Basic Trope: Children whose parent(s) love them, but are too busy to spend time with them.
- Straight: Alice, a Lonely Rich Kid, has parents who are continuously trying to spend time with her, but are too busy to do so. This disappoints Alice.
- Exaggerated: Alice's parents are so busy, that Alice doubts that they even love her. They forgot her birthday, didn't come to the science fair, and don't even speak to her at home...
- Downplayed: Alice's parents are busy, but still find some (little) time to spend once in a while.
- Justified:
- Alice's parents are busy, and don't understand that Alice needs more than money to be happy.
- Or, Alice's parents are poor and constantly work so they can scrape together enough money to feed, clothe and educate her.
- Her parents are Workaholics and their behavior borderlines on Parental Neglect, so Alice's concerns are pretty much real.
- Dad is at the front lines, keeping emperor Evulz at bay and, by extension, keeping not just Alice, but all her school friends safe.note
- Inverted:
- Alice's parents continuously try to spend time with her, but Alice is too busy hanging out with her friends and boyfriend.
- Or, Alice's parents hate her, but they hang out so much together to a ridiculous extent, that people think that they're a happy family.
- Alice's parents prioritize her over practically everything else - including work. Alice expresses concern with this.
- Subverted: Turns out her parents realized their mistakes and starts cutting off their work for awhile.
- Double Subverted: Unfortunately, a more important and urgent job comes in - and they had to leave.
- Parodied: Alice's parents are so busy, they didn't know where Alice is 80% of the time; and they also didn't know that Alice had run away months ago to her friend's house - and her parents thought Lisa, the girl next door was their daughter.
- Zig Zagged: Alice spends a lot of time with her parents on some occasion, sometimes they hardly see Alice at all.
- Averted: Alice's parents, although busy, spends a healthy time with Alice.
- Enforced: The creators wanted a tragic back story for Alice, who is a rich girl.
- Lampshaded: "Why are you two never around for me when I need it?!"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited:
- Alice realizes that her parents are too occupied with work to notice her, so she started doing things... that she shouldn't be doing.
- On the other hand, it makes Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World a little easier to keep secret, whether it's Alice herself doing the world-saving or helping her friend Bob as a Secret-Keeper.
- Defied: Alice tries to make her parents be there for her, or vice-versa.
- Discussed: "Back then, my parents were always talking with their phones to even look at me..."
- Conversed: "Alice's parents are so busy, huh? When will they ever learn?"
- Deconstructed: Alice's life began to spiral out of control, and she began to use drugs and skip school. After recovering, she soon became a workaholic herself, repeating the cycle. Her parents, now old and retired, regrets never being there for her - who now has nearly no time for them.
- Alice confronts her parents over their workaholic tendencies and they rather bitterly point out that working eighty hours a week and hardly spending time with their daughter wasn't exactly how they imagined living life either.
- Reconstructed: Alice vows to never be like her parents; and she did become a good parent later on.
Back to When You Coming Home, Dad?, and you better hang around for a while.
