Parent with New Paramour: Difference between revisions

 

[[Wicked Stepmother]] may be referred to in either 2 or 3 -- regardless of accuracy.

 

* In the Anime/Manga ''[[Midori no Hibi]]'', Seiji helps his neighbor Shiori to accept her new mother after Shiori's initial dislike.

* ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' is an interesting example: Tsumihoroboshi-hen has Rina, the new girlfriend of Rena's father. It turns out that {{spoiler|She's the lover of Satoko's [[Evil Uncle]] Teppei and plans to extort money from Rena's father, and when Rena finds out, Rina tries to kill her. Rena ends up killing her in self-defense. Then she kills Teppei. [[It Got Worse|Things go downhill from there]]}}. Of course, Rena has issues with Rina even before all of the stuff above. It mostly had to do with the fact that {{spoiler|Rena's mom cheated on her dad. She liked her mom's boyfriend before her mother told her that she was pregnant and intended to divorce her father to marry the boyfriend}}.

** {{spoiler|Mariko Shinobu}}'s father mixed it with {{spoiler|[[Your Cheating Heart]], as he first cheated on Mariko's mom with an actress and then ran away with her, pretty much abandoning Mariko and her mom.}} Her classmates, and specially [[Alpha Bitch|Aya Misaki]], also use this to bully her.

*** In fact, one of Aya's earliest [[Kick the Dog]] moments come from first trying to shame {{spoiler|Nanako}} over her family, and when {{spoiler|Mariko}} jumps in defense of her new friend, she reveals {{spoiler|Mariko}}'s family situation ''to the whole school''. No wonder {{spoiler|Mariko}} snaps ''badly'' on her. {{spoiler|It's even WORSE when the Shinobus DO get divorced (very publically), Aya again gloats about it... and Mariko actually ''[[Girl with Psycho Weapon|attacks her with a boxcutter]]''.}}

* {{spoiler|Bianca}} from ''[[Hana no Ko Lunlun]]'' can't forgive her mother for pulling this (despite the second husband being a nice guy), so she runs away to Venice and there she runs into Lunlun...

* In the prequel to ''[[Slam Dunk]]'', ''Piercings'', 11-year-old Ayako isn't too happy when her mother starts dating again.

 

* The modern [[Batwoman]], Katherine "Kate" Kane, lost her mother when she was 12 years old, and her father got remarried to a wealthy Gotham socialite, who awkwardly enough is also named Catherine. Kate is always very quick to point out that Catherine is her ''step''mother, but they seem to get along well enough (though the fact that Kate is [[Lipstick Lesbian|gay]] is implied to be a wedge between them, and Kate does remark that she lives to see her stepmother offended when she [[Les Yay|dances with Maggie Sawyer at a charity ball]]).

 

== Fan Works ==

* ''"Letters to an [[Disappeared Dad|Absent Father]]'', a mini-comic series set in the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' universe has this as one of its subjects. Delia states that she's gonna start dating again, going as far as to say, "I'm lonely, Ash..." Ash responds by shouting her down (in front of his friends, no less) and storming out, leaving her in tears. {{spoiler|In the last panel, a highly distraught Ash is writing down all the details in a letter to his father}}; Ash still clings to the hope that [[When You Coming Home, Dad?|his long-lost, estranged father will someday come home]].

 

== Film ==

* In the movie ''Freaky Friday'', Anna doesn't get along with her mother's fiance, despite him being a really nice and friendly guy, which also increases the tension between her and her mother. When he shows support for her band however, Anna realizes that he really is a good guy for her mom and their family, and she only disliked him initially because she didn't want her [[Disappeared Dad|dead dad]] "being replaced."

* [[Juno]] gets along quite well with her stepmother, who in turn, supported Juno during her pregnancy, even calling out a doctor lady who sterotyped her daughter.

* In ''[[Love Actually]]'', Sam got along fine with his stepfather Daniel, who raised him after his mother died. And when {{spoiler|Daniel met another woman}}, he had no problem with it.

* ''[[Sleepless in Seattle]]'' has this in spades, with Jonah being horrified with the women his dad meets, to the point that he tries to sabotage their dates. Of course, he has the perfect woman in mind for his dad...

 

== Literature ==

** Unfortunately for the girlfriend (now his Dad's wife!), she ends up {{spoiler|infested by the Yeerks}} after {{spoiler|Marco tells his dad everything and finally rescues his mom}}.

* ''[[Dexter]]'' puts a great deal of time and effort into gaining the trust of girlfriend Rita's children. He does succeed and they get as attached to him as they're capable of. {{spoiler|In the second novel, ''Dearly Devoted Dexter'', we find out that Dexter and Cody have ''much'' more in common than one would want to think, given that Cody's eight. Astor seems to share her brother's issues, but is more inclined to spectate rather than participate. Dexter decides the kids need him to train them in the Code of Harry.}}

* ''[[The Princess Diaries]]'' has Mia's mom dating her algebra teacher, which freaks Mia out at first because while he's a nice enough guy, Mia struggles with the lesson itself. Eventually they marry and produce Mia's half-brother Rocky.

* From ''[[Howl's Moving Castle (novel)|Howl's Moving Castle]]'', Sophie's father marries Fanny after the death of his first wife. However, she does treat her two stepdaughters and her own daughter fairly. But subtly, {{spoiler|Martha points out that after their father's death, she had sent her two daughters away for her own reasons and had the eldest Sophie left with the family hat store without any pay}}.

* The conflict in the second half of [[Barry Lyndon]] is derived from type 3 of this trope.

* In later books of ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians]]'', Percy's mother Sally begins dating Paul after her husband Gabe "mysteriously" disappears. Percy is fine with this for the most part (though he does call Paul "Blowfish" for some time after mishearing his last name) because Gabe was an abusive asshole to both him and Sally and Paul, in contrast, is a nice guy who makes Sally genuinely happy.

* The titular character in ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'' isn't too happy when her father announces he's getting remarried after her mother's death. She's outright dismayed when she learns the woman he's marrying is the mother of her two worst enemies.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

** And then there's Giles, who had a somewhat tentative but eventually friendly and entirely mature and responsible platonic friendship with Joyce. You know, except for that one time they ate the band candy, reverted to the mental age of 16 and had sex on top of a police car. Twice. Something of a [[Subverted Trope|subversion]] there, since Buffy canonically thinks of Giles as a father, but reacted with horror when she found out about the tryst - though that might have been because she got [[Squick|the gory details]] [[Psychic Powers|directly from Joyce's brain]], and the memory was apparently a very pleasant one.

** Also ''[[Dracula]]'', though that lasted even less time, and was offscreen.

* In ''Aquila'' one kid freaks out about their mother dating a new man, and spies on him, convinced he's up to something. Eventually he gets used to it.

* The TV show ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' played with this trope whenever Michael got a new love interest. He always worried about what his son thought of his dating, and usually ended up sabotaging the relationship because of that. Of course, while George Michael would usually be fine with it, the two times he didn't consult him were the two times he would in fact have minded. One, when Michael started dating the teacher he had a crush on, after misinterpreting George Michael's opinion of her. And two, with Jesse, because she's psycho.

* [[Royal Pains|Hank Lawson]] was none too pleased when his dad showed up, and was even ''less'' pleased when he took up with one of his best clients, "New Parts" Newburg.

* On ''[[Gossip Girl]]'' Blair is excited to meet her mother's new boyfriend Cyrus, believing him to be a dashing, charming, worldly man. He turns out to be tiny, nearly bald and, well, played by Wallace Shawn.

** But, she does learn to at least respect him by the end of the episode. By the time he becomes her stepfather they have formed a pretty close relationship.

** Chuck and Lily may also count. Since Chuck's mother died when he was born it's never a case of him feeling like she's replacing his birth mother. They get along great at first, then he hates her for a while after his father dies, but then agrees to let her adopt him. She's practically a better mother to him now than she is to her biological children.

* In the '90s teen show ''California Dreams'', [[The Ditz]] Tiffany has been living with her dad since her mom walked out on them years before the time of the show. When Dad starts dating again, Tiffany is fine with it at first...until he starts blowing off his plans with her to be with the new girlfriend. She feels left out and unwanted, and makes a fool of herself trying to prove that the girlfriend isn't on the level (she's actually quite a nice person). The episode ends with something of a [[Broken Aesop]], because while Tiffany apologizes for being insecure and acting like a bit of a bratty teenager, her father never apologizes for ditching her or hurting her feelings.

* ''[[Glee]]'' has Kurt's father Burt finding love with Finn's mother Carole. While they're one big happy family now, at the beginning both boys had issues with the relationship. Finn was afraid that Burt would try to replace his father, who died in Iraq when Finn was a baby, while Kurt jealously (and erroneously) believed that his father would rather have Finn as his son.

* ''[[Mad Men]]'' gives us something of a combination of an inversion and Type 1: Don Draper invites his secretary Megan Calvet on a vacation to California with him and his kids specifically because she handled them so well on a visit to the office. It's only on the trip that he sleeps with her and ''then'' proposes after she's established a firm rapport with Sally and Bobby: when he announces his decision to marry her, they are actually kind of happy it happened.

 

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', Yukari Takeba is disgusted with her mother's constant search for new lovers because she thinks it dishonors the memory of her dead father. {{spoiler|As the link progresses, Yukari learns that her mother wants to remarry, but ultimately decides to wait until Yukari is ready.}}

** ''[[Persona 4]]'' has Eri Minami, the Temperance social link, who recently married a single father and is trying to become close to her new stepson, Yuuta, but doesn't have any success. Meanwhile, Yuuta is convinced that Eri hates him because the two are so distant (what with Yuuta's father overseas at the time). It's up to the main character to help their relationship improve.

 

* The early days of ''[http://www.jaynaylor.com/betterdays/ Better Days]'' often had this as a plot element with Fisk's widowed mother Sheila trying to find someone new, including once dating her kid's principal ({{spoiler|this ended badly, with him being psychotic and raping Sheila only to die under suspicious circumstances}}) and their married next-door neighbor Sam (who was also the father of Fisk's best friend, just to complicate things), who after having an affair with Sheila and being caught eventually married her years later. Fisk then had a [http://www.jaynaylor.com/betterdays/archives/2007/06/chapter-18-reac-25.html a conversation] with his mother where he told her that it was too late for Sam to replace his father, it didn't matter, she was happy now, [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|and that was what mattered]].

* In ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'', Lindesfarne (Kevin's daughter) bonds rather quickly with new stepmother Kell, while Rudy (Kell's son) has more trouble accepting stepfather Kevin, but does eventually. Species issues are probably relevant - Rudy, being a canine (fox/wolf cross), has some trouble accepting a rabbit as outranking him. Lindesfarne, on the other paw, does not have the pack structure issue complicating her relationship with Kell.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Arthur]]'', Buster's mother dated a man named Harry for a while who Buster really liked, but eventually they broke it off so she could pursue other interests. However, Buster and Harry were still shown hanging out after this.

* ''Pepper Ann'' one-upped this by having the new squeeze of the mother actually be PA's ''teacher'', who had a dislike for PA. It didn't last.

[[Category:Parental Issues]]

[[Category:The Parent Trope]]