In transmigration stories where the FL find themselves in the body of a character that is abusive to their children and decide to raise them properly, the child in question is always the most obedient little kid ever. I mean it might just be the actual personality of the kid but I always have this feeling that the prior abuse is always used as a method to make the child lovable to the FL when she starts taking good care of them. It’s like a main part of the reason they’re so cute and well behaved is that they just don’t want to get abused again. While from a child’s perspective it seems logical, it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth when this trope keeps getting used.
lmao authors always try to make the abuse seem like it never existed with a bit of kindness. It really ticks me off, cause yea, the kid is acting overly obedient to not be abused again. Which is NOT a good representation of a healthy family.
I doubt it's anything so twisted. Or deep. Or realistic. I think it's just that novels involving child care are written by and for people who have little to no contact with actual children. That's why they think kids are all just little bundles of adorableness and skip all the frustrating and infuriating parts.
Actually, depending on the child's age, they might not even know the concept of abuse, and take it as normal, where the sudden improvement would then be "better than normal", hence them being well-behaved, as they are genuinely happy, not even questioning if something was wrong with how they were treated before. They might later learn that it was actually abuse, but a lot of children never really internalize the fact, either forgetting it entirely, or blaming themselves instead. it's easier to forget, or think you were a difficult child who then became better afterwards than it is to think of your parents as bad people. whether this is good or bad depends on the situation, honestly, and the type of abuse. It is sometimes better to forget or give an easy explanation to such things than it is to try and understand reasons for abuse, as there is no "right" reason for abuse.
But what irks me is that as the child grows older they rarely show any bratty or annoying behaviour (I don’t know how to phrase it) that’s a part of most children growing up. Maybe to the author children are all adorable angels that give no trouble but my overthinking brain kind of starts seeing it as the kid subconsciously never daring to express themselves in fear of getting hurt again. These are just some thoughts that were going around in my brain. Does it make any sense psychologically?
yeah, i think it's not that deep. These kind of books are either written by people that don't have much contact with children or want to portrait an idealized version of childcare. These kinds are obedient and cute, because those are the good parts of having a child. Just like sometimes people write flawless, prince like ML's: it's good to see an idealized experience play out, without the inconveniences that come along with it. Although i agree with "I always have this feeling that the prior abuse is always used as a method to make the child lovable to the FL", because, yeah. The abuse is not there for character development, its there for pity points If it where in real life, that may be the case. Abused children may be obedient for fear of getting hit or some punishment, or portray a type of personality the abuser likes more and will be less likely to punish, but i don't think the children in these books are written to be like that, or else it would be brought up. A well written novel with children with a past of abuse, that have issues because of it and after they work throught it the child starts to heal would be dope
Most of the novels like this I've read were mainly because the original owner had a history of "neglect" towards the child, which made them more self-sufficient and mature (?). I think that might be why the child seems so adorable and there aren't that many problems when it comes to raising kids (+ the father is usually a very smart OP person, so the genes make the kids smarter? That's usually how it is, right?). I don't think it's actually because of abuse? Unless neglect counts as abuse (I'm not really sure about this). I agree that it makes sense that the cuteness and obedience makes the kids more appealing to the FL (it also connects the storyline together more); mainly, these kids are referred to as "instant sons/daughters," so the FLs (who have never taken care of kids before/never had kids before, usually) also won't have any disastrous child-raising incidents that may be potentially life-threatening, while also making it so the FL doesn't have to become super-mom all of a sudden. Overall, I think it just depends on the story. In real life, this kind of stuff won't happen much, so these prematurely mature kids don't pop up often (the bratty spoiled ones pop up more), so it can make the child a little unrealistic. Personally, I'm okay with the cute kids with no problems part. The idealized version is fun and relaxing to read as someone who doesn't come into contact with kids about 99.9% of the time, haha.
Try the novels on https://www.fuyuneko.org/~ The Male Lead’s Villainess Stepmother is one that fits the bill really well. MC transmigrates into a book and then has an "instant son" to care for. My Son Might Be A Villain is another one.
I don't know what's surprising about this. These stories are basically designed around the idea of idealized motherhood; about satisfying the fantasy of how children will respond positively to being treated well. Given this, the story would only work if the children are angelic.
That's common, like when the ML rapes FL and FL end up being in a relationship with him, happily. Or when FL acts like a tsun to ML and mistreat and put him down all the time, yet they still end up in a relationship, happily. Sadly, most relationships in real world are like this. Domestic abuse and disputes are more common than you think. It's about an abusive relationship and someone who tries to justify it to themselves. The bad taste in your mouth is because the author set it aside in an easy going manner, instead of confronting and solving it from the root of the problem. Expecting the readers to forget about it like nothing happened since they're happy now.
Yes it does make sense psychologically, but only in a limited fashion. Rarely would one facet of your life overpower all others. also, unlike what one might expect, a lot of children who suffer from abuse become abusive towards others rather than obedient. It is to hide their suffering behind a thin veil of "strength". In the same manner, depressed children will often be the ones to be outwardly happiest, it is why you might hear people say they completely didn't expect "that kid" to commit suicide, because they seemed normal, happy even... human behavior is often very contradictive.