One of the staples of kid-oriented media is getting the parents out of the way somehow. If you don't outright make them orphans, you have to make it believable why this kid still has parents and yet can still save the world without mom being a buzzkill. One common way to do this is simply to make the parents utterly oblivious, or at least tragically nearsighted. Hiro sneaking Baymax past Aunt Cass, Hogarth smuggling parts of the Iron Giant past his mother, we've all seen examples of this. It's usually something I roll my eyes at and accept as a genre convention unless it's done poorly. But one of the reasons Digimon and Animorphs were some of my all-time favorite things as a kid is because (eventually) they both subvert this trope and hard. At some point it becomes impossible for the kids to be able to hide the weird stuff from their parents any longer, and in fact, the show gets a lot of drama out of these parents having to let their children go into danger and accepting that they are capable of handling it on their own. It made a big impression on me because I'd always seen parents treated like kid-entertainment poison and this proved that they weren't. I want to write a book where a kid or group of kids have to save the world/fight evil... and tell it from the parents' point of view. Here are some tropes I have so far: the child having to go on a long trip or stay out all night the body swap hiding injuries or torn clothes hiding a guest/pet/animal/Baymax in the house having their powers go haywire suddenly having new friends that are nothing like his old ones/that he doesn't even seem to like My intention for this, of course, is to have the parents find out eventually. But I also intend to get plenty of mileage out of the trope before I subvert it. Can you guys think of any other examples?
As Digimon and Animorphs are intended for younger children, is your intention to subvert the parent trope for the benefit of younger children readers, or are you talking about taking a concept intended for children and put it in fiction for adults? It seems like all stories with kids doing the heroics are fantastically fictional, so the various ways of coping with these stories is either the secret life trope or depicting adults unrealistically.
If my experiences as a waiter in a restaurant are any indication, parents are just oblivious to anything their kids are doing period, even if they're doing it loudly, obnoxiously, irritatingly, mere inches from the parent's face. Ironically, you forgot "Dad consumed by work" trope, a la Coraline, where the dad is a writer that completely ignores his kid for seemingly weeks on end.
The kids probably had activities they enjoyed before their hero's journey started, that they don't have time for anymore. And those activities may have involved a substantial investment in gear that's now sitting unused. Their adventures might affect their grades at school as well. And they may be using strange invented words that may worry the parents, because the new words might be hiding activities (like sex or drug use) that the children shouldn't be involved in. I am reminded of Mystery Men, where the Blue Raja's mom was happy to discover that he was a superhero because his strange behavior had made her suspect he'd become a drug addict.
As it stands (I'm quite early in the process) it will be for adults. The POV character will be the mother, who is slowly watching her little boy drift away from her, with short sections interspersed throughout that are told from the son's perspective, showing what monster of the week he and his friends are fighting that makes things tense between him and his mother this time. Likely it will be more of a mother's story about her relationship with her son, with supernatural elements providing the drama. I'm just looking for a list of examples of this trope to put in the story. I'll do you one better: his dad's deployed for most of the story. Ah, yes. That's the stuff.
More tropes would be: 1. The kid social club (outcast D&D players) 2. Secret communication (telecan, walkie talkies) 3. General nerdiness 4. Gearing up with homemade armor/pellet guns/flashlights/granola bars 5. Semi-private meeting spots (basement, abandoned house, drainage tunnel) I think it will be hard to realistically portray a parent who both believes her children are the right people to go into danger and lets them without it seeming like child endangerment or incompetence.
Part of my challenge will be coming up with just the right saving the world circumstance to make it obvious (to the reader at least; probably not to her) that she has to step aside. The son may also not give her a choice. But she's also a bit of a Molly Grue and will potentially try to go with him into danger. It will depend. The tropes I'm looking for are more instances where the kid is hiding something from the adult. Mysterious thumps coming from his room, or suddenly sleeping over at a friend's house way more than usual. Times when the secret threatens to come out and the kid either has to lie or hope the adult doesn't notice.
@Intangible Girl - I really like your thinking here. Instead of slavishly following the formula, you're looking for ways to break out of it. I have no specific suggestions, because this is your story and your story's direction should come from you, in my opinion. But this kind of thinking is what will make your story stand out from the rest. It's a different take, but it will appeal to readers who also like the ordinary tropes.
Unexplained increase in fitness -- hiding steroid use? unexplained weight loss -- hiding an illness ? unexplained new stuff -- is child stealing things? knowing things they shouldn't have any way of knowing -- not cosmic things, but little stuff; for example: mother goes out with a male friend to do something, gets worried child will think she's cheating on father, goes to explain, and finds that the child, impossibly, knows exactly what she had done (because child had used his/her powers to follow/watch over mother)
They may also be ignoring the kid on purpose. Especially if the kid is acting out to get attention, giving them attention, either good or bad, reinforced the behaviour. Whereas if you give them attention for only good behaviour, incentivizes them to behave long term. Possibly, there are some shit parents out there, and there are some parents that have just had enough of their kids' shit, but kind of off topic. You could also have the adult know wtf is actually going on, because kids are terrible liars, but not really realize the extent of it. Saving the world doesn't seem like the kind of thing that lands on some rando kids shoulders very often, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for a parent to not entertain that as a possibility until the last quarter. Or you could even have the parent as a secret ally. "Ah, yes, I remember when I had to save the world from a horde of zombie Nazi's from the fourth dimension. It was nineteen dickety-6 and we were tasked closing the portals by finding the crystal totems of Amun-Toph. And I knew when I saw you hiding the missing torch of Lady Liberty in your room, that you were probably going through something similar. Now I told grandma, and she's knitted you a superhero jumper, so you should probably wear it if you make the news. You don't want too hurt her feelings. It also grants a +12 to magic resistance, but gives you -5 to cheek pinch attacks, so be careful out there."
How old are these kids? Are we talking Buffy age, or significantly younger? If significantly younger, I think you're going to have to do a lot of work to convince me, as a reader, that the parent wouldn't shut the whole thing down immediately and decisively. The dominant impulse for most parents is to protect their children from danger. There are some parents who are forced to allow their kids to do dangerous things, but I'd need to see the forced element. Alternatively, I think you'd have to have the parent in denial about how dangerous the activity is ("it's no big deal, she's got the best protective equipment, she'll be fine").
He's 11, so once she finds out, her mama bear instincts are going to make her go Super Saiyan. One of the few scenes I have in my head already is her ripping the mentor figure/granter of powers a new one for allowing and encouraging these children to go into danger. But (unless I change things drastically) the mother character is, while not a self-insert, based more heavily on me than most of my characters, and when I was 11 I swore to myself if I had kids and they turned out to be chosen ones (funny, but I never really believed I'd be a chosen one), I'd be the cool parent and let them do what they needed to do without getting all over-protective. Fast forward mumblety years and I've had to grow up and smell the responsibility. But that childhood promise haunts me a little, and in the exaggeration of fiction it will haunt my MC even more. Once she is convinced the danger is necessary, it will make her feel like a hypocrite for objecting. She will, of course-- she came down out of the clouds long ago and this is her baby boy. But the Molly Grue in her will also be a bit jealous, further complicating her emotions. She is not going to be another trope I absolutely can't stand: the parent who is so far in denial that they become part of the problem. She wants to protect her son, but that resolve is weakened by her understanding. I'm glad for all these questions, it's making me have to crystallize this still somewhat hazy idea.
I second what Jannert said, this sounds like a fun and fascinating take on the 'child superhero' story and I'd love to read it! (When you get to the beta-ing stage I wouldn't mind a nudge.) Are you thinking about having a group of kids saving the world? Or maybe one 'superhero' and a few non-powered allies for the kid? Maybe the mom ends up getting together with their parents and talking about how worried they are. Also mysterious injuries. Your hero may have super-healing though so maybe that's not applicable? But mental injuries though. Wondering why her kid is suddenly freaking out at this simple noise. Or alternatively also add the trope of 'adult villain' for the kid and wondering why her kid has such an unreasonable hatred for this one dude.
I guess what I don't understand with this kind of story is how a child could have the power and maturity to be effective doing super-whatever, yet they keep returning home to terrify their parents with the responsibility and danger they're taking on.
Thanks for the beta offer, I will definitely hit you up (in a few years... >>). And, I know I keep saying superhero, but I'm thinking more along the lines of magic powers; fantasy more than sci-fi. Ooh, I like that!
I have yet to get a manuscript into submittable shape even though I've also been writing for years, I gotcha. Just to make sure it's thoroughly sounded out: Magic is also thick in superhero type worlds. But superhero also gives me the impression of 'world is ours just with superpeople running around'. You know, Marvel strait up calls cities "New York" and stuff, DC doesn't so much but the way people go about their lives feels like how we would ours. "Fantasy" makes me picture a less urban setting. That accurate?
In attempting to answer your question I just realized Diane Duane's Young Wizards series (great books, highly recommend) is probably a much bigger influence on this thing than Digimon or Animorphs. It's got a similar subversion of the trope. Eventually the parents become aware of their children's magic powers and have to accept them. It's YA and so it has more realism than the younger media I've been referencing. It's been years, but I think the scene where they have to face their parents happens off screen, between books because it's still the children's story, not the adults'. So I guess I'm not subverting this trope so much as just flipping POVs on it.
Huh- I haven't read that! Making me want to now. Not having read it, I thiiiink I'm not entirely grasping what you're trying to say fully. Also you still are subverting the trope, you're just not the first one to do it.
No, it's more urban fantasy I guess? I don't read that genre, so not sure. The setting is modern suburbia, all supernatural stuff happening beneath the regular person's notice. I have yet to flesh out the setting beyond that, I'm more focused on the characters and their relationship at this point.
Haha, I've only got a tenuous grasp on everything myself. I wanted some tropes to play with while I figure out the direction I want to take this, and I think I've got enough now. Thanks to everyone who replied!
Do the kids transform ? I'm thinking Shazaam /Billy Batson: imagine Mom hearing a strange adult male voice coming from her son's bedroom -- and not from a TV or radio. Of course, even a less drastic transformation (Magical Girl for example) could cause issues.
How about Stranger Things? Granted it is a period piece, so the kids aren’t electronically tagged, but they get around it by living in big houses and playing outside. And some of the adults are involved in that one.
One way to get the mom on board would be to have had her hiding powers of her own, from both her kid and the audience, so she and her kid could team up - but that might come off as a cheat.
I've got a line in my WIP that applies here, delivered from one mother to another: "You've found the courage to believe in your child, as every parent should." So one approach here is for the mom to have faith in her kids and how she's raised them. She'll worry, sure, but she'll also believe that they can either cope with what they are facing, or will come to her for help if they need her. She doesn't need any other superpower except courage and love, and when they do need her, that's what they'll need from her. I've known mothers like that, although the monsters their kids faced were just the usual ones. Sure, it's harder to have that courage when your child is say, 14 and battling monsters, than when your child is 18 and headed off to the trenches of World War 1 (12% dead, 56% casualties). But mothers find that courage in real life, so finding it but a little more so in fiction shouldn't blow the readers suspension of disbelief.
