Basic Trope: A character is, well, afraid to hold a baby.
- Straight: Alice and Bob have a baby boy named Charlie, and Alice offers Charlie to Bob, to hold. Bob is nervous.
- Exaggerated: Bob is so scared to hold Charlie, he goes into shock.
- Downplayed: Bob is excited to hold Charlie, but a little scared at the same time.
- Justified:
- Bob has a jumpy personality in general.
- Bob has never held a baby before and is worried he will hurt or kill Charlie.
- Bob has read or heard horror stories of babies dying or getting seriously injured from being held incorrectly.
- Bob is afraid that Charlie will spit up on him.
- Inverted:
- Charlie is afraid to touch Bob.
- Bob is carrying Charlie and is afraid to put him down, for fear of making him cry.
- Subverted: Alice knows Bob is nervy in terms of personality and so anticipates he will be scared of holding Charlie, but he isn't.
- Double Subverted: At least, not initially, because he didn't realise that babies could die from being held wrong— when Alice tells him, "I thought you'd be scared of killing him," on the other hand, he flips.Bob: "Wait... babies can die from that?!"
- Parodied: Satan is afraid to hold the baby Antichrist.
- Zigzagged: Bob has conflicting emotions about holding Charlie, one of which is fear.
- Averted:
- Bob is not afraid of holding Charlie.
- There are no babies.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "I've always been nervous about holding babies."
- Invoked: Diane tries to scare Bob out of holding Charlie, for whatever reason.
- Exploited:
- Defied: Bob reassures himself that there is nothing to be afraid of.
- Discussed: "He'll probably be petrified of holding the baby at least initially."
- Conversed: "There's many depictions of dads in media. You got the Bumbling Dad, the Standard '50s Father, the new dad who's afraid to hold the baby..."
- Implied: Bob is seen holding Charlie and looking nervous, but it's unknown if that's why he's nervous.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs: When talking about why he doesn't want to hold Charlie, Bob says, "What if he dies, becomes brain-damaged, or spits up on me?!".
- Played for Drama: The reason Bob is afraid to hold Charlie is because he has a brain-damaged brother who got his brain damage because their father dropped him.
- Played for Horror: Bob has strange, uncontrollable powers and is afraid of using them on Charlie.
Don't drop the link to Afraid to Hold the Baby, its bones are still pretty soft.
