History Main / ChildrenAreTenderHearted

[[folder:Films - Animation]]

[[folder:Films - Live Action]]

* ''Series/ColdCase'': In the episode "Beautiful Little Fool", Muriel, who was a small child at the time, refused to give up the golden clock from her father to sell after the 1929 stock market crash left her family broke. But then struggling Violet came and begged Muriel's older brother Nick to take in her child, who she said he fathered. Nick cruelly refused, even though Muriel knew they were still well enough to care for the baby. When Muriel saw how sad and desperate Violet was, she gave Violet her beloved clock to sell.

* Gerard Manley Hopkins's "Spring and Fall" is about a little girl feeling sorry for a tree that lost its leaves.

* The cast of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' often fell into this trope, especially [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Linus]] and [[TagalongKid Sally]], who were canonically the youngest kids in the strip for decades. Linus in particular is famous for his [[CompanionCube extreme attachment]] to his blue blanket and his habit of patting birds on the head just to make them feel better. Even Lucy, a GrumpyBear extreme, occasionally had moments of genuine compassion and kindness. In one strip, she remarks that "This is a tough world to get along in. I feel sorry for all the new little babies." When Linus points out that a child is likely being born at that very instant...

** In "Stray Bullet", Bubbles the FriendToAllLivingThings takes pity on an injured squirrel and gets teary-eyed over the fact that it may not survive (at least until she saves its life with Chemical X).

TenderTears are common and can be rather childish attempts to comfort.

** In "Kenny Dies", when [[LittlestCancerPatient Kenny is terminally ill]], all his friends show varying degrees of concern for him, especially Stan, who can't bring himself to visit Kenny because he can't stand to see Kenny in such a state. Cartman, however, ends up zigzagging this; he weeps over the possibility that Kenny may be KilledOffForReal and initially uses aborted stem cells to save him, but [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk he ends up using the stem cells to build a second Shakey's.]]

->''Margaret, are you grieving''
->''Over Goldengrove unleaving?''
->''Leaves, like the things of man, you''
->''With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?''
->--'''Gerard Manley Hopkins''', "Spring and Fall"

** In "Coupe d'etat", [[EverybodyCries all three of the Powerpuff Girls (and the Professor) cry]] when K.A.R.R. tearfully tells them [[IJustWantToBeLoved that he just wants to be loved]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'', when she's a toddler, she protects a baby turtle and helps it reach the ocean.

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series, Cassie's position as TheHeart of the team is often reflected in her love of all living creatures and hatred of seeing them in pain. Since her parents are veterinarians, Cassie already has medical training; in an EstablishingCharacterMoment, her immediate response to discover the injured Elfangor in a construction site is to start trying to apply first aid, despite him being a blue-furred, four-eyed, blade-tailed alien. In another book, she nearly blows the team's cover while they're in the Amazon rainforest when angry Controllers start shooting every monkey they can find in an attempt to smoke out the Animorphs. Since one of the major themes of the series is [[WarIsHell the cost of war]], Cassie's compassion for animals is often used as a reminder that the Animorphs are just scared kids who stumbled into an intergalactic conflict and became Earth's only line of defense by accident.
* ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'': When Mr. Arable goes to kill Wilbur for being the runt of the litter, Fern stops him and tearfully begs him not to do so. She argues that [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman just because he's a pig, he shouldn't be treated like a lesser being]]. Mr. Arable is touched and decides to spare Wilbur.

** In "Marjorine," the boys convince Butters to [[DisguisedInDrag disguise himself in drag]] to sneak into the girls' slumber party and steal their cootie catcher, which they believe is a genuine way to see the future. Though the girls [[KidsAreCruel initially make fun of "Marjorine"]], they realize they went too far when "she" starts crying. The girls genuinely apologize and decide to give Marjorine a makeover to cheer her up.

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Louise Belcher, generally under KidsAreCruel, has this show up around cute animals such as polar bear cubs, puppies, and the class pet.

* In "Marjorine," the boys convince Butters to [[DisguisedInDrag disguise himself in drag]] to sneak into the girls' slumber party and steal their cootie catcher, which they believe is a genuine way to see the future. Though the girls [[KidsAreCruel initially make fun of "Marjorine"]], they realize they went too far when "she" starts crying. The girls genuinely apologize and decide to give Marjorine a makeover to cheer her up.

TenderTears are common, and can be rather childish attempts to comfort.

** In one story arc, Calvin and Hobbes come across an injured baby raccoon and want to save him. Calvin rushes to get his mother to help, and spends the whole night worrying about the raccoon. The next morning, Calvin's father sadly tells him that the raccoon didn't make it, and Calvin bursts into tears:

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** Though the [[ChristmasEpisode Christmas-themed strips]] inevitably centered on Calvin's LongList of demands from Santa, the Christmas Day strips themselves always showed him going out of his way to make sure Hobbes gets presents, too. Keep in mind that to everyone else, Hobbes is just a stuffed animal, but that never stops Calvin from including him in the Christmas celebrations.
** In an early strip series, a dog knocks Calvin over and steals Hobbes, sending the boy into a HeroicBSOD. When he learns that Susie found him (not knowing that he belonged to Calvin), he immediately smothers her hand in kisses and thanks her endlessly, despite his usual GirlsHaveCooties behavior.
* The cast of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' often fell into this trope, especially [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Linus]] and [[TagalongKid Sally]], who were canonically the youngest kids in the strip for decades. Linus in particular is famous for his [[CompanionCube extreme attachment]] to his blue blanket and his habit of patting birds on the head just to make them feel better. Even Lucy, a GrumpyBear extreme, occasionally had moments of genuine compassion and kindness.

** In "Major Boobage," Cartman gets a genuine PetTheDog moment when the town starts outlawing cats because people are [[FantasticDrug getting high off feline urine.]] Calvin takes it up on himself to shelter all of the kitties he can find (in a clear parody of ''Film/SchindlersList'') and keep them safe, even going out of his way to foster more cats than he can afford because he loves them so much.

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[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': A dead bird and an injured, dying raccoon, at different times, cause Calvin considerable anguish.

** When Calvin's mother gets sick, he tries to do nice things for her like making her breakfast ("The eggs kind of burned and stuck to the pan, but you can probably chip them out with this chisel") and volunteering to read her a story. When she politely tells him that she just wants to rest, he feels like he's messing everything up and, near tears, sadly remarks "It's hard to be mom for a mom," prompting her to hug him and reassure that he's doing a great job.

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[[folder:TV -Live Action]]
* ''Series/ColdCase'': In the episode "Beautiful Little Fool", Muriel, who was a small child at the time, refused to give up the golden clock from her father to sell after the 1929 stock market crash left her family broke. But then struggling Violet came and begged Muriel's older brother Nick to take in her child, who she said he fathered. Nick cruelly refused, even though Muriel knew they were still well enough to care for the baby. When Muriel saw how sad and desperate Violet was, she gave Violet her beloved clock to sell.
* ''Series/TheRifleman'': This was a trait of Mark [=McCain=], who was often quick to bond with troubled characters and often tried to help them, even if the audience knew the character in question couldn't be trusted. One good example was when a trick shooter came to town to kill the Northfork's marshal as revenge for when a former, more corrupt town marshal had murdered the shooter's father and the town had done nothing. Mark had spent time with the gunman, and while he didn't condone the man's desires, he understood the gunman's resentment based on how he would have felt in the same situation.
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