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KD Since: May, 2009
2nd May, 2024 09:39:41 AM

There wouldn't be. The point of Absurdly Elderly Mother is that the female character should be post-menopause and therefore it should be biologically impossible for them to bear a child (and yet they do). It's not just that "they're old".

There is no male counterpart to menopause. (You can make jokes about ED, but that can be treated with an easily available pill.)

Edited by KD
StarTropes Since: May, 2014
2nd May, 2024 09:57:31 AM

Yeah, men can produce sperm cells until they die. Not so with women and egg cells.

Alfex (Apprentice)
2nd May, 2024 12:13:18 PM

So it's about menopause? Not just how shocking the age difference between parent and child is, like Practically Different Generations (which can be a result of this trope)?

Edited by Alfex
Veanne Since: Jul, 2012
3rd May, 2024 02:22:15 AM

Yes, it says so on the trope page. Practically Different Generations is about siblings who could be, age-wise, a parent and child (I knew a girl at school who was born on the same day her niece was, and generally this sort of thing used to happen a lot more when families with many children were common). Nothing shocking about age difference between family members.

Alfex (Apprentice)
3rd May, 2024 02:30:06 AM

I have to say I still don't understand why siblings with a big enough age gap to be parent and child is a trope but a father and a child with a big enough age gap to be grandfather and grandchild isn't.

Veanne Since: Jul, 2012
3rd May, 2024 02:44:17 AM

Possibly because with siblings this allows for more characterisation or plot opportunities? E.g. in Pulpecja Patrycja's attitude towards Gabriela (13 years older, has two daughters of her own and a Second Love interest) is very heavily informed by the age gap. Gabriela even admits it in so many words before giving her younger sister advice on men. They act more like mother (experienced advisor) and daughter (exploring rebel) than like sisters (more or less equally inexperienced and figuring things out together). Patrycja even says (not to her face) that Gabriela is too old for a new relationship (Gabriela has her doubts, but goes through with it and is happy). With father - child relationships the big age gap doesn't change the nature of the relation, as the father is always the experienced advisor and the child is always the learner. At least, that's how this looks to me.

Edited by Veanne
Alfex (Apprentice)
5th May, 2024 09:35:11 AM

Doesn't a man being a parent at age 50 or older tell us something about the character? Like his 30-year-old wife wanting children and him not wanting to because he's too old for that (the issue being not biological, but moral), but, being the Henpecked Husband he is, giving in to his wife's wishes? Or failed birth control? Or, in case of a couple in their 50s, thinking parenting is a hobby and thus deciding to have another child because all their older ones left home? Or the man believing, just because he has a new partner, he must have a child with her?

Edited by Alfex
Octoya Since: Jul, 2014
5th May, 2024 12:02:07 PM

If you can find actual examples of this being used as a literary device, then maybe you can make a TLP draft for it and see what other tropers think. As far as the scope of this ATT, however, your question has been answered—there is no such trope on this wiki.

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