Babies Ever After

Tropes and genres
Synonym(s)	Babies Ever After
Related tropes/genres	Domestic AU, Fluff, Happily Ever After, Kidfic
Related articles on Fanlore.

"Babies ever after" is a term used for a trope in which the conclusion of a story focuses on the protagonist(s) having children. This usually involves a happily ever after scenario, but bittersweet versions of the trope exist. Domestic AU and kidfic fanworks are sometimes a manifestation of this trope.

Fannish Perspectives

Some fans enjoy the "babies ever after" trope as a cliché but satisfying happy ending or as a form of personal wish fulfillment. Others feel that the trope allows characters who have endured hardship or trauma throughout the story to find hope, meaning, and stability at its conclusion.

So I know that some people are tired of seeing many fics (usually a romance) end with the "happy ever after with babies" cliche, and I also understand that some people find pregnancy a trigger and would rather avoid these kinds of stories, but... personally, as someone who cannot have children or even risk a pregnancy because it's a health risk for me, I actually love this kind of cliche. I'm able to live vicariously through stories like these. I love seeing my favorite characters/ship in love and pregnant or leading a happy family life with children. I love being able to experience what a pregnancy would be like through the heroine. I love reading about the heroine suffering morning sickness, having cravings, getting an ultrasound, the panic/worry or the happiness/excitement, etc. I love the happy ever after where my ship ends up having dozens of babies and everything's a beautiful, perfect mess. Fiction is the only way I can experience something I can't in real life. So yeah, who cares if it's cliche! Write those happy-ever-after-with-babies endings!

Bitter_Flatworm_4894 (2021)

Not gonna lie, this stuff is my jam. I'm also a big fan of the like... "unexpectedly pregnant and it's a mess at first but over the course of it we find we meant more to each other than we ever thought" kind of thing, and single parent AUs, and "oh no we found this abandoned baby, what do we do?" stories, and... I know it's cliche and frequently unrealistic but it's like the fic equivalent of eating a big bowl of Thanksgiving leftovers. It's the same old stuff, y'know, nothing new or imaginative and probably not especially good, either, but it's delicious and warm and makes me feel all cozy and I'll keep coming back each time.

yersinia-p (2021)

Me too! I think because it's often thematically satisfying as well. Like after everything the protagonists have suffered, after all the destruction etc etc, there is rebirth thru their kids and there is hope for the future generations to live a better life (built on what the protagonists accomplished). Like in the Hunger Games for example.

antonia_dreams (2021)

Fans who dislike the trope have commented that "babies ever after" endings reinforce heteronormative notions of happiness or gloss over the difficulties of parenthood.

I don't have a problem with the "happily ever after with babies" trope. What I have a problem with is the "happily ever after because babies" trope. I hate stories that end with "and then they had children and that means absolutely everything was totally fine from then on". So many stories use "Oh I'm pregnant." at the very end, or a epilogue that skips to the leads having children as short hand for "Happily ever after". I hate that because it implies that just having kids fixes things or having kids is the only way to be happy.

Harry Potter is rather infamous for pairing absolutely everyone off with this very real sense of "well they can't be unhappy, they have kids". A lot of people hated Cursed Child for "taking away Harry's happy ending" because Harry having kids was so synonymous with his life now being perfect that the revelation that Harry's life is still hard and he struggles to relate to his children felt like that was being taken away.

The Cursed Child sucked for other reasons but Albus and Harry having a very strained relationship was not one of them.

Stories that involve a pregnancy or child rearing are absolutely fine but the end of a story going like "Bam, kids. That means happiness." really rub me the wrong way. Especially since far too many people have a kid under the assumption that it will make them happy and then when it doesn't the kid is the one that suffers for it.

Lady_of_the_Seraphim (2021)

Personally, I absolutely hate that trope, but I think not all instances of people having kids is an instance of the trope. If having kids is a natural part of the story, I don't think it's especially an instance of the trope. Usually in the tropey version everyone hooks up and everyone has kids. Sometimes there will be a token unkidded person, so the author can pat themselves on the back and say they didn't do the trope even though they obviously did. It’s just lazy writing. Let someone have a happy single ending. Let the kids not be friends, or be different ages. Let someone get a divorce. Everyone being together with kids the same age at the end undermines any realism the story might have had. My willing suspension of disbelief doesn't extend that far.

waiting-for-the-rain (2023)

My personal dislike for the "babies ever after" is that if a story ends on a pregnancy, that’s just the beginning of a whole new set of ups and downs. I personally don’t have any problem with suggesting the characters will be parents in the future. But the process of becoming parents, and raising children is very difficult.

imnotbovvered (2023)

Some fans maintain that the enjoyability of "babies ever after" endings depends on whether it seems a natural resolution for the characters and/or whether the fic-writer has sufficiently developed it.

this 100000% depends on the specific characters in question. Just because I don't want babies in real life doesn't mean all my characters don't want babies. Heck, my usual MC quite literally wants exactly that, an average house to live in with her significant other and two children. And that desire is a Big Deal to her because she's not had any normal life since she was a little kid, so to her, that wish is something very very special. A female character wanting to be a mother is not inherently sexist. Now, yes I've absolutely read things where the "babies ever after" trope was annoying and I hated it, because it didn't suit the characters and/or was written poorly. But that's an execution problem, not a trope problem.

ElsaMakotoRenge (2023)

The thing that determines it for me is does it make sense for the character? When two people in a romance novel who showed zero interest in children/babies suddenly need a kid to be happy that's a bit frustrating and I tend to roll my eyes. But if it fits with the theme/character that's very different. In canon for my ship they are two kids who grew up in war without stability and as adults unofficially adopted 2 children who needed homes, he actively says he wants to go retire and play happy family somewhere, then he dies when she's pregnant and she has the kid alone. So most fics folks write for the ship have them getting the happily ever after the characters wanted of house and baby and peace, and I like it because it fits them. If a specific couple thinks a baby is their happy ending that's different from shoehorning it into every couple just because it's expected.

LizHylton (2023)

Art Gallery

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  Dragon Age fanart by Ioana-Muresan – Domestic scenes of Solas and The Inquisitor with their OC children

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  Hobbit fanart by Dralamy – Tauriel and Kíli with a baby dwelf

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  Star Wars fanart by PandaCappucino – Rey nurses while Kylo embraces her. Based on the Reylo fic Sustenance by Shwtlee4reylo.

External Links

• Babies Ever After at TV Tropes
• Babies Ever After tag at Archive of Our Own