Social Services Does Not Exist: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

There is an intrinsic understanding throughout most of modern Western society that children are to be loved, nurtured, and protected throughout their childhoods by their parents. Parents are viewed as having a responsibility to ensure their child's happiness and welfare, as a necessary component to their healthy development into responsible and mature adults prepared to face the demands of society.

Parents in many comedic series believe that this is a load of poppycock, but this isn't usually due to malice or disdain for their offspring. They are simply such [[Jerkass|jerkasses]], either through self-absorption or stupidity, that they don't even ''understand'' that passing all their debts onto their children, arranging random and contradictory marriages, and engaging in thoughtless abuse and neglect of their children could cause psychological harm. They aren't applying the rod to avoid spoiling the child - they don't even know it's there. (Rod or child, whichever.)

 

 

 

There's also the matter of all those kids running around [[There Are No Adults|apparently without any parents at all.]]

* Ryuunosuke and her father in ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'', often considered the prototype for Ranma, although Ryuunosuke is an actual girl who was raised as a guy by a dad who refuses to recognize that she's a girl, mainly because he doesn't think a girl can take over his precious tea shop. This has left her with rather bad gender issues; she's fully aware she's a girl, and wants to be a "real" girl more than anything, but her father refuses to allow her to wear female clothes or even talk of herself as being a girl, nevermind try and get a boyfriend or try to act like a girl... in fact, because she's spent so long being brought up to act like a boy, she doesn't even know how to act like a girl.

** She also has an arranged marriage she doesn't want. Namely because her fiance Nagisa Shiowatara's father is just as much a loony as her own- upon having a son, rather than raise him as a boy, he deliberately raises him as a girl in order to match the "boy" that Ryuunosuke was raised to be. Unlike her, however, he does seem to know how to act like a guy, and he does realize that he's actually male, but he enjoys crossdressing. What makes things worse for her is that he possesses a number of ghostly powers, due to having died from eating sea urchin ice cream then coming back from the dead... though this also gives him some ghostly weaknesses, like being repelled by spirit wards. He's also, despite his [[Bishonen]] body, an expert sumo wrestler and quite capable of beating her in a fight.

** Hell, Hayate's so used to his parents being complete [[Jerkass|jerkasses]] that he usually speaks rather casually about all the abuse he's been put through. Usually to the discomfort and disbelief of his listeners. The example speech at the top of this page was a cheerfully-read ''grade school'' oral report which left the teacher and the entire class in tears.

* Gendo Ikari, as usual for ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', is an example of a normally comedic trope [[Deconstruction|deconstructed]] into something tragic. At least he palms his kid off on someone who ''tries''...eventually. Of course, given that this is [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] Japan, it's possible that social services actually ''doesn't'' exist; and regardless, given that NERV basically ''is'' the world government, even if they do exist there's nothing they could do to stop Gendo.

** Orihime and Chad both have a curious lack of parents or guardians? Somehow, Orihime's brother Sora was able to get custody of her as soon as he turned 18 (maybe not hard since the parents ''were'' abusive, but that only makes one wonder why social services didn't do anything before then), and both Orihime and Chad live on their own. At the age of 15.

** Soul Society itself has this trope; as far as we know there are no services for any of the newly arrived souls, even child ones.

* ''[[Binbou Shimai Monogatari]]'' is about 15-year old Kyou, who takes care of her 9-year old sister Asu without any help. She manages, even with the little money she is allowed to earn, but it's still a highly unlikely situation in modern-day Japan.

** Of course, later they decline their aunt's aid just because they like it that way.

* Hayate Yagami of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', who has been living independently for who knows how many years after her parents died. While she's shown to be [[Wise Beyond Their Years|mature enough to live on her own]], and her mysterious uncle explains where she gets the funds for supporting herself, one wonders how no one thought that it might be a good idea to have someone look after a ''wheel-chair bound 9-year old [[Ill Girl]]''. Granted this was part of an [[Evil Plan]], so those in charge might be forcing the authorities to look the other way.

* ''[[One Piece]]'': Luffy's grandfather was apparently dead-set on taking Genma Saotome's crown for this trope. His 'training to be a strong man', even if it was mostly played for laughs when referenced, was pretty horrific. Getting tossed down a cliff, put into a jungle in the middle of the night, tied to a balloon and allowed to float away, and Lord knows what else is strongly implied to have traumatized Luffy; he avoids thinking about what happened, and his grandpa is the only person he truly fears.

* ''[[Code Geass]]''. Emperor Charles is nothing but horrible to Lelouch and Nunnally (And in all odds, a few of the other princes and princesses of Britannia that we never got to see.). Their mother Marriane, however, was evidently a very sweet mother, {{spoiler|despite her [[Evil Matriarch|true nature]]}}, until she was murdered in the backstory. The loss of his only decent parent left its scars on both children, literally in Nunnally's case, and it's no coincidence that Lelouch practically reveres his mother {{spoiler|until he actually gets to meet her again eight years after the murder and realizes she wasn't Parent of the Year either}}.

** Nunally's blindness was {{spoiler|caused by Charles's geass, not by psychological trauma. Her legs were crippled by bullet wounds.}} To his credit, Charles {{spoiler|planned to abolish [[Instrumentality|all human interaction and individuality]], so he figured his parenting wouldn't matter when he was finished}}. Also, he was emperor of half the planet. Who had the authority to take his kids away?

*** There's also Suzaku, who, after the death of his father, apparently took care of himself for most of the seven years between then and the start of the anime, except for an unspecified period referenced in a [[All There in the Manual|Picture Drama]] where he was briefly cared for by an unrelated woman dubbed "Biker Gal" by the fans. In-series it's stated that his extended family basically threw him out on his ear when he applied for Honorary Britannian-hood.

** Although {{spoiler|Yukito's probably the only one that would understand what's going on, anyway. And she might not have been abandoned, there's the whole two timeline thing going}}.

* ''[[Loveless]]'' avoids the common partner trope to this, [[There Are No Therapists]], by having Ritsuka go see one regularly to help with his personality change. However, it is very evident to nearly every adult that sees him in the first volume that he is being both physically and mentally abused by his mother and no one does anything about it! While his home room teacher attempts to help him out by trying to meet his parents, she is discouraged from doing so by Soubi and her faculty, and she generally has little to no success. This could be an example of Japanese social mores at work here, priding the notion of a person caring for themselves and outside help is unwelcome, making this a case of [[Values Dissonance]], but still...

* In the English language version of ''[[Shin Chan]]'', Penny's father is physically abusive to Penny and her mother. Even though the police and school administrators know about it, nobody does anything.

** Misae/Mitsy in both versions. If Shin badmouths her or just happens to be in the wrong place in the wrong time, she whacks him. One example occurs in an episode where Hima kept trying to steal a magazine Misae was trying to read. After she discovers that Hima drew in it, what does she do? Does she scold Hima? Hell no! [[Kick the Dog|She hits Shin for no reason, even though he just got home.]]

* In [[Iron Wok Jan]], Jan was raised by his grandfather to become a master chef. His training methods included ''slamming him against a boiling hot steamer if he kept tofu boiling for longer than a minute''. He also would beat the ever-loving hell out of him with his cane, to the point where Jan's back is covered with scars (which at one point clue his rival in to the nature of his upbringing). It's also heavily implied than Jan never went to school, just lived with his grandfather learning how to cook.

* In [[Naruto]], it appears that, with VERY few exceptions, the titular character was all but socially isolated to the point of emotional abuse from very early childhood. And since the [[Not So Different]] moment with Gaara, fanfiction writers take it to the logical extreme, horrendous physical abuse is added on to the emotional abuse, making one wonder how Naruto managed to be as well-adjusted as he is if that's true.

** Kogoro: the guy punches Conan in the skull for "playing" with the evidence, disrupting the case, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|being smarter than him]].

** Hattori's father has punched him hard enough to send him flying. In front of several police officers. Of course, it might be because he's their boss, but still, none of them seem to even blink.

** It's made worse, when Brock leaves his dozen siblings with newly found father, who is completely incompetent (come on, who would expect this guy to take care of 9 children). And it's later revealed that their mother {{spoiler|was alive all along and wandering around the world like her husband.}} It seems that leaving your children completely alone with just an older teenage brother in charge isn't considered a crime in the Pokemon world.

** Really the whole franchise. It's about capturing Monsters who have the ability to create near every element and snap an adult's spine with nary a wink, and that's not even getting into the legendaries (one of whom is basically God). Now remember the main character is 10 years old...

* Maron's parents from ''[[Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne]]'' emotionally scarred their daughter by regularly leaving her at home alone at night as a young girl because of their jobs. Before she was even ''in grade school'', they left to work overseas, and haven't contacted her since when the series begins. Miyako and her family might have been right across the hall to take care of her, but really, who the hell thought it was okay for a girl that young to be living in an apartment alone? By the time the series begins, Maron is a [[Broken Bird]] incapable of comprehending "love" because "no one taught [her] about it" and spends most of her time pretending not to be depressed and [[Kaitou|stealing valuable pieces of art]] in the name of [[God]]. It gets worse when you start thinking about how Miyako's father, who knows all about Maron's situation and sees her on almost a daily basis, is ''a police officer...''

* If not for this trope, ''[[Kanamemo]]'' would've been a pretty darned short series/manga.

** Seto Kaiba was [[Department of Child Disservices|abused by his adoptive father]], then [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|somehow]] managed to raise his brother all alone after his adoptive father's death.

** In the manga, Bakura is seen writing a letter to his sister asking how she and their parents are doing, implying, naturally, that he doesn't live with them. Sure, his father ''is'' still alive and presumably sends him money and set up the apartment, but he's underage and living completely alone. Mostly to stop the Spirit of the Ring from putting other people in comas, of course, which just makes it worse.

** Jonouchi, at least in the manga, should've never been kept with his alcoholic, gambling-addicted, and potentially abusive father. He seems sane and optimistic enough, but [[Fridge Horror|one has to wonder]] [[Loser Son of Loser Dad|about his theme of gambling and chance cards...]]

** Somewhat justified with the Ishtars, (who, especially Marik, also clearly need some therapy), since they lived underground and cut off from society almost entirely and had other goals once they freed themselves.

* Literally half the cast of ''[[Madoka Magica]]'' is living without parents or guardians. They're in ''middle school''. In fact, the only notable family is titular character's. {{spoiler|Not that they can help her daughter much anyway.}}

* In ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'', Seita and his younger sister Setsuko are left homeless after the destruction of their home by Allied bombing and the death of their mother. Their aunt takes them in for a short while, but after leaving her house neither the police or doctors are willing to help them and they must fend for themselves, stealing food to survive and living in an abandoned bomb shelter by a river.

* Justified in ''[[Runaways]]'': No one ever realized that Chase was being abused because his mad scientist father found a method of beating him that left no marks.

** Also subverted later, after {{spoiler|the Pride were all killed off. No sooner had the kids escaped, than Captain America found them and put them all in separate foster homes. The kids all promptly escaped and regrouped, because they missed each other and found social services ill-equipt to help them get over the trauma of having one's super-villain parents being killed by Biblical giants.}}

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[A Cinderella Story]]'' and ''[[Another Cinderella Story]]''.

** The exception would be ''They Made Me a Criminal'', directed by Busby Berkeley (yes, [[Busby Berkeley Number|THAT]] Busby Berkeley). In this case the Dead End Kids are sent to a ranch in Arizona by a philanthropic priest who hopes to reform them through hard work and good caretaking figures. Whether it works or not is up for debate.

* ''[[Carrie]]'': Even by the looser standards of 1976, there's no way that any social worker would let Carrie stay with a mother as abusive as Margaret. Might be justified in that Margaret, at least in the book, views the entire government (including, presumably, social services) as godless and Satanic, and would most likely react violently to any attempt to take away her daughter.

* In a way, this is the whole premise of ''[[Gone Baby Gone]]'': {{spoiler|Amanda's mother is neglectful to a point that is just shy of manslaughter, but rather than alert the proper authorities the [[Anti-Villain]] takes matters into his own hands, abducting the young girl, staging her death, and secreting her away to live in safety.}} The author of the book the film is based on, Dennis Lehane, used to work with abused children.

* Kevin's parents by the second ''[[Home Alone]]'' film have problems with this. Leaving him behind once can possibly be justified (particularly since the film clearly shows they mistook the annoying neighbor kid for Kevin,) but not keeping track of a child two years in a row simply because they were afraid to miss a plane? No one in the family notices a child missing for the duration of a flight from Chicago to Miami (and a child who's been missing before, no less?) And once they report it to the police, they JOKE about it (out of nerves, but still?) In real life, this magnitude of neglect would certainly prompt at least an interview with social services.

** If you saw a sickly little boy who regularly looked like something bigger than a dog had been seriously mauling him, would you try and do something about it? Because if so, it seems that you think differently than any of Lupin's neighbors did when he was growing up. He never mentions this having been a downside of being a werewolf, which makes it a fairly reasonable assumption that nobody responded to what would have looked like some form of abuse from the outside.

* In ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', the Baudelaires go through a series of guardians who are either abusive or incompetent, and eventually end up wandering around on their own {{spoiler|as wanted criminals}}. If there is any equivalent of social services in their world, it's too corrupt, [[Adults Are Useless|stupid]], or [[Apathetic Citizens|uncaring]] to do much. This however, is entirely fitting given the way adults are portrayed as universally incompetent or evil (or dead).

* There is a series of children's books by Barbara Robinson called "The Best _____ Ever". A series of characters who the stories revolve around, a family of children called the Herdmans. Their mother has been stated to be continuously working herself long shifts and is only sometimes seen outside of work and their dad has [[Disappeared Dad|caught a train years ago and was never seen since]]. They have virtually no adult supervision and act almost criminally, repeatedly beating each other up, setting things on fire, stealing, have no apparent source of income, and live in a house that's a death-trap with a cat that's incredibly dangerous. Yet CPS ''never'' seems to go after them.

** Subverted in one trip where it's stated that someone is told to investigate and actually ''does'' come over to their house. The result was that she fell into a hole and their cat jumped her. If she didn't have a hat on she'd have been bald. So she simply just checks by and makes sure that the Herdmans didn't burn the house down. Still; you'd think they'd call the police, but it's implied that most of the adults in the series are ''afraid to''.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Played with in ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]]'', where social services do exist, but the system is far from perfect and it suffers from many limitations such as dwindling budget, lack of manpower, and outdated/incorrect data. Many times the detectives stumble across a case that social services really should have picked up on, but the victims unfortunately fall through the cracks in the system.

* In ''[[Falling Skies]]'', obviously the larger system has broken down, but once they take the mind-controlling harnesses off the kids backs there doesn't seem to be much effort to interview them about their experiences nor offer them counseling for what was obviously a very difficult experience. One is pretty much left to wander around the compound freely with a dazed expression.

* In ''[[Shameless]]'' (US version) social services do exist but they seem to have largely given up on the Gallagher family. The parents consist of an absentee mother and an alcoholic father and the kids have been taken away by child services in the past. However, it never seemed to stick and now Fiona makes sure that they stay under Child Services' radar.

 

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* In [http://jeffoverturf.blogspot.com/2010/06/nemo-3-billy-deback-and-parlor-bedroom.html Parlor, Bedroom, and Sink], the infant protagonist Bunky was often left to go on adventures on his own, usually involving the wicked Fagin trying to kidnap him and force him to partake in scams. His father usually isn't even around to protect his family.

 

** They won't do anything about teenagers though. Teens can starve to death and live alone, despite only being around 14 - 16 years old.

* Subverted in ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]''. In "Final Fantasy: Episode Zero", Lightning is actually given the option of accepting help from the government when her mother dies--the fact that she decided to raise Serah on her own anyway serves to underline [[Mama Bear|her personality]]. The trope is further twisted when Serah is engaged to Snow: With a strong parental figure during her formative years she turned out just fine--''Lightning'' is the one with baggage.

** And no justification for Trucy Wright. {{spoiler|She's an eight year old who's almost immediately adopted by an out of work disbarred attorney whose only tie to her is that he was her father's lawyer. At fifteen she's helping to support the family by performing magic acts around town. Phoenix mentions that there's no one else to take care of her, as her entire family is dead/missing except for an uncle who's in police custody at the time. He offers to look after her, and she accepts happily, and what with him being a former lawyer could probably get legal guardianship legally.}}

* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' has Anise {{spoiler|being [[The Mole]] for Mohs because of her parents being too dim-witted to realize that their gullibility with their finances qualifies as [[Financial Abuse]].}} However, social services probably don't exist due to the Score being in place and all.

 

== Web Comics ==

* This is the only explanation for Namine, Sora, and Riku (presumably teenager aged) even being on ''[[Ansem Retort]]''. Social Services should have been on FOX's asses the ''minute'' Kairi (another teen) {{spoiler|was killed by a demon.}}

** Confirmed to be teenagers; a oneshot gag has them trying to get their driver's licenses only for Sora to destroy the set of a hospital drama and kill one of the actors.

== Web Original ==

* [[Alice and Kev]], a story made using ''[[The Sims]] 3''. Despite having an abusive parent, being dirt poor, hungry, and homeless no one comes to save Alice. This actually makes a little sense in-game, where social services won't help teenagers for whatever reason.

 

 

* In ''[[Madeline]]: Lost in Paris'', the antagonist had apparently been lying to the courts for awhile to keep the other girls locked up in the lace factory. Kinda surprising considering that, you know, it's ''FRANCE''....

* Pretty much every adult in ''[[South Park]]'' is an idiot who barely supervise their kids at all. Well, except for Butters' family, who are just ''[[Jerkass|completely]] [[Abusive Parents|abusive]] assholes'' who have viciously beat him on at least one occasion.

** Averted in a Slappy Squirrel cartoon where Slappy has gone insane and Skippy is removed from her custody.

* ''[[Hey Arnold]]'' is pretty bad - Arnold's grandmother and grandfather are incredibly weird, but Social Services never check up - although in the movie, his grandfather mentions that if they did step in, he and grandma would go into a nursing home and Arnold would go to a foster home (potentially because of their weirdness). However, Arnold really isn't that bad, given that his grandparents can care for him. Helga, meanwhile, is probably worse, given that her dad is mentally abusive (about as close to [[Abusive Parents]] as you can get while still being kid-friendly) and her mom is an alcoholic, constantly depressed and unaware of her surroundings, has no drivers license and falls asleep in weird places after making "smoothies".