Basic Trope: Someone wants a little sibling.
- Straight: 5-year-old Sarah repeatedly asks her parents, Alice and Bob, for a sister.
- Exaggerated: All of the characters in the story (even teens and adults) repeatedly request siblings.
- Downplayed: Sarah wishes that she had a sibling, but knows it wouldn't be realistic to beg her parents for one; perhaps they're divorced, one has been sterilized, or the family is on a tight budget.
- Justified:
- Sarah has very few friends and is lonely.
- Sarah envies her friends, most of whom have at least one sibling.
- Sarah has three older brothers and no sisters, and is tired of being the only girl.
- Sarah thinks baby is adorable, so she wants to have one as her sibling.
- Inverted:
- Sarah wants to remain an only child, and gives her expectant mother grief over it.
- Sarah is an adult, and her parents bug her because they want grandchildren.
- Subverted: Sarah stops asking her parents for a sibling.
- Double Subverted: She's using Reverse Psychology.
- Parodied: Sarah asks her parents to somehow get her a half-sibling.
- Zig Zagged: Sarah has a Big Brother Bully, and wants him out of the picture. However, at the same time, she wants a younger brother ... at least some of the time.
- Averted: Sarah is happy with her family situation.
- Enforced: When she was a child, the head writer wanted a sibling but never got one. She decides to use this aspect of her own childhood on Sarah.
- Lampshaded: "Sarah, we've been over this again and again. We can't have another baby."
- Invoked:
- Sarah's classmates tease her because she's the only peer without siblings they know.
- Sarah's favorite show tells her that having siblings is good, leading her to want one.
- Exploited: Alice and Bob have company one day, and tell Sarah that they will get her a sibling if she's good. (This statement is obviously a lie.note )
- Defied:
- Alice and Bob arrange to have their own relatives visit more often, so that Sarah can regularly meet her cousins and potentially develop sibling-like bonds with them.
- Alice and Bob adopt a dog or a cat, and successfully convince Sarah that pets are just as good as younger siblings, in the event that one cannot have both.
- Alice and Bob explain the concept of overpopulation to Sarah so that she will feel better about having no siblings.
- Alice and Bob are scientists, so they create Robot Kid to be Sarah's step-sibling.
- Discussed: "Why does your daughter keep asking for a sibling?" "We don't know. It's not like she's lonely."
- Conversed: "I can relate to Sarah; I wanted a baby sister when I was about her age."
- Implied: Sarah plays with dolls and stuffed animals all the time, and gets excited when her parents babysit.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice gives birth to a baby girl, and Sarah regrets wishing for a sibling.
- Sarah witnesses people who have siblings that have bad relationships, making her change her mind about wanting them.
- Reconstructed: Sarah learns to accept her sister.
- Plotted A Good Waste: In an episode about families, we learn that several characters on the show are only children. Some of them wish that they had siblings, and the writers decide to continue to apply the concept to Sarah in later episodes.
- Played For Laughs: Sarah's desire for a sibling is a Running Gag.
- Played For Drama: Sarah attempts to abduct her best friend's newborn sister.
- Untwisted: Sarah's parents babysit for a family friend, and Sarah is exposed to the unpleasantries of baby care. She still wants a younger sibling.
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