Basic Trope: A character lives with an uncle and/or an aunt.
- Straight: Martin the Kid Hero and his Tagalong Kid sister Melanie live with their aunt Alice and uncle Bob. The parents are mentioned in passing, but the reason for their absence is unexplained.
- Exaggerated:
- Martin lives with his entire extended family: several uncles and aunts (some single and some married), both pairs of grandparents, and even great-grandparents and second cousins. And yet Martin's parents are never even mentioned.
- Martin's friends also live with uncles/aunts.
- Downplayed:
- A very minor character lives with an uncle and/or an aunt, while the main characters all live with one or both parents.
- Martin lives with his single mother as well as his uncle and aunt.
- Martin's parents travel a lot and aren't always able to bring their son with them, so when he's not with his parents on some trip, he's living with his Aunt Alice and Uncle Bob (along with their kids, who see Martin more as their brother instead of their cousin).
- Justified:
- Martin's parents are too busy with work and/or friends.
- They're dead; Martin is Conveniently an Orphan.
- It is traditional for extended family to raise children in Troperville.
- Alice and Bob wanted a child but couldn't have one, so they arranged to raise Martin, the son of Alice's sister, who has too many.
- Inverted:
- No one has any uncles or aunts; every adult character is apparently an only child. The children all live with their parents, and the only other relatives shown are grandparents.
- Or, if the character who’s with the uncle and/or aunt is female, then it’s gender inverse called “Nieceism”.
- Subverted: Alice and Bob are Martin's parents after all.
- Double Subverted: The above Family Relationship Switcheroo was a lie.
- Parodied: Martin looks exactly like a younger Bob, whenever Martin's origins are mentioned, Alice and Bob quickly change the subject, and at some point it's let slip that Bob and Alice were only children.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Martin lives with his parents.
- Enforced:
- "So far, everyone has a Nuclear Family. Let's make one character live with an uncle and aunt."
- Alice and Bob were already main characters, but the writers want the characters' ages to remain ambiguous (perhaps they're anthropomorphic animals) so they decide to give the couple a nephew rather than a son.
- The writers wish to explore how Alice and Bob would behave as a Mama Bear and Papa Wolf, but they don't want to deal with giving them children (at least yet) and shoving a random kid into the role feels too ludicrous.
- Lampshaded: "Wait, you actually live with your uncle and aunt? Where are your parents?" "I don't know."
- Invoked: Martin murders his parents so that he may live with his uncle and aunt, who are much nicer.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Martin's parents specifically insert in their will that Martin's Evil Aunt can never be allowed to adopt him.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Nephewism
