Her Child, but Not His/Playing With
- Basic Trope: A couple has a child that looks very different from either parent, implying that he/she was fathered by someone else.
- Played Straight: Alice is married to Bob, but has an affair with Jamal. Nine months later, she gives birth to a black baby.
- Exaggerated: Alice has several children that look nothing like Bob.
- Justified:
- Alice has been cheating.
- Alice and Bob used donor eggs and/or sperm to conceive, and they came from someone with very different looks.
- Alice wasn't cheating, but she was raped, and became pregnant as a result.
- Alice and Bob are both biracial; it's just the way the genes combined.
- Bob had unprotected sex with Charlotte, who had had unprotected sex with Jamal just hours before (or they had a threesome), then Bob went and had sex with Alice, which gave her both his own sperm and that of Jamal.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob have children that look like them.
- Shaniqua gives birth to a white baby, despite being married to Jamal.
- Subverted:
- Any of the reasons under "Justified" that don't involve cheating.
- The child looks like neither Alice nor Bob, but is stated to be an adopted child.
- Alice and Jamal use a condom.
- Double Subverted:
- But everyone assumes Alice cheated, and judges her (and her children) accordingly.
- But Alice becomes pregnant by him anyway.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Parodied:
- Alice has been cheating with Jamal, and gives birth to a black baby. Bob still thinks it's his child.
- The baby is a tentacle monster, because of an encounter Alice had with Naughty Tentacles nine months ago.
- Lampshaded:
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob are faithful to one another, or are not in a relationship of any kind.
- Alice has an affair with Jamal, but does not become pregnant.
- Enforced:
- Invoked: Alice finds herself in bed with Jamal, but they have no protection.
- Defied:
- Alice and Jamal stop, either out of guilt or lack of protection.
- Alice is on the Pill, and makes Jamal use a condom.
- Discussed:
- Conversed:
- Played For Laughs: Bob is more surprised than upset.
- Played For Drama: Almost always is.
- Back to Her Child, but Not His