Daddy Had a Good Reason For Abandoning You/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character has angst due to alleged parental abandonment, they later discover there was a good reason for the alleged behavior, and forgive the parental figure.

  • Straight: Alice thought her father didn't love her because he disappeared when she was a child. Later, she finds out he was in prison for a minor crime, and her mother didn't want to tell her.
  • Exaggerated: After a happy early childhood, Alice was suddenly left at an orphanage for no apparent reason, and lived a life of terrible hardship and abuse. She later finds out that had her parents not left her, she'd have been murdered by the villain, and her parents were The Men in Black agents who died saving the world.
  • Justified:
  • Inverted:
    • Alice's father angsts over Alice running away.
    • Alice never doubted her father had a good reason for abandoning her, and is proud of him for doing it.
    • Alice has angst from NOT being left behind and being caught up in the hectic, dangerous lifestyle.
  • Subverted: Alice thought her father didn't love her because he disappeared when she was a child. Later, she finds out he was in prison at the time... for abusing her as a baby.
  • Double Subverted: Alice thought her father didn't love her because he disappeared when she was a child. Later, she finds out he was in prison at the time... for abusing her as a baby... but he was wrongly convicted.
  • Parodied: Alice is eight years old and angsts over parental abandonment when it's only been 3 hours and she was left with a Badly-Battered Babysitter.
  • Deconstructed:
    • The excuse for the abandonment wasn't really good enough to justify it. The parent failed to Take a Third Option, a fact that is repeatedly Lampshaded. When child and parent attempt to reconcile, it goes awry and the relationship becomes even more dysfunctional than before.
    • Alternately, the reason for the abandonment was good enough to justify it. Just because it was done for what really is a good reason will do nothing to make reconciliation easier, nor the relationship less dysfunctional. Just because it might well have been the best option will not prevent regrets on the parental side, nor the child from feeling that the parent ought to have taken a third option no matter how good the evidence is that the best option was taken.
  • Reconstructed: The former child and parent realize that neither is perfect and agree to start over.
  • Zig Zagged: Alice thought her father didn't love her because he disappeared when she was a child. Later, she finds out he was in prison at the time... for abusing her as a baby... but he was wrongly convicted. However he turns out to be the Big Bad, but makes a Heel Face Turn...
  • Averted: Alice was never abandoned by her parents, and had a relatively angst - free childhood.
  • Enforced: In order to allow the Satisfied Street Rat to end up as king, the producers decided that his parents will have to be the rightful rulers and thus must've had a good reason to abandon him since otherwise the parents would be morally questionable, which doesn't sit well for G - rated fairytales.
  • Lampshaded:
  • Invoked: A spy pretends to be her dead father in order to get close to her and get her to defect.
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: Alice's father refuses to abandon her even though he has a good excuse, because he believes unnecessary angst is worse than the harsh realities of caring for a child in a bad part of town.
  • Discussed: "What's with 'heroes' claiming to have good reasons to abandon to their children? It sounds like the author either has daddy issues or they're feeling guilty about abandoning their own kids."
  • Conversed: "I'll bet Alice is going to find out it wasn't her father's fault."
  • Played For Laughs:
    • Alice's father never even intended to abandon her, it was largely the result of his perpetual bad luck. Alice keeps missing out on reconciling and blaming her father wrongly.
    • See also "Parodied".
  • Played For Drama: The only thing that kept Alice's father going was the thought of seeing his little girl again, but Parental Abandonment has led Alice to distrust others, so forgiveness won't come easy.

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