Parents Abandoning Their Kids (Or Just Being The Worst)
Ah, yes. The classic trope that essentially became a competition of “Let’s see which movie has the worst parents possible.” The Home Alone franchise really set the bar here, with Mom and Dad McCallister leaving behind their kid not once but twice. We suspect they secretly regretted having half a dozen kids.
20th Century Fox
In The Parent Trap, we have one parent abandoning one child each for (again) reasons, and in The Pagemaster, kid Culkin is again dealing with ridiculous parents who think sending their kid out on his bike to the hardware store while a tropical-level storm approaches will, somehow, build character. Honestly, the kid should’ve stayed with Christopher Lloyd in that library forever.