Basic Trope: Getting remarried in order to give your children a parental figure missing from their life.
- Straight: Alice's spouse dies, leaving behind their children, and Alice remarries over the course of the story.
- Exaggerated: Alice has a lot of kids, and she marries Bob, who also has a lot of kids. And the same thing happens with Carol and Dana.
- Downplayed: Alice remarrying is simply backstory and it is a very minor part of the story.
- Justified:
- Most people don't have a Single-Target Sexuality, even parents, are at least capable if not desire another relationship after the death of their spouse
- The character believes that a child requires both a mother and a father in order to thrive.
- Inverted:
- Alice considers remarrying, but decides not to for the sake of the children.
- Alice marries Bob to help him with his kids.
- Subverted: Alice dates a couple people, including Bob. Her relationship with Bob is looking pretty serious, and her kids like Bob. But him and Alice break up.
- Double Subverted: After that, Alice resigns to the fact that she will never remarry, but receives a Last-Minute Hookup.
- Parodied: "Why do you say you remarried for your kids? You don't have any!" "What about my darling kittens?! They don't like being half-orphaned!"
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Alice's spouse stays alive.
- Alice has no children.
- Enforced: The new executive director hates the idea of a single parent, but as the show is already in its third season, can't simply have Alice rewritten as never having been a widow.
- Lampshaded: "I mean, yeah, it'd be nice to find romance, but what I really need is a partner — someone to help me with the kids. Being a single parent is so hard, you know?"
- Invoked: "Hey, what if you found some other widow and got married? Like The Brady Bunch!"
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice does not remarry.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: Because Alice rushes into a second marriage shortly after being widowed, she's still grieving for her deceased husband and doesn't love Bob. He knows on some level, is distraught that she doesn't return his feelings, and resents being used. Their strained relationship makes the kids suffer. Plus, they miss their father, and Bob can never replace him.
- Reconstructed: Bob understands why she did it, and Alice is able to move forward and grow to love him. Even though Bob can't replace the children's father, he can at least have a positive relationship with them.
- Played For Drama: A villain targets the parent for a Guess Who I'm Marrying?, Wicked Stepmother or even Black Widow situation; the parent is more interested in remarrying than a single character, which makes them more oblivious.
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