Don't thank him just yet.
He's gonna drop that baby off a cliff in 5 seconds.
He's gonna drop that baby off a cliff in 5 seconds.
It's a fact of life that children often get separated from their parents on outings. The child will wander when the parent is focusing on some errand, the parent will be so consumed with their chores or errands that they fail to notice. Or, in some cases, trying to move through an unexpectedly large crowd will cause them to unwittingly get separated, or a crisis may emerge that forces a separation.
When this happens in fiction, the child will be found by someone else. For the purposes of this trope, that someone else will be someone who doesn't have any evil intentions and will help to reunite the child with their parents. When this trope is not in play, bad things can result, including Death of a Child (and even if this trope is in play, concerned parents will fear the other possible outcomes).
Depending on the work, there are a handful of options:
- The child is the focus character of the work, and the people around them might seem scary, being unfamiliar strangers. Often, this version will appear in media directed at children, and reinforce lessons taught about what to do when a child finds themselves lost, which is to usually find a police officer or other figure of authority.
- The person who found the lost child is the protagonist of the story. The audience already knows a few things about them, but this will either reinforce or inform the audience that this character has a soft spot for children and will work to get the child home.
- The person who found the child is the series' main antagonist. However, it will turn out they have a soft spot for children and return them to their family, often as a Pet the Dog moment.
- The parents are the series' protagonists, who will be shown panic stricken and guilt ridden at the missing child, while the audience is then shown a contrast as the child is calmly talking with whomever found them and that person is treating them to ice cream while notifying the police of a missing child that needs to be returned home.
Often overlaps with Straying Baby, and this trope is the more positive outcome.
Contrast Would Hurt a Child.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Mitsudomoe: When Futaba (a sixth-grade Idiot Hero) finds a crying boy lost in a department store she declares she's going to help him find his mother. However, they race all across the countryside and eventually end up sleeping in a ditch. The cops find both of them and manage to reunite them.
- My Love Story!!: When Takeo is at MM Land he and Ai Sunakawa get separated from Ai's brother, Makoto "Suna" Sunakawa, Takeo's girlfriend, Rinko Yamato, and a classmate of Ai's, Oda. In fact, Oda deliberately separated them so Ai would have a chance to confess her love to Takeo. Towards the end of the episode, Ai and Takeo encounter a crying child looking for his mother, and Ai is reminded both of why she loves Takeo so much, and why she can't stoop to trying to come between him and his girlfriend, as Takeo unhesitatingly lifts the child on his considerably tall shoulders so he can stand well above the crowd to call for his mom, who quickly spots him, and Takeo hands the boy off without a word.
- Princess Resurrection: In an anime-only segment, a tankuki who came to hunt vampires (and was clearly woefully unprepared for the task) finds a lost crying child and Hiro witnesses the tanuki try to help the child find the young boy's mother, showing Hiro that the tanuki isn't a bad fellow, just misguided. Resident vampires Reiri and Zapelli come to the same conclusion and arrange for the tanuki to "kill" Zapelli so that the tanuki can claim the reward and go home to his family.
- Umamusume: Cinderella Gray: When Inari One was young she lost her parents during a festival and was discovered by her future trainer Ryuko. The young uma was terrified by the Iron Lady and her Neighbourhood-Friendly Gangsters, though after Ryuko treated her to cotton candy Inari calmed down and helped her find her parents.
- Uninvited Wife, With Child!: In chapter 17, Kako and Mirai decides to take their daughter from the future (it's complicated) to the park. Their daughter befriends a little girl her own age who blithely says she came to the park to play. They immediately deduce she's lost. They decide to stay and make sure nothing happens to her. When her distressed mother shows up, she says she's glad she made two new "mommy friends".
Asian Animation
- An episode of Pisi is based around the eponymous character helping an ant to find her lost child, using a magnifying glass provided to her by another character to do so since the ants are so small.
Comic Books
- Asterix: Asterix in Spain, Pepe, the son of a Spanish chieftain whose village is still resisting the invading Romans, is taken captive by the Romans and brought to Gaul as a hostage. There they run in to the protagonists, who rescue the boy and then decide to bring him back to his father in Spain, kicking off the main plot.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: The "Calvin at the Zoo" arc sees Calvin get separated from his parents after mistaking another woman for his mom and following her by mistake. The other woman takes the mix-up in stride and helps Calvin find his way back to his parents.
Fan Works
- Danganronpa Gaiden Series: In "Kiki Gets Lost!
", Kiki Naegi accidentally gets separated from from her parents while trying to get through a crowd in Yoyogi Park. She's eventually found and led to her parents by Sayaka, who came from the afterlife disguised as a crane while Makoto and Kyoko were taken to her by Leon, who also came from the afterlife disguised as a crane.
- The Dresden Fillies: Great Power: Subverted in Chapter One. A baby is found by the protagonists, but they talk about said find and then the mother finds them, with a police officer in-tow, which isn't good because the protagonists are only disguised as humans:
"There you are!"
Twilight jumped like a nervous cat and did her best not to look guilty. Everyone turned towards the source of the voice, and they saw a tired-looking human woman pushing an odd-looking stroller. One of its two seats was filled by another human child that could have been Osh Kosh's twin. The woman rushed towards them, the child in the stroller making whining noises the whole way. Slightly behind her was an older male human in a black, or maybe dark blue, uniform of some kind. - In the Danger Rangers fanfic My Lost Love, a lemming girl named Leni is lost in a mall, so the Danger Rangers have to get her back to her mothers and baby sister. However, she gets separated from them when she gets distracted by a bookstore and walks in there undetected, so they split up to look for her. After that, the Danger Rangers successfully return her to her family.
Film — Animated
- An American Tail: Fievel Mousekewitz is separated from his family during a terrible storm on the boat to America. His family believes him dead, but all of them end up in the same place: New York City. Played straight with Tony and Bridget, a couple of older fellow immigrants, Tiger, a vegetarian cat who betrays the Maulers to help him, and Gussie Mausheimer, a rich philanthropist who met Fievel and helps the others track him down near the end. Subverted with Warren T. "Rat", who sells Fievel to a sweatshop (and is secretly a cat), and Honest John, a politician who wants to help but is unable to, since Fievel's family isn't registered to vote in the city yet.
- The Angry Birds Movie: After being regarded as a grouchy loaner the whole movie before leading the residents of Bird Island on a mission to rescue their stolen eggs from the Pigs, Red nearly sacrifices himself to go after one fallen egg and returns it — and its newly-hatched chicks, who turn out to be the Blues — to its parents in the aftermath.
- Chicken Little (2005): When aliens start attacking his hometown, Chicken Little realizes that it's because a little alien followed him home after he and his friends explored the spaceship they found. The alien's parents, rightfully panicked, called everyone they knew to help them try and find their child. Chicken Little realizes that he can stop everything by returning the alien child to his parents. Thankfully, when the aliens learn that the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding, they are a bit embarrassed and fix the damage they did.
- The entire plot of Ice Age (2002) involves the trio of Sid the sloth, Manny the mammoth, and Diego the sabertooth journeying to Glacier Pass to return the toddler to his human tribe.
- The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure: Littlefoot and his friends unintentionally brings a Sharptooth egg in the Great Valley and raises the hatchling they name him Chomper. It is revealed that the two Sharpteeth are Chomper's parents, who are looking for him. Littlefoot returns Chomper to his parents as they leave the Great Valley.
- Monsters, Inc.: While an unusual example in that we never see her parents, the main plot of the film is Mike and Sulley trying to return Boo to her bedroom after she mistakenly ends up in the Monster world.
- Tokyo Godfathers: The plot consists of a trio of homeless people—Gin, Miyuki, and Hana—finding a baby abandoned in a dumpster on Christmas Eve and deciding to return the baby (dubbed "Kiyoko") to her parents. Hana and Miyuki eventually end up giving Kiyoko to Sachiko, the woman they believe is Kiyoko's birth mother, only for Gin to discover that she is actually Kiyoko's kidnapper, who had stolen the baby from her actual parents after suffering from a Tragic Stillbirth.
Film — Live-Action
- Bajrangi Bhaijaan: Shahida, a six-year-old mute Pakistani girl, is separated from her parents in India when she gets off her train back home and it leaves without her. She is found by Pawan, a good samaritan who dubs her "Munni" and resolves to help her find her parents, with the film exploring the lengths he will go to to fulfil his promise.
- Changeling (2008): Subverted, when the child the LAPD returns to Christine Collins, his mother, is not actually her missing child at all, but a completely different child.
- Fearless (1993) opens with the aftermath of a plane crash, and Max carrying a baby and trying to find the mother. He eventually does, and the mother is overjoyed upon seeing her alive child (along with her friend). However, this is done at the same time that Carla, another mother who survived the crash, is devastated when she realizes her baby has died in the crash.
- Godzilla (2014): A young boy is accidentally left on a train by his parents, prompting Ford to look after him until the boy is reunited with his parents later on.
- Mary Poppins: At the beginning of the film, the children Jane and Michael are missing, as a result of Katie Nanna's negligence. When their mother has finally managed to bring this to their father's attention, he telephones the police; and immediately, Constable Jones arrives at the house, bringing the children with him, having found them chasing a kite on the other side of the park.
Constable Jones: I came across some valuables which had gone astray. I believe they're yours, sir.
- Mr. Bean's Holiday: While on his way to his holiday destination in Cannes, Mr. Bean accidentally separates a young Russian boy from his father, a filmmaker who was on his way to judge the Cannes film festival. The bulk of the movie sees Bean try to take the boy to Cannes to return him to his father, while also seeing some of France along the way.
- A Night to Remember: Tragically Subverted. In the chaos and panic as passengers are desperately trying to reach the lifeboats, a waiter comes across a young boy who has become separated from his mother. He tries to keep the child safe, although they both drown soon afterwards.
- Paul Blart: Mall Cop: One of the film's deleted scenes involves Paul helping a lost child named Jacob find his mother by taking him to the mall's K.B. Toys, believing that it's the most likely place for a child to wander off to and their parents to look for them.
Literature
- American Girls: Kirsten: In Meet Kirsten, Kirsten gets lost and separated from her family in New York. She is scared because she can't speak English yet and the city is very big, noisy, and frightening, but a kind young woman gives her a cup of water. Kirsten is able to explain to her that she needs to get to the immigrant ship the Eagle by drawing a picture of a ship in the dirt, and the woman leads her back to her family.
- Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation: In "Where Do You Live?" Shoutaro finds a little girl at a local convenience store who is lost. She only gives her name as Ii-chan, and doesn't know her home address. Shoutaro takes her to the police station, where Hiroki tries to get the information. Hiroki's superior discovers a bloody handprint on the girl's backpack. They take her to Sakurako, who spots at a glance that the girl had suffered a broken arm in the past, and that it hadn't been properly set. Unfortunately, checking local hospitals doesn't get them any closer, as while the girl had been treated before, her parents had given a false name and address. Fortunately, while they're mulling the situation in the park, Yuriko happens by, and reveals she babysat for the girl before and knows her address. They're too late to save the girl's mother, but do manage to save her infant brother, whom the mother had hidden under the floorboards of the house. Both are taken in by relatives.
Live-Action TV
- The End of the F***ing World: Alyssa, already on the run and on a crime spree, is caught shoplifting, but has a chance to escape when a child goes missing from the store. She slips out while the security guard who caught her is talking to the child's panicked father, but quickly finds the girl, who fortunately only got a block away and is perfectly fine. Rather than keep walking to save her own skin, Alyssa takes the girl by the hand and leads her back into the shop, to the father's overwhelming gratitude. The security guard decides to let the shoplifting slide, and even gives Alyssa a snack before sending her on her way.
- M*A*S*H (1972): Played with in the second season episode "Kim" — Trapper and the others make all attempts to find Kim's mother, but when it seems like that's a hopeless case, Trapper moves to adopt Kim. However, right after Trapper rescues Kim from a minefield, Sister Theresa shows up with Kim's mother, and Trapper sadly lets him reunite with his mother.
- Mr. Bean: This happens accidentally at the end of "Mind the Baby, Mr Bean". When Mr Bean drives to a funfair, he accidentally abducts a baby, when the boot of his car falls open and latches on to the baby carriage. He has to spend his time at the fair looking after the baby; and when he has attached loads of balloons to the pram, it rises into the air. He shoots some of the balloons with a bow and arrow, and in a heartwarming moment, the pram lands gently beside the baby's panicking mother.
- Murdoch Mysteries: At the end of "Raised on Robbery" Murdoch and Doctor Ogden adopt Baby Roland, the son of a bank-robbing Outlaw Couple who were both killed in their last robbery-gone-wrong. Over the course of the next few episodes Julia discovers that Roland actually isn't the son of the bank robbers, but was stolen by the midwife after his biological mother died in childbirth; but Roland's biological father is alive and living in Toronto. The Murdochs grapple with the ethics of keeping him — they've already bonded with him, can't have a family naturally due to Julia's infertility, and Roland's biological family had been told he died and aren't looking for him — but they ultimately return him anyway.
- The Nanny: In "The Nanny Napper", Fran accidentally takes a foreign woman's baby (the woman hands her the child on a crowded subway, and then gets pushed off the train in a rush of people), and since the woman doesn't speak any English, it seems like there's no way to explain what happened... until Fran mentions a similar situation occurring on The Young and the Restless. The mother immediately recognizes the reference and episode in question, and agrees to drop the kidnapping charge she's filed.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In the episode "Heart of Glory" three Klingons named Korris, Kommel, and Kunivas go rogue. While Kunivas dies shortly after battle against loyal Klingons who were to place him under arrest, Korris and Kommel survive. Picard learns from the loyal Captain K'Nera that Korris and Kommel are renegades, and Picard orders the arrest of them. Yar finds the two men being given the grand tour of the Enterprise's by Worf. This leads to a brief standoff between security and the renegades. During the standoff a small child scampers up to Korris, curious about these two Klingon men. The child's mother appears, alarmed that her child is being used as a hostage. When Yar calls the bridge to state that they had a hostage situation, Korris hands the child back to Worf who in turn gives the little girl back to her mommy. After Yar tells Worf she was afraid Korris was going to use the little girl as a hostage, Worf explains that while cowards took hostages, Klingons (at least honorable ones) did not.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: "All Those Who Wander" sees the crew fighting for survival on a ship infested with young Gorn, rescuing a child named Oriana in the process. The episode ends with La'an taking responsibility for returning Oriana to her family, taking an indefinite leave of absence to do so due to a lack of leads. La'an is next seen in "The Broken Circle", having reunited Oriana with her parents and found a major security issue in the process.
- Star Wars:
- The Mandalorian: After the Mandalorian rescues The Child from the Imperial remnants who wished to experiment on him, he is tasked by creed to return The Child, as a Mandalorian foundling, back to his people, identified by the Armorer as the Jedi, making this an invoked trope. Subverted when Mando finds ex-Jedi Ahsoka Tano, who refuses to take Grogu because he has already formed a strong attachment to Mando. Played straight when Mando gives Grogu to Luke Skywalker in spite of his own feelings, showing he values his duty and The Child's well-being over his own, though Grogu later goes back to Mando of his own free will.
- In Obi-Wan Kenobi, the titular character spends most of his time ensuring the safe return of Princess Leia to her home on Alderaan.
Video Games
- Banjo-Tooie: An extensive sidequest in Terrydactyland revolves around helping a Styracosaurus mother (Scrotty) solve the respective problems involving her three children. One of them shrunk in size, the other got sick and has to be taken elsewhere to be healed, and the third one involves this trope as he escaped from home to visit Witchyworld and has yet to return. It is revealed that this son got captured and then put in a jail as an attraction for tourists. By breaking the jail and then calling Chuffy the Train so he can transport the child, it's possible to take him back to Terrydactyland.
- Blue Archive: In one of Kanna's relationship stories, she finds a lost child but all her attempts to calm the child down fail due to her scary demeanor. After Sensei arrives and is able to get the child home, she admits to them how embarrassing she finds the situation, and that she initially joined Valkyrie hoping for a public facing community service role in the Public Safey Bureau, but joined the Public Peace Bureau at the urging of her uppperclassmen.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Two stages in Wondaria Remains, "Welcome to Wondaria" and "The Wondaria Dream Parade", have five ducklings scattered across a small section of the stage. Kirby can find all five and return them to their mother for some Star Coins and food items.
- Knights of the Old Republic: A sidequest involves locating a young stowaway on the Ebon Hawk, who was taken from her family by raiders at a young age and only recently escaped. The player can return her to a representative of her family on Dantooine for Light Side points, or force her to leave the ship for Dark Side points.
- Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It: A very strange example. The child is obnoxious and hateful, being the Worst Brat; she will not cooperate but can, under the game's wordplay rules, be transformed into a Bratwurst. In this form she can be returned to her aunts, once they've been transformed back from being ants.
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team: The hero and partner's first mission is to rescue a lost Caterpie to its mother Butterfree in the mystery dungeon.
- Star Fox Adventures: Some time after having found the Krazoa Spirit located in LightFoot Village and taken it back to Krazoa Palace, it's possible to find some LightFoot children playing around. It turns out these children are supposed to return their respective houses, but haven't done so yet. Fox can lure them into designated spots that warp them back to their parents (though in the case of the ones that hide in the outer trees, simply hitting the trunks with Krystal's Staff will knock the mischievous children off them so they return home on their own) and earn assorted rewards, including reaching a well to purchase a Cheat Token.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario 64: Tuxie is a baby penguin found at the top of Cool, Cool Mountain. Mario has to return her to her mother for a Power Star.
- Bowser's Fury: Throughout the game's three main isles, Mario will encounter a sad cat mother and will have to return one, three and five kittens to her to earn a Cat Shine.
- Umamusume: Pretty Derby (2021): One random event in the Trackblazer scenario has Biko Pegasus and Hishi Akebono come across a young child who's gotten separated from their mother. Biko jumps at the chance to help them, and has Akebono hoist the child up on her shoulders, allowing them to see over the crowd and spot their mother. The pair are swiftly reunited.
- In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, after obtaining the Boots in Maze Island Palace, Link needs to find a lost child and return it to the Old Woman in Mountain Town of Darunia. This is needed to obtain the Reflect spell and defeat Carock, the boss of the same dungeon.
Visual Novels
- In Haruka's route of Little Busters!, Haruka and Riki find a lost child on campus and decide to try and help her find her family and where she's supposed to be. Instead, in come the school disciplinary committee, who are not only completely unhelpful but immediately start accusing Haruka of bringing the child in the first place to "flaunt her sexual deviance" (never mind that it couldn't possibly be her kid). The scene is one of many establishing that while Haruka may be an unruly delinquent, the school's authorities have it out for her to an unfair extent to the point of jumping to moon-logic conclusions, as her abusive family has eyes in the school and her archnemesis sister, the head of the disciplinary committee, is trying to terrorize Haruka out of the school so she can live safely somewhere else.
Web Videos
- Gigguk: In Rail Whores, an abridged parody of Rail Wars!, Takayama and Iwaizumi (ineffectually) try to calm a lost child down so they can help him find his parents. After failing to get him to stop crying by singing "Get Low", Haruka and Sakurai step in to actually him.
Takayama & Iwaizumi: "To the windooooow!"
Sakurai: "... What are you doing?"
Western Animation
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Discussed and Zig-Zagged. In "Return to Omashu", Tom-Tom, the infant son of the Fire Nation-appointed governor of Omashu/New Ozai, wanders off and ends up with the Earth Kingdom resistance group entirely by accident. The group discusses what to do with him, but before they can make a decision, the governor offers to exchange King Bumi for the release of Tom-Tom. While the deal is turned into a trap by Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee, the protagonists get away, and Aang secretly returns Tom-Tom to his parents in the final scene of the episode.
- Boo Boom! The Long Way Home: The entire plot of the series resolves around five animals (a horse named Boldsteed, a cat named Aurelia, a bulldog named Jack, a rooster named Christopher and a bee named B-17) trying to help a young boy who got seperated from his parents during an air raid be reunited with them.
- The Dragon Prince: Upon learning that the war between the Human Kingdoms and the mystical realm of Xadia started because Viren stole the egg of the dragon king and queen, Princes Callum and Ezran set off with an elf girl, Rayla, to return the baby dragon to its mother and end the war.
- Gladiators: The Tournament of the Seven Wonders: The series' plot partially revolves around Marcus, a young Roman prince and heir to the emperor, whose life is in danger. When the conspirators try to murder him, a bunch of vagabonds and slaves who call themselves Warriors of the Sun save the boy. Since he is not safe at home, together they travel around the empire to hide Marcus from the forces of evil. Marcus has to spend months away from his mother Domitia, whom he misses more than anything, and Domitia is equally distressed about her missing son. Both go through a lot before the long-awaited reunion.
- Ozzy & Drix: In "A Growing Cell", the titular duo has to locate a missing fat cell child named Agloopus Glop and bring his to his worried parents. The task of bringing the missing child is difficult for Ozzy and Drix, since Agloopus is always hungry and his growing girth causes problem, along with dealing with Agloopus'' kidnapper, a bad cholesterol named Stickety, who kidnaps fat cell children and stick them to Hector's main artery to give the boy a heart attack. After Stickery is defeated by Ozzy and Drix, Agloopus is reunited with his parents.
- Wander Over Yonder: In "The Toddler" Wander and Sylvia find a rather large lost child, and spend the whole of the episode searching for the tyke's family while at the same time trying to keep him out of trouble, which proves a difficult task given how large the infant is compared to them, and the fact that Sylvia can't use her more aggressive methods to rein him in, since he's only a child.
- Wonder Pets! deal with returning lost baby animals to their parents in about every episode.
Real Life
- In 394 B.C., when the Romans were besieging the city of Falerii, a schoolteacher decided to betray the city and, having led his students outside the walls for exercising, took them to the Roman camp. Upon seeing that, the army commander ordered the teacher stripped, his hands bound, and the kids be given whips to drive the man back to the city. The Falerians, upon seeing how honorable Romans are, surrendered and allied with them.
- On March 27th, 2009 in Hagerstown, Maryland a prison work crew cleaning the highway found a 2½-year-old boy wandering on the road. They shared their lunches with him and entertained the boy for three hours while authorities searched for his family. It turns out he'd woken before his parents and managed to open the door and walk off. He was returned after CPS determined there was no abuse or negligence.
