Sandy: Hello, little critter! What's your name?
Mother: (grabs her kid) Don't stand too close to a squirrel, Billy. You'll catch its stupid.
Billy: Okay, mom.
Mother: (grabs her kid) Don't stand too close to a squirrel, Billy. You'll catch its stupid.
Billy: Okay, mom.
It really stings when All of the Other Reindeer won't let you play their reindeer games, and discrimination comes in many forms, big and small. Such as a parent (usually a mother) catching sight of you and pulling their child closer, as if you're a live bomb waiting to go off. Are you big and intimidating? Hideously scarred? Deformed? Ugly? Cursed? Mistaken for Pedophile? An outcast for other reasons? It's probably nothing personal, but every parent's first priority is their child's safety, and if you look like bad news, they won't want you around their little one. It hurts even more if the kid curiously approaches you, but the parent jerks them back and scolds them with "That person is dangerous!" or "We do not associate with (insert identifying trait here)!" To increase the sting, instead of just having the scene with the hero, parent, and child, have a huge crowd of people all backing away from the hero simultaneously, with a specific shot of a parent fearfully clutching their child included in it.
The narrative purpose is to make the audience feel bad for the hero who is being discriminated against for something they have no control over. After all, if they can't even go out in public without their appearance scaring parents left and right, they have a big problem on their hands. This is usually the beginning of a desire to be accepted that forms a narrative arc.
At the end of the story, the narrative may show that the hero has finally been accepted when the child approaches them once again, but this time, the parents don't stop them.
This trope is rooted in Real Life parents' fears of Stranger Danger, as well as the natural innocence of young children who will sometimes approach random strangers in public, regardless of what they look like.
Related to All of the Other Reindeer, Hero with Bad Publicity, Children Are Innocent, and Face of a Thug. Compare and contrast Embarrassed by a Child, and may involve Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears. Symbolic Distance may be achieved by this to show the loneliness of the unfortunate outcast.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Chihayafuru: After losing badly to the current Queen of Karuta, Shinobu Wakimiya, Chihaya has taken to doing practice swings when Taichi claps as a signal, to improve her speed. When Chihaya starts to doze on the train ride home, Taichi mischievously claps, causing Chihaya to wake with a start and do a practice swing, alarming a small child across the way and causing the child's mother to pull her child back and say, "Don't look at her!"
- A running gag in Chobits has Hideki do something bizarre and after a child points him out, a woman's voice says "Don't look at him, dear."
Comic Books
- Inverted in Hitman (1993): Tommy's mother was the local prostitute in an Irish town, who named her sons after the clients who'd fathered them (all married men). If ever she met one in the street, she'd pull the corresponding child along, saying "Come along, [Client's name]" within earshot to make them feel guilty. This leads to her murder when Tommy's father turns out to be an utter sociopath who kills her for attacking his respectability.
- Le Marquis D Anaon: When a young child grabs the titular character's clothes, he smiles and reassures his mother that curiosity is only natural. When he innocently mentions that he's going to work for the local baron, the child's mother yanks the kid away. It turns out the baron has quite an evil reputation (and it's entirely justified).
Fan Works
- A justified case occurs in the Ma Fille chapter "Aunt Laura"; Joe pulls Katrina away from the titular aunt after she attempts to take her out of the mall without him knowing about it. Notably, this is a detailed exclusive to the Archive of Our Own Updated Re-release.
Film — Animated
- In Balto, the titular hero is reimagined as half-husky, half-wolf and Nome's resident outcast. When Rosie, a local girl and the mistress of Balto's crush Jenna, tries interacting with him, her father pulls her back, worried about his half-wolf heritage.
- Chicken Little (2005): After humiliating himself last year by claiming that the sky was falling, Chicken Little is shunned by almost the entire town. One little kid with his mom sees him and says, "Look, Mama, there's the crazy chicken!" Mom just drags the kid away, saying, "Yes, that's the crazy chicken, you're so smart, we don't make eye contact, bye-bye!"
- Frozen (2013): As Elsa is running from her disastrous coronation ceremony after having accidentally revealed her ice powers to a room full of nobles, she is greeted by a huge, adoring crowd excited to see their new queen. A mother with a baby notices that she looks stressed and asks if she's alright. Elsa is rapidly losing control of her powers, and accidentally freezes a fountain and shoots ice at the Duke's guards who are pursuing her. The crowd backs away from her in fear, including the mother from earlier who clutches her baby closer and a father who pulls his two children away.
- At the beginning of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney), Esmeralda is dancing in the square while a Romani man is playing her music, and a little girl approaches them. The girl's mother instantly pulls her away, believing the gypsies will rob them.
- Zootopia (2016): After 14 missing predators are discovered having gone uncontrollably savage, the prey population of Zootopia becomes terrified of their predator neighbors for fear they'll snap and start mauling whoever's nearby. On the subway, a mother rabbit pulls her kid away from a male adult tiger sitting next to them on the same bench, minding his own business. Notably, the kid isn't bothered by the huge tiger sitting right next to them at first, and only starts to look fearful when her mother pulls her away.
Film — Live-Action
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) has a Downplayed Example when Maddie first sees Sonic and pulls her niece Jojo away in shock. However, it's purely an instinctive reaction and she warms to the talking blue space hedgehog once she gets to know him.
- In War of the Worlds (2005), Ray is alarmed to find his daughter Rachel alone with the unstable Harlan Ogilvy, who tells Rachel he'll look after her if something happens to her father. Ray immediately calls Rachel over to him and tells Harlan never to talk to Rachel again.
- X-Men 1: When Cyclops and Storm are at the train station, a young boy smiles at Cyclops, who smiles back, upon which his mother pulls her son away in disgust. This was a result of a Throw It In as the child actor playing the kid was a huge X-Men fan, with Cyclops being his favorite, so he kept smiling at James Marsden. Finally, during one shot, Marsden just looked back at him and smiled, much to the boy's delight. Bryan Singer liked the idea so much, he kept it in the film and told the actress playing the boy's mother to react the way she did.
Literature
- Can't Get There from Here: When Maybe, a homeless girl, is holding a cardboard sign that says "money for eggs and crayons," a mother pulls her curious children away and sternly tells them not to talk to "that person".
- Deptford Mice: During her stay in Fennywolde in The Crystal Prison, Audrey's fondness for lace and ribbons causes local religious zealot Isaac Nettle, who believes any form of decoration "goes against the design of the Green Mouse", to denounce her as a sinner. (He also destroys the corn dolly she was making, though it is later magically repaired and brought to life - with terrifying consequences.) Because Isaac has a lot of clout in Fennywolde, most of the local mice turn against Audrey and warn their children not to associate with her. In this case, however, it is the children's older sisters, rather than their parents, who pull them away.
- Earth's Children:
- The first time Ayla is cursed with death — meaning she is literally seen as dead by the Clan — she tries desperately to get people to acknowledge her. She sees a flicker of recognition in Uba's eyes, but Ebra quickly carries Uba away and tells the child to ignore Ayla, as acknowledging a spirit could bring bad luck. The second time it happens, a now adult Uba has to take Ayla's son Durc away from the spirit of his mother.
- Jondalar recalls that when he was a teenager after he badly beat another boy for publicly exposing his forbidden romance with Zolena, parents would pull their children away from him when he was out in public, seeing him as tainted. This stopped after Jondalar was Sent Off to Work for Relatives for a few years and all was eventually forgiven, but the memory still stings for Jondalar.
- In Forbidden Fruit, mothers apparently pull their children away to the opposite side of the sidewalk whenever they see Lily Pierron out in public, which Santos notes when confronting her over his realization that she is a former madam and her house used to be a brothel.
- This happens to Doctor Frankenstein's creation when he leaves the laboratory and goes walking in the human world: a child who has realised there is no danger is dragged away by their terrified parents.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Before Harry learned that he was a wizard, he once went shopping with his Aunt Petunia. When they encountered a witch and her child, Petunia ran out with Harry without buying anything because she was afraid of wizards and witches.
- The Hike (2023): As Joni is leaving her hotel room to catch a flight to Norway at the last minute, a woman on the street pulls her child away from Joni with a disgusted look. Joni knows she looks like a mess; she woke up hungover from a night of performing and partying less than an hour ago, didn't change her clothes (which she slept in) or wash off her smudged make-up, and left the hotel barefoot as she couldn't find her shoes. Even so, the mother's reaction hurts Joni and she thinks that she doesn't want to be the kind of person parents instinctively pull their children away from.
- Unwind: Mason Starkey was a "storked" baby — that is, a baby who was left abandoned on the doorstep of his adoptive parents and legally required to be taken in. As he's being taken away for "unwinding" (i.e. having all his organs used as transplants), he remembers his unhappy childhood, including memories of a neighbor who would always make his kids go inside whenever he saw Starkey out and about in the neighborhood.
Live-Action TV
- Dogengers: Nice Buddy inverts this with the child pulling away her mother from the Dogengers after they became social pariahs due to various Felony Misdemeanors.
- In the Key & Peele sketch What Happens When Zombies Are Racist, the child zombie attempts to eat the two men, but is quickly pulled away by the parent zombies.
- Leverage: "The San Lorenzo Job"; Nate is questioning if Hardison suggesting that the mark, San Lorenzo's corrupt President Ribera, is for child labor is stretching credibility a bit...until he sees a young boy cry out in alarm at seeing Ribera and the boy's mother pulling him away.
Theatre
- Cats: Grizabella is an old cat who is being collectively shunned by the Jellicle tribe, apparently for being a diva when she was younger. Some of the kittens curiously try to approach her but are held back by the adult cats.
Video Games
- Horizon Zero Dawn: During the tutorial, young Aloy (who's shunned in the Nora tribe for apparently having no mother) tries to gather berries with the other kids, only to have the adult with them look horrified, and hastily warn the other children to shun her.
- Live A Live: In the Middle Ages chapter, Oersted starts off hailed as a hero and a champion with one child proving to admire him greatly. Following an incident where he is tricked into killing the king, he becomes shunned and labeled the Lord of Dark. The very same kid refuses to accept these claims as true and attempts to run up to Oersted only to be pulled away by his parents who demand Oersted leave them alone.
- Phantom Brave: After completing a job in the first chapter of the game, Marona is approached by an owlman child who wants to offer her some candy. Unfortunately, the child's mother quickly pulls the child into her arms, all whilst accusing Marona of trying to do something and telling her to leave. This, of course, is due to Marona's ability to summon phantoms and her undeserved reputation as "The Possessed".
- Wandering Wolf Trick: Trick runs into a lost cat child and tries to help them find their mom. It doesn't take long before the mother comes running into the scene to pull her child away from Trick then chasing them away because they're a wolf.
- After Rudy has defeated the Rotting Beast in Wild ARMs 1, local kid Tony tries to run over to congratulate him, but his mother pulls him back, as Rudy's use of ARMs has caused the villagers to see him as a threat due to their association with war and demons.
Web Animation
- SMG4: In "Mario Goes On A Diet", after Mario goes Laughing Mad, Karen becomes disturbed and quickly pushes her three kids away from him.
Western Animation
- Arcane: In "Oil and Water," Heimerdinger is wandering through the streets of Zaun when a child gives him some metal scraps as a gift. He turns them into a spinning top for her, which makes her smile before her mother pulls her away.
- Hilda: In "Chapter 12: The Nisse", when Hilda first sees the homeless Tontu, Johanna quickly pulls her away and warns her Nisse are untrustworthy. The same scene also appears in the original graphic novel "Hilda and the Black Hound".
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "Bridle Gossip", everyone in Ponyville is afraid of Zecora, a zebra who is rumored to be an evil witch. Berryshine is shown pulling Ruby Pinch indoors when Zecora is outside, though it's unknown if the two are related.
- Phineas and Ferb: In the 1950s, Professor Ross Eforp was forced into hiding because his name is a palindrome. In the present day, after his concept for a three-dimensional association football stadium is actualized by the titular characters, he comes out of hiding, announcing his name. A random boy observes his name is a palindrome, and his mother promptly pulls him away.
- Robot Chicken: A sketch centered around a suicidal man on a dunk tank-like game (with the difference being a noose around his neck) who tries to encourage people to play. A child tries to approach him, but his mother pulls him away, much to the man's chagrin.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In the episode "Squirrel Jokes", Sandy finds that people in Bikini Bottom are treating her like she's stupid after SpongeBob made such jokes about squirrels. One kid approaches her, and she is greeting him when the mother pulls him back, warning him "Don't get too close to a squirrel, Billy. You'll catch its stupid."
- In "Not Normal", Patrick tries to help SpongeBob become "weird" again after having been turned "normal" in both appearance and behaviour. They do this by sliding on a water trail that leads to a ramp that launches them into the zoo. A little girl asks, "Mommy, what are those things?", and her mother replies, "Those are undesirables, honey, we only associate with normal people." SpongeBob and Patrick take this to mean their weird behavior is working.