Why stories with one missing parent?

I've read many stories where one of the parents is either Dead, Divorced, On a trip, Or separated. Is it a cliché? I've done this in my own stories and, to be honest, I really don't know why. Is it that we want to force a single parent into being the sole disciplinarian in a household in both F/Mm or M/Ff stories? I'm just interested in why other authors do the same thing.

I would say the majority of my stories have only one parent. It's funny you should have this question posted because I was just thinking the same thing recently. I suppose it's easier to write about one person disciplining someone then two. Some times it's necessary for both parents to be present but most of the time it's not.

Katie B

There is a rule, called The First Rule of Children's Fiction which is "Get rid of the parents". In children's fiction this allows the protagonists to mess about without the usual restraints of parental control, so the scene is either in a boarding school (Messrs Potter, Jennings, Bunter for example), on holiday (Famous Five) or, most wonderfully, eaten by an escaped rhinoceros (James and the Giant Peach ).

Getting rid of one parent in general fiction allows for the wicked stepmother (Cinderella etc.) which allows the protagonist to be oppressed by someone who should be protecting them, thus increasing the desperation of their situation, and the readers' identification with the protagonist.

In spanko fiction removing one parent goes half way to obeying the rule in that there is still a possibility of parental control (and presumably punishment in due course) but allowing a bit of leeway to enable misdeeds to be more feasible. Also there will be added pressure on the left-behind parent allowing both for discipline being allowed to slip and also for parental angst which the child protagonist can feel vicariously, thus making them feel even worse when they disobey the poor single parent.

And, yes, I have done it too. (The Tale of Gillian, Sally & Jane go Shopping, Never Too Old) Actually, looking at that list it seems as if there is a theme

I had the father shot dead in the opening lines of one of my stories. So there was no time wasted in providing "one missing parent" in that one!

That's a good question. I've also eliminated one parent in a number of my stories, and there are a variety of reasons. Sometimes it just simplifies things and keeps it shorter not to have to create the extra character and dialogue. Mainly, it allows the one parent to act in an arbitrary manner (sometimes lacking good judgment) where a second parent might complicate and/or defuse the spanking situation. And a couple of my stories involve a romantic situation between a single parent and another person with a child or teen acting as a catalyst or to make it more interesting.

Ryan makes a good point. One of the rules in writing movie screenplays, for example, is to keep the number of characters to a bare minimum. Every character in a movie (and each scene as well), is there for a good reason.

I think it's the same in short stories. Because they are short, every line needs to either develop a character or advance the plot. When I'm reading, say, a 3000-word story, it's easier to follow the plot when the writer only introduces about 3-6 people whose names and roles I need to know.

One missing parent is one less character to worry about.

As I think about it, I realize that at times I write one character out because of the orientation preference some readers and authors have. In that line of thinking . . . I'm thinking . . . Hey, some people like the fact that there's a teen boy or teen girl with an opposite gender who will end up being the disciplinarian. To me it very well might hook the reader in who enjoys his/her particular fantasy. I think it makes a bit of sense.

Opb got it right. Parents often seem inconvenient in children's fiction and maybe it's the same thing with a lot of what we write.

I agree with Cal33. I do it mainly for simplicity's sake. If the other parent doesn't really develop the story in a significant way, it's better to do away with them one way or another.