I Miss Mom

"There are plenty of kids who miss their mothers; that's the world we live in."

- Rufus Shinra, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Stock Phrase

Distinct from Missing Mom or other Parental Abandonment tropes in that the parent of the character in question was an active force in their life, for good or bad, but is now permanently gone. Killed Off for Real, or maybe just certifiably dead from the beginning.

The character in question states to another character, who may be a rival, love interest, sibling, or another parent about how badly they miss their other parent. Expect Ocular Gushers or Manly Tears and a reply of "I miss her too". May be a Freudian Excuse, or something slightly more poignant. Examples with "I miss dad" are harder to come by for some reason.

Anime and Manga

 * In Ranma 1/2 Nabiki of all people pulls this on Ranma to try and get him to confess his curse to his mother (basically emotionally blackmailing him by saying at least he has a mother while her and her sisters no longer do). It's possible she may even mean it as she takes a lot longer to get to the Extortion than usual.
 * Little Al says this in a flashback after their mother dies in the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime.
 * Appears in Neon Genesis Evangelion, where pretty much everyone misses their mothers.
 * While avoiding the exact phrase, the series includes a scene of Shinji and Gendo visiting Yui's grave that kind of carries the feel of this trope. Rather then the standard "I miss her too" sentiment though, Gendo instead discusses how he was fortunate to have what time he did with her and how important it is to rise above the loss, which Shinji finds rather inspiring.
 * The again,.
 * The irony is that while Shinji and Asuka may miss their moms, really though, they've never been closer to them.
 * In Monster, Eva's frail chance at happiness with one of the only men who treats her well is foiled by the man's daughter, who misses mommy. When said mother comes back home from her adulterous ways, his daughter's happiness erases Eva out of the equation completely.
 * A rare example where someone says this about both parents is seen in episode 25 of Tiger and Bunny ; Barnaby (whose parents were murdered when he was four) visits their grave and ends up in tears, saying "I miss you...Mum, Dad! I wish...I could've spent more time with the two of you."
 * Clannad After Story: "What was Mom like?"

Film

 * Anakin Skywalker's descent to the dark side began with this.
 * Sleepless in Seattle had a helping of this.
 * The first Spider-Man film has Peter Parker telling Aunt May how much he misses Uncle Ben after his graduation.
 * Signs has Abigail Breslin and Mel Gibson sharing this moment.
 * A bit of a darker version here; Bambi 2 had Bambi yell "I wish Mother were here instead of you!" after he finds out that his father was going to give him to another doe because he didn't know how to take care of him.
 * In Alaska, the protagonist angrily tells his father that he wishes he had died instead of the mom. Of course, the father then goes missing after his plane crashes, invoking a guilt trip.

Literature

 * In Diane Duane's Young Wizards series after Nita and Dairine's mother dies of cancer.
 * in Pillage, Beck states this to the reader on more than one occasion, following it quickly with explanations that he misses the mom he might have had.

Live Action TV

 * Carla says this in Scrubs after the death of her mother.
 * Example of an "I miss Dad" from Smallville after Jonathon Kent dies of a heart attack. Lex Luthor and Lana Lang both play it straight though.
 * Used in Full House.
 * Turns up in Buffy where Dawn tries to solve this problem by raising the dead. Never a pitfall free solution to this problem.
 * Climaxes in a real Tear Jerker scene when Buffy confronts Dawn over her use of dark magic. Dawn accuses Buffy of not even missing her, prompting Buffy to break down in tears, revealing that she was just trying to stay strong for Dawn's sake. Dawn is so moved and Buffy is so distraught after opening the floodgates to her grief that they end up switching positions on the resurrection spell, with Buffy rushing to greet "mom" at the door and Dawn deciding to undo the spell at the last second and let their mother rest in peace.
 * In "Afterlife" the Scoobies are hitting the books for info on the Monster of the Week when Buffy (who isn't even pretending to help) says out of the blue, "I miss Giles". The Scoobies naturally assume their research skills aren't up to scratch, being unwilling or unable to see just how depressed Buffy is over being brought back from the dead.
 * Supernatural.

Theater

 * The death of Mary's alcoholic mother in the finale/epilogue of Vanities: The Musical.

Video Games

 * In Earthbound, "Homesickness" is a Standard Status Effect which exclusively affects Ness at random. To get rid of it, you actually have to call your mother on the telephone. Or "use" a newly-hatched chick; it's not clear what this entails, but it removes the baby bird from the character's inventory.
 * Chapter 6 of Mother 3 is primarily centered around Lucas missing his deceased mother.
 * Guild Wars: "Mother told me we see people again after we die. I miss her."
 * The subplot of Super Mario Galaxy Especially Chapter 7...

Web Animation

 * Homestar Runner "I miss video games." "I miss my mom."
 * Though in this case it seems that she's alive and well; the guy is just on vacation.

Western Animation

 * Comes up in Avatar: The Last Airbender a few times, what with all the war-orphans.
 * A particular Tear Jerker in the episode "The Runaway" with Sokka confessing that as much as he misses her, he can't even remember his mother's face anymore. When he thinks of her, all he can picture is Katara, his younger sister who took over mothering him when their mom was killed. Toph also finally admits that she misses her parents (though they are still alive) and feels bad about making them worry all this time.
 * One South Park episode featured a fake, live-action commercial a fictional product based on the episode. The family in the commercial happily enjoys the product until the little girl randomly says "I wish Dad was still alive," momentarily causing the cheery music to falter and the mom's smile to fade.

Web Comics

 * In Gunnerkrigg Court, this is the cause of the first crack in Antimony's stoic facade.
 * Xkcd turns a Your Mom joke into a Tear Jerker.
 * As of Act 5 of Homestuck, John started missing his dad and got quite annoyed when things got in the way of finding him; the one time they almost met up on the Battlefield was cut short by Vriska waking him up. Needless to say,.

Real Life

 * Too many people, too often.