Children Raise You/Playing With

Basic Trope: An immature slacker raises a young distant relative. Both learn lessons.

• Straight: Bob is the very definition of Adult Child - he's very much a slacker. When he inherits his younger brother Timmy after his parents die, he learns a lot about himself through the act of being a parent.
• Exaggerated: Bob is an absolute loser with nothing to offer society. When he inherits Timmy he goes from a slacker to an ideal member of society overnight.
• Justified: Raising a kid forced Bob to grow up himself; he can't really expect the kid to respect him unless he acts like an adult.
• Inverted: Bob is a fine, upstanding citizen who contributes very much to society. After inheriting Timmy, his life is thrown out of whack enough to where he becomes less a model citizen.
• Subverted: It seems that raising Timmy has no effect on Bob...
• Double Subverted: ...until he has to actually discipline the boy, after which he decides to start growing up.
• Parodied:
  • Timmy literally raises Bob: cooking his meals, making sure he's ready for work, driving him there, et cetera.
  • It's revealed that the whole story took place In Soviet Russia.
• Deconstructed: After a while, it becomes evident that Bob, while ultimately good-hearted, lacks what it takes to be an effective father figure to Timmy. He loses custody of the boy, who's subsequently bounced around to foster homes.
• Reconstructed: However, this spurs Bob on to dig truly deep and improve his life to the point where he can earn custody of the boy for real.
• Zig Zagged: ???
• Averted: Bob was already fairly mature before Timmy came; that, or Timmy has no effect.
• Enforced: The author was trying to construct An Aesop about responsibility and age.
• Lampshaded: "I'd say I'm raising him, but I think it's the other way around."
• Invoked: Bob's parents, realizing that Bob needs some motivation to stop being such a slacker, make sure that he gets the boy in case of an accident so that he'll learn how to function in society.
• Defied: "I know we may want to teach Bob some life lessons, but we've got to consider Timmy's well-being. How about a different potential father?"
• Discussed: "This kid who I'm about to patron is probably going to whip me into shape."
• Conversed: ???

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