Basic Trope: A single mother has no problem raising her child/children.
- Straight: Alice is single, but has no problem taking care of her son Bob.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice is extremely rich and never struggles when trying to take care of Bob.
- Alice is poor and/or young when raising Bob, yet she has no problems doing such a draining task.
- Downplayed:
- Alice usually has no problems with Bob, but sometimes she has to take drastic measures to support her son.
- Bob's father is still a part of his life and is a good parent, but is also frequently out of the house.
- Justified:
- Alice has a huge support group who help take care of Bob whenever Alice can not.
- Alice is financially stable and got a decent job, and has been taught how to raise children properly, so raising Bob by herself isn't as much of a problem as it should be.
- Bob's father pays child support to help Alice and Bob.
- Inverted: Struggling Single Mother.
- Gender Inverted: Adam is single, but has no problem taking care of his daughter Betty.
- Subverted:
- Alice loses all her money, due to either a robbery or Alice spending too much money on Bob.
- Bob's father is present, but he's too busy with work to be seen with Alice.
- Alice starts off like this when Bob is first born, but eventually she is shown to not be the best mother figure.
- Double Subverted:
- Alice wins the lottery, earning back the money she lost.
- Alice's sister Denise gives some of her money to Alice.
- Bob's father either dies or leaves the family, but Alice continues to raise Bob without any problems
- Alice realizes that there is no such thing as a perfect mother, and continues raising Bob like normal.
- Parodied: Alice is not married, but has enough money to buy a yacht, purchase several gold statues, donate to numerous charities, and still have enough left over to be able to support her son.
- Zig Zagged: Alice becomes pregnant through her ex-boyfriend Charlie. Alice wants Charlie to only be in the baby's life financially. When their son Bob is born, Alice becomes a Struggling Single Mother. She calls up Charlie for some help, and they agree to raise Bob via Platonic Co-Parenting. Overtime, Alice gets a job as a waitress and works herself up until she's the restaurant manager, making her have enough money to take care of Bob when she's alone.
- Averted:
- Alice runs into lots of problems when supporting Bob.
- Alice and Charlie raise Bob together.
- Enforced:
- Alice is rich and single, but her actress gets pregnant, so the creators throw in a pregnancy arc for Alice.
- Alice's son Bob was written into the story to try to make flighty and naive Alice more mature and wise-up.
- Lampshaded: "How are you taking care of Bob all by yourself?"
- Invoked: When Alice's husband leaves her, Alice is quick to get a high-paying job so she can raise Bob all by herself.
- Exploited: Alice brings up her ability to raise Bob in order to impress other single mothers.
- Defied:
- Despite being financially stable and being in a good place to raise a child of her own, Alice does not want kids unless she is with another man.
- Alice discovers her pregnancy and immediately tries to get involved with the father.
- Discussed: "Seems pretty weird for a single mother to not run into any problems."
- Conversed:"Why did they make Alice someone who has to raise Bob all on her own, but never runs into any problems? Sends a pretty unfortunate message when you think about it."
"I think there are two reasons: one, escapism, which is not inherently bad; two, the 'problems' are not plot relevant." - Deconstructed:
- Alice has to try super hard to keep her image as a Glamorous Single Mother, so every time she loses a decent amount of money, is almost fired from her job, or can't figure something out with Bob, she starts freaking out.
- Alice is a teen mother, and there are many, many people who accuse her for glorifying Teen Pregnancy.
- Reconstructed:
- Denise confronts Alice and tells her that a good single mother isn't one who is extremely perfect in raising their kid, just like any normal, married parent.
- Alternatively, Alice wants to be a role model because she wants to instill a positive attitude towards single mothers. She would not have it any other way.
- Alice calls those accusers out and says that her conditions were just different from most pregnant teens', and everyone's views on the subject are different for a reason.
- Played For Laughs: A man tries to hit it off with Alice, but she rejects him, claiming that she is good enough raising her son alone.
- Implied: We see only one scene where Alice is with her newborn son Bob, where she seems pretty happy and wealthy with the task despite there being no sign of Bob's father.
- Played For Drama: Alice tries super hard to balance her wealth for the sake of Bob, to the point where her life depends on making her son happy.
Back to Glamorous Single Mother.
