.
- Give the Baby a Father: A man who isn't the father proposes to a pregnant woman.
- Glamorous Single Mother: A single mother whose kids are never inconvenient.
- Glorified Sperm Donor: The father left after impregnating the mother, but all's well when he shows up again.
- Good Parents: Parents who are good to their children.
- Good Stepmother: A stepmother who loves and supports her stepchildren.
- Go to Your Room!: A child is sent to their room as punishment, often by one or both of their parents.
- Grounded Forever: A child is grounded (often by their parents) for a ridiculously long time like "a million years" or "forever".
- Hands-Off Parenting: Parents generally let their kids do whatever they want.
- Happily Adopted: A person knows they are adopted and is happy with it.
- Happily Married: A successful marriage.
- Helicopter Parents: An overbearing and/or overprotective parent who interfere with their children's personal lives.
- Hi, Mom!: A character who is on camera greets their mother, who may or may not be watching.
- Hippie Parents: A hippie couple with kids.
- Honor Thy Parent: Parents are seen as deserving deferential treatment; people who don't render this are called out for it.
- Househusband: A married man who takes care of the housework.
- Housewife: A stay-at-home wife who looks after the house and does most of the parenting.
- How Dad Met Mom: A story detailing how two parents met.
- I Am Not Your Father: A reveal that the protagonist's "parents" are not their real parents.
- I Am X, Son of Y: Someone boasts "I am [their name], son/daughter of [one or both their parents' names]!"
- I Have No Son!: A family member disowns another one out of shame.
- Illegal Guardian: Someone adopts children to reap some illicit financial benefits at the kids' expense.
- Immigrant Parents: Someone has parents who immigrated from another country.
- Interracial Adoption Struggles: Parents adopting a child of a different racial background or ethnicity than themselves, leading to struggles or cultural clashes.
- Invisible Parents: A character whose parents are never seen.
- Is That Cute Kid Yours?: An adult is mistaken for the parent of a young child.
- I Want Grandkids: An adult's parent wants grandchildren and annoys their son or daughter to get them some.
- Jacob and Esau: Each parent favours a different child or each child favors a different parent.
- Jealous Parent: The mum or dad competes with their child for their spouse's affection.
- Jewish Mother: The stereotype of a nagging, overprotective mother who's also Jewish.
- Jobless Parent Drama: A family struggles due to a parent lacking a job.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: The father is very athletic. The son is nerdy but not athletic.
- Kids Play Matchmaker: A child tries to find a new partner for their parent, and by extension a new mom/dad.
- Kids Play Match Breaker: When the kids try to scare away any potential suitors for their single parent.
- Lamarck Was Right: Inheriting traits which shouldn't ordinarily be genetic.
- Learning to Ride a Bike: Parents teaching their children to ride a bike is a common milestone moment.
- Let Her Grow Up, Dear: The father doesn't want the child (often a girl) to have romance, but the mother doesn't mind.
- Like Father, Like Son: A person resembles one of their parents.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: A child doesn't resemble at least one of their parents, in fact, they may be exact opposites.
- Lineage Comes from the Father: All of the character's significant lineage is on their father's side.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The Hero finds out the Big Bad was a relative, often their dad.
- Luke, You Are My Father: Someone reveals that they are the child of the person they're talking to.
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: A Mad Scientist has a daughter who's their only child, is somewhere between sixteen and twenty-four, and is beautiful.
- Mandatory Motherhood: Women who don't want kids are demanded to have them.
- Mama Bear: A mother whose kids you'd better not mess with.
- Marry the Nanny: A single parent gets with a hired parental substitute.
- Meeting-the-Parents Sequel: The hero of a work's first installment has their parents introduced in the sequel(s).
- Missing Mom: A mom is not present.
- A Mistake Is Born: A child is considered a "mistake" for their parents.
- Mommy Mobile: The boring family-hauler vehicle (typically a minivan, station wagon, or SUV) that signifies that someone's given up on being cool in favor of becoming a parent.
- The "Mom" Voice: A character, usually female, will lecture, discipline, command, or even comfort someone with a tone of voice that is reminiscent of a mother.
- Monster Is a Mommy: A menacing creature's behavior turns out to be justified, often because it's a mother or father protecting its kids or eggs.
- Mother Makes You King: Someone's mother makes them come into power.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: A monster who is the parent of most of the other monsters.
- Muggle Foster Parents: Someone with powers is raised by people without them.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: Someone's mother looks like their sister.
- My Beloved Smother: A bossy, overprotective, clingy mother.
- My Dad Can Beat Up Your Dad: Children boasting about how their fathers are cooler than their rivals' fathers.
- My Parents Are Dead: A departed acquaintance or relative (often one the character was close to) is brought up and the character responds that the person is dead.
- Mysterious Parent: When the reason for Parental Abandonment is revealed and the parent is an important character.
- Nephewism: A character's aunt and/or uncle acts as their parental figure/s.
- No Blood Ties: Parents are not expected to raise their kids.
- No Fathers Allowed: Fatherhood is optional in this society.
- Not Under the Parents' Roof: Children are not allowed to have sex at their parents' home.
- Not Wanting Kids Is Weird: Wanting to have kids is the norm, and not wanting them is unusual.
- Offing the Offspring: Killing your children.
- Open-Minded Parent: A son or daughter lies to parents that are actually open-minded.
- Orc Raised by Elves: A character from an evil origin raised by good people, usually with a Heel-Face Turn.
- Orphanage of Fear: A torturous orphanage.
- Outliving One's Offspring: A parent outlives their children.
- Overlord Jr.: The Evil Overlord's kid is also evil.
- Papa Wolf: When a dad gets really angry that you messed with his kids.
- Parental Abandonment: The character's parents are missing or dead.
- Parental Betrayal: Someone betrays their child.
- Parental Fashion Veto: Parents object to their child's fashion choice.
- Parental Hypocrisy: Parents did exactly what their children do now when they were that age, but now they disapprove of it.
- Parental Incest: Sex between a parent and their child.
- Parental Love Song: A love song between a parent and their child.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Parents not letting their kid marry their boyfriend or girlfriend.
- Parental Neglect: A parent is aloof, careless or otherwise uncommitted to child-rearing.
- Parental Obliviousness: Parents seem oblivious to everything.
- Parental Savings Splurge: Your parents spend your college fund for unscrupulous reasons.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Someone is squicked out by the idea of their parents having sex.
- Parental Substitute: Someone who is not a parent raised a character.
- Parent-Child Team: A parent and child team up together.
- Parent ex Machina: Parents that only exist to bail their children out.
- Parent Never Came Back from the Store: A parent tells their family they're just going out when they're really abandoning them.
- Parent-Preferred Suitor: When a parent supports one of their offspring's Love Interests over another.
- Parent Service: Fanservice in a kids' show.
- Parents Are Wrong: Parents need to let go of tradition so their kids can be free.
- Parents as People: Parents with proper character traits besides their parenthood.
- Parents for a Day: A baby or something like it is raised by one or two main characters for a day and leaves by the end of the episode.
- Parents in Distress: The parents are in danger and the children must save them.
- Parents Know Their Children: A parent can identify their kid who's in disguise, surrounded by look-alikes, an impostor, or even if they haven't seen them for many years.
- Parents Suck at Matchmaking: Parents just can't pick someone who's right for their kids.
- Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: A parent walks in on their child when the child is in a romantically compromising position.
- Parent with New Paramour: A parent gets a new Love Interest.
- Permissive Parents: Parents that encourage their kids to do adult stuffs.
- Pervert Dad: Fathers who come off as perverted towards their children (often their daughters).
- Pining After Protagonist's Parent: A character carries a torch for the main character's (usually dead) parent.
- Platonic Co-Parenting: Parents that aren't romantically involved with each other.
- Playboy Has a Daughter: The Casanova experiences Character Development after having a daughter.
- Playing Catch with the Old Man: A (possibly surrogate) parent, their child, and their relationship are succinctly characterized by a simple game of catch.
- Promotion to Parent: The oldest sibling takes charge of the parenting.
- Pulling Your Child Away: Someone is marked as an outcast when a parent pulls their child away from them.
- Pushover Parents: Parents who don't discipline their offspring.
- Raised by Grandparents: A character who was raised by their grandparents.
- Raised by Natives: An orphan child from a foreign land finds themselves in another land and is raised by that land's natives.
- Raised by Orcs: A character is raised by evil characters.
- Raised by the Supernatural: A character was raised by supernatural beings.
- Raised by Wolves: A character was raised by animals.
- Refused Reunion: Parents who are missing or believed dead choose to remain missing or believed dead because their children would be better off not knowing they're really alive.
- Remarrying for Your Kids: A widowed character with children remarries.
- Resentful Guardian: A character hates suddenly having to raise a child.
- Shared Family Quirks: Two otherwise different family members share one quirk.
- Shooting Lessons From Your Parents: Having been taught how to handle a gun by dad or mom.
- Single Mom Stripper: A single mother who moonlights as a stripper.
- Single Parents Are Undesirable: Single parents have difficulty dating.
- Sink or Swim Fatherhood: A character unexpectedly becomes a parent and must learn on the job.
- Sliding Scale of Parent-Shaming in Fiction
- Small Parent, Huge Child: A parent is smaller than their child.
- Solomon Divorce: Divorced parents split custody of their children down the middle.
- So My Kids Can Watch: An actor/musician/director/etc. normally known for working in adult-oriented projects gets involved in a more child-friendly work ostensibly for their own children.
- So Proud of You: Everyone shows admiration for something good The Hero did, especially said hero's loved ones.
- Sports Dad: A father who pushes his child into sports and other physical activities.
- Stage Mom: A mother puts her kid on the stage.
- Standard '50s Father: A smart, reliable, neat dad, who often smokes a pipe.
- Stand-In Parents: There is a father/child or mother/child event coming up and the kid enters but someone else pretends to be the parent.
- Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Restrictive parents just make their kids good liars.
- Struggling Single Mother: A single parent, usually a mother, who struggle to support her child/children.
- Supernatural-Proof Father: When a household starts experiencing supernatural events, the whole family except the dad experience them.
- Supernaturally Young Parent: A child looks older than their parents due to supernatural causes.
- "Take Your Child to Work Day" Plot: A parent takes their child to visit their workplace for a day.
- Team Dad: The grumpy rule-enforcer of the team who acts as a parent.
- Team Mom: The surrogate mother to a group of friends.
- Teasing Parent: Parent(s) teasing their children and/or playing jokes on them.
- Teen Pregnancy: A teenage girl gets pregnant.
- Tell Me About My Father: Someone has no memories of one parent and asks the other to tell about the missing/dead one.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: A character is used to create offspring in a way that makes them refuse to identify as the child's parent.
- Time Out: Misbehaving children or pets are grounded or put in time out.
- Tough Love: Doing things that seem mean but are ultimately kind or have good intentions.
- The Trap Parents: An orphan gains some parents that don't want them to hang around their friends.
- Trapped at the Dinner Table: Parents don't let children leave the dinner table until they've eaten everything on their plate.
- Truly Single Parent: Someone clones themselves if they want kids.
- Turning Into Your Parent: A grown child has an embarrassing realization that they and their parent aren't that different.
- Twerp Sweating: When a teenage girl has a date and comes over to pick her up, he hangs out with the girl's Boyfriend-Blocking Dad.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Someone looks a lot like people related to them.
- Unflappable Guardian: A perfectly competent parent.
- Unnamed Parent: The parents' names are not revealed.
- Useless Bystander Parent: The parent enables bullying/abuse by doing nothing.
- Villainous Parental Instinct: Even evil people will protect their children.
- Visit by Divorced Dad: A separated parent visits the family.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: The child is often more mature than their parent.
- "Well Done, Dad!" Guy: A role model longs for the approval of their followers.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Someone's dad is almost too busy for them.
- Where Did We Go Wrong?: When a kid turns out different than the parents hoped, the parents wonder where they went wrong.
- Who Will Take The Kids?: Parents wonder who would look after the kids if something bad happened.
- Why Are You Not My Son?: Parents compare their son/daughter to their son's/daughter's friend. Jealousy ensues.
- Wicked Stepmother: A stepmother who is cruel to her stepchildren, at worst wanting them dead.
- Winning Over the Kids: When someone bonds with their Love Interest's kids.
- Wonder Child: A person who is supposed to be infertile ends up with kids anyway.
- You Are Grounded!: A parent grounds their child.
- You Killed My Father: Someone gets revenge on a baddie who murdered their family member.
- Your Son All Along: Alice thinks Bob is Carol's son, but he's actually hers.
- You're Not My Father: Someone rebuffs someone posing as a parent by saying something along the lines of "You're not my mother/father!"
