# Books or movies about people who suddenly become parents **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 25, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497 "2014-10-25T15:07:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/1 "2014-10-25T15:07:10Z")
I’m interested in hearing about books or movies about adults who suddenly and unexpectedly find themselves to be parents or parent figures. Not about adapting to parenthood when you or your SO gives birth or adopts an infant, but about a child (particularly a non-infant) who you suddenly have to care for for whatever reason. Seems like it should be a common theme, but I’m coming up short. There’s “Three Men and a Baby” and “The Three Godfathers” (though those are both about infants); I can’t remember if the Hugh Grant character in “About A Boy” actually takes care of the kid(?); “Kramer vs. Kramer” is _kind of_ in that vein since it’s about a parent who suddenly has to take on all the parenting duties… I’m sure I’m missing a lot, but what? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/2 "2014-10-25T15:10:20Z")
[Baby Boom](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092605/) Business woman Diane Keaton becomes an unexpected guardian to a baby. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/3 "2014-10-25T15:16:30Z")
In [Raising Helen](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0350028/), Kate Hudson’s character becomes guardians to her sister’s children. I’ll likely think of more later. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/4 "2014-10-25T15:17:09Z")
You’re in luck-- there’s an entire TV series about this: [Family Affair](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Affair). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/5 "2014-10-25T15:21:51Z")
_Major Dad_ and _Trophy Wife_ are two TV series about a person getting married and become a parent to stepchildren. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/6 "2014-10-25T15:23:31Z")
_Curly Sue_ and _Paper Moon_. On TV, _The Bernie Mac Show_. I may think of more later. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/7 "2014-10-25T15:25:22Z")
Two more movies: _Big Daddy_ and _Life as We Know It_. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/8 "2014-10-25T15:30:50Z")
_Raising Arizona._ ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/9 "2014-10-25T15:32:31Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > _Major Dad_ and _Trophy Wife_ are two TV series about a person getting married and become a parent to stepchildren. Really?? I watched _Major Dad_ as a kid and had no memory that those were his stepkids. Though I guess it makes more sense that way, since the kids always called him “the major” instead of “dad.” ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/10 "2014-10-25T15:36:33Z")
Here’s the TV Tropes page [Children Raise You](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChildrenRaiseYou). It also happens all the time in romance novels. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/11 "2014-10-25T15:38:39Z")
[Kolya](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116790/?ref_=nv_sr_1): it’s in Czech with English subtitles, but it’s one of the best of the genre. Won Oscar for Best foreign-language film in 1996. [Sparrows](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017423/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1): silent film with Mary Pickford about a teenager who cares for a bunch of younger children under the fist of an evil overseer. She finally attempts a rescue when she realizes that one of the children is not a street urchin, but a kidnap victim, and there’s a horrific scene over an alligator infested river. I know it sounds like a “Perils of Pauline” silent melodrama, but it’s really a great film. [Big Daddy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142342/?ref_=nv_sr_1): a watchable Adam Sandler film. Irresponsible, typical Sandler character takes care of kid left for his roommate (who is the kid’s father) but is out of town. [Overboard](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093693/?ref_=nv_sr_1): Goldie Hawn has amnesia, and Kurt Russell convinces her she is the mother of his three boys (their real mother is dead). Offensive, if you think too much about it, but Hawn plays it straight, and if you just watch those moments, they are pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/12 "2014-10-25T15:51:14Z")
**Bachelor Father**. (He takes custody of his niece after her parents die in an accident.) Does **Heidi** count? The Alm-Uncle is her grandfather, and raised her father, but he had to become a parent again to the 5-year-old granddaughter he never knew (or knew only as a baby) when her aunt dropped her off with him. Do foster parents (if they’ve never fostered before) count? If so, there’s **A Try at Tumbling** , by Dorothy French, in which Eva Evansby becomes the foster mom to Mardi Williamson. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/13 "2014-10-25T15:59:37Z")
I hate movies like this. They are almost always cloyingly sentimental. Of course, I hate kids to start with. The only good (i.e., I liked it) example I can think of is _Shoot Em Up_, where Clive Owen, whilst in the middle of a gun battle for his life, suddenly has a baby dropped in his lap. He just totes it along while continuing his regularly planned shoot outs and car chases. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/14 "2014-10-25T16:01:11Z")
[Gloria](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120683/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_40): Sharon Stone as Mob Moll who takes in street urchin. [The Grand Highway](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093111/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)A kid from Paris is dumped on his childless aunt and uncle in the country, while his mother has a second baby. [Jack & Sarah](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113448/): This is a British film about a man whose wife dies unexpectedly in childbirth. Initially, he rejects the baby, who survived, but his mother and mother-in-law are persistent, and he eventually becomes very good at the role of single parent. There a good scene where he marches into the women’s bathroom, because it has a changing table, and the men’s doesn’t, and when they try to kick him out, he dresses down the manager for not having a changing table in the men’s room. “Sarah” is the baby, who is named after his late wife. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/15 "2014-10-25T16:02:51Z")
Does\* The Sound of Music \*count? ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/16 "2014-10-25T16:05:32Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I hate movies like this. They are almost always cloyingly sentimental. Of course, I hate kids to start with. > > The only good (i.e., I liked it) example I can think of is _Shoot Em Up_, where Clive Owen, whilst in the middle of a gun battle for his life, suddenly has a baby dropped in his lap. He just totes it along while continuing his regularly planned shoot outs and car chases. I haven’t seen that, but it sounds awesome. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/17 "2014-10-25T16:07:56Z")
Oh, and the original _[Yours, Mine and Ours](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063829/?ref_=nv_sr_4)_, from 1968 (not that blasphemous 200-something remake) has a lot of the same dynamics, and emotionality of the kind of films you are looking for. So, come to think of it, does a Disney film with Jodie Foster called [_Candleshoe_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075807/?ref_=nv_sr_1), which is a fun puzzle-mystery if you are under 13. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/18 "2014-10-25T16:09:53Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > [Overboard](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093693/?ref_=nv_sr_1): Goldie Hawn has amnesia, and Kurt Russell convinces her she is the mother of his three boys (their real mother is dead). Offensive, if you think too much about it, but Hawn plays it straight, and if you just watch those moments, they are pretty good. That movie does a great job of straddling the line of being stupid and being funny. Certainly not even close to a great movie, but fun to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/19 "2014-10-25T21:21:43Z")
_Diff’rent Strokes Webster Punky Brewster Silver Spoons_ ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497/20 "2014-10-25T22:03:50Z")
Done with a nasty twist in [Very Bad Things](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124198/). Hours before their wedding, Kyle and Laura learn that they’ve been named in the will of another couple, both of whom were killed days earlier in an escalating series of revenge-murders. They’ve inherited custody of the couple’s two bratty children but, thanks to poor financial planning, almost no money to raise them. Shortly after the wedding, Kyle and his best friend are permanently disabled in a car crash, leaving Laura to look after both them and the brats for the rest of her life. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-or-movies-about-people-who-suddenly-become-parents/702497.md?page=2)