Basic Trope: A character was raised by their grandparents.
- Straight: Sarah lives with her grandparents, Alice and Bob. Her parents may or may not be mentioned.
- Exaggerated:
- Sarah's ancestors from 500 centuries ago were defrosted to raise her.
- Sarah also has several cousins living with her, and the entire middle generation of her family appears to be dead.
- Every child character in the work lives with their grandparents.
- Downplayed:
- Sarah lives with both her parents and her grandparents, although she is closer to her grandparents. A few uncles, aunts, and cousins may also be present.
- Sarah's parents are still present in her life, but her grandparents tend to raise her more often because her parents tend to be busy for whatever reason.
- Justified:
- Her lazy parents abandoned her.
- They left her behind by accident.
- They're both dead.
- They are too busy with work to raise her.
- It is traditional for children to be raised by grandparents in Troperville.
- Alice and Bob wanted to raise Sarah; in fact, that was why they begged their daughter, Claire, for a grandchild in the first place.
- The work takes place in a setting where having children outside of wedlock is taboo, Claire got pregnant as a teenager, and Alice and Bob decided to raise Sarah as their own to save Claire from becoming a social outcast. Sarah thinks Claire is her older sister.
- Sarah's parents are constantly too drunk to raise her.
- Inverted:
- Sarah is Conveniently an Orphan and was raised by an older sibling.
- Owing to a Stable Time Loop Sarah raised her grandparents.
- Subverted:
- Sarah's "Grandparents" are actually her parents; Sarah is just a downright horrible child that has given them so much stress, they look like grandparents.
- Sarah is introduced at her grandparents' house. However, it turns out that she's just visiting and that her parents are still very much so present in her life.
- Double Subverted
- Sarah's grandparents lied about that as a joke.
- Some incident later in the series leads to Sarah's grandparents having to raise her, whether full-time or not.
- Parodied: Sarah is raised by skeletons. Despite the age gap, Sarah still believes that she wasn't adopted.
- Zig Zagged: Sarah goes back in time and marries her own grandpa. She end up raising the childhood version of herself.
- Averted: Sarah lives with only her parents, Claire and David. Her grandparents may or may not be seen/mentioned.
- Enforced: "Every household we've come up with so far is a traditional Nuclear Family. Statistically, at least one character should be Raised by Grandparents." "How about Sarah? She's the most major character whose family we haven't created yet." "Sure, Let's Go with That!"
- Lampshaded: "What happened to Mom and Dad?"
- Invoked: At first, Sarah lives with her parents. However, she knows that her grandparents are nicer, and misbehaves in the hope of getting sent to live with them.
- Exploited: Sarah can easily break the rules by using technology that her grandparents don't understand.
- Defied: Sarah decides that she would rather live with an adoptive family than with her grandparents, and runs away from home.
- Discussed: "Your grandparents sure are nice." "Those are my parents. They don't look that old, do they?"
- Conversed: "I wonder what happened to Sarah's biological parents..."
- Implied:
- Sarah lives with two adults who look noticeably older than the parents of any of her friends.
- Sarah is very frequently shown with her grandparents, but there is no mention of her real parents.
- Deconstructed:
- Sarah and her grandparents go on a quest to find her father and their son.
- One or both of Sarah's grandparents die while she's still young, traumatising her. Bonus points if she's already traumatised from the death or disappearance of her parents.
- Reconstructed:
- They succeed at the quest and are happily reunited.
- Sarah and the remaining grandparent help each other cope. In fact, having Sarah to raise is the only reason Alice doesn't go over the Despair Event Horizon after losing Bob.
Back to Raised by Grandparents.
