Basic Trope: A single mother struggles to support her child/children.
- Straight: Alice is single and takes odd jobs to support her son Bob.
- Exaggerated: Alice is homeless and supports Bob through prostitution.
- Downplayed:
- Alice occasionally has to stretch to make end meet, but is mostly financially stable.
- Bob's father is still a part of his life, but is unemployed and frequently out of the house.
- Justified:
- Alice dropped out of high school when she gave birth to Bob, and thus doesn't have an education to fall back on.
- Alice doesn't work so she can stay home and take care of her son.
- Inverted: Glamorous Single Mother.
- Gender Inverted: Adam struggles to support his daughter Betty.
- Subverted:
- Alice wins the lottery.
- Alice gets remarried to Dan.
- Alice starts off like this when Bob is first born, but works her way to the top.
- Alice's sister, Faye, is donating money to support Alice and Bob.
- Double Subverted:
- It turns out she read the ticket wrong.
- Dan leaves Alice after she gets pregnant again.
- Alice gets fired.
- Faye and Alice have a falling out.
- Alternatively, Faye dies.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Alice is a Glamorous Single Mother. Then she loses her job and has to become a cashier. She remarries only for her husband to die a few years later. She then enters a game show and wins a million dollars.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't have any real problems supporting Bob.
- Alice and Charlie raise Bob together.
- Enforced: "You know what would add some drama in Bob's life? A Struggling Single Mother."
- Lampshaded: "Why aren't there any single moms with high-paying jobs?"
- Invoked: Alice leaves her husband, bringing along her infant son, though she knows she will no longer be financially dependent.
- Exploited: Bob brings up his mom's circumstances to invoke pity.
- Defied: After becoming a teen mother, Alice goes directly to college and gets an amazing job—all while raising her son.
- Discussed: "Really, how often do you see a Glamorous Single Mother?"
- Conversed: "It must be tough for Alice to have to raise Bob all on her own."
- Implied: Only one scene is set at Bob's house, where his mom is seen reading bills and looking worried.
- Played For Drama: Bob constantly worries that his presence makes his mother's life harder, while Alice constantly wonders if she's being a bad mother for not being able to provide for Bob.
Back to Struggling Single Mother.
