Dad Going To Get Milk

"My mom already left for the diner and dad went to the 7-11 to get scratchers. I guess he won, 'cause that was six years ago."

A form of Parental Abandonment that is oft Played for Laughs only can also be Played for Drama.

When a parent decides to leave their family or breaks upwards with their partner they'll brand the excuse of Going to the Store to buy cigarettes/milk/whatever, simply they never actually come back. Other times it's a alibi fabricated by the child's family in order to soften the trauma or shield the kid from the effect. If the child is young or naive enough they will believe that their parent really did go to the store and are just taking a really, really long fourth dimension coming back.

If the parent in question really did get to the store and never came back because they died, information technology's oft much more than Played for Drama. A Played for Laughs variation of this is having it be that they really did go to the store, are still live, and actually are taking that long to come back.

Compare to Released to Elsewhere and Dog Got Sent to a Farm, equally well as to When You lot Coming Home, Dad? for when a dad is busy merely not completely absent-minded. Contrast Family unit Homo, who probably never would exercise this.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Case File nº221: Kabukicho has Mary and Lucy Morstan abandoned by their begetter afterward he told them (and their mom) that he needs to get a pack of cigarettes.
Not exactly a parent, just 1 could apply this trope to Damian in Pokémon. He told his Charmander to wait for him on top of a large rock with no intention of ever returning for it. Had information technology not been for Ash Ketchum and his friends, the Charmander would've died in the rain. I of the manga versions had him become into an accident that left him hospitalized for quite some time.
In the Slayers OVA "Jeffrey'southward Knighthood", Jeffrey's male parent left to get milk and disappeared for ten years. Presumably he was trying to get away from his crazy married woman Josephine.

Comic Strips

Subverted with Dilbert. Dilbert'southward mother'southward explanation for Dilbert's Disappeared Dad is that they lost him at an all-you-can-consume buffet. In a much later strip, though, Dilbert visits his male parent, who is indeed withal at the buffet restaurant considering he'due south so resolutely Literal-Minded that he refuses to go out until he has actually had "all he tin can swallow". It should be noted that this took place in Dec of 1992, and past all accounts Dildad is still at the buffet today.

Fan Works

Near the end of RWBY'southward second volume, after Yang's Missing Mom Raven made some very brief appearances, fan-made character status charts listed Raven's condition as "Went out to purchase Powerball tickets" or "Even so out buying those cigarettes" throughout Volume 3. When Volume 4 rolled around and Raven finally stuck around for most of an episode earlier splitting again, her status was updated to "Afterwards finding her cigarettes, Raven left once again after realizing she doesn't own a lighter."
Parodied in Ultra Fast Pony: Every episode opens with a dissimilar character saying the name of the prove. When someone points out to Rarity that she's the only one who hasn't gotten to do one of those intros, she retorts, "My episode intro just went to the store! Y'all'll see!"

Film — Blitheness

Pink Diamond pulled a variant of this on Spinel in Steven Universe: The Flick. She told her they were going to play a game in which Spinel must stand still in one spot and wait for her to come back. She then proceeded to leave and never returned. Poor Spinel was left standing there for literally thousands of years waiting for her master to come dorsum, until she somewhen saw a broadcast revealing the truth, causing her to snap and go evil. Heaven knows how long she would have waited had it not been for that convenient broadcast...

Picture — Live Action

In Quartier Lointain, the protagonist'due south father says he's going out to buy some bread on the nighttime of his 40th birthday. He doesn't come back.
Fe Human three: When Tony meets Harley, a kid in Tennessee, he says his dad went to a 7-Eleven to get lottery scratch-offs, vi years agone. He's bitterly enlightened he'south dad left him and his female parent, regardless of whether lottery was really involved. Tony, being Tony, responds with his usual tact:
Mentioned in 1995's Man of the Business firm during Ben Archer'southward Opening Narration that his male parent packed upward his things and drove away, saying he needed to "find himself." He took his beautiful secretarial assistant along to help him expect. The abandonment was rather transparent, so Ben and his mother Sandy brainstorm their single-parent life right from go.
Duets has a case of the abandoning person saying then, equally Todd constantly mentions in that his current condition is "out getting a pack of cigarettes." At that place's even the flashback showing how it started:
Todd: Sorry Candy, I'1000 going out for a pack of cigarettes.
Candy: But Todd, you don't smoke!
In Parenthood, Larry Buchman tells his father that he's going off to South America on yet another of his "go rich quick" schemes, assuring that he'll render if it doesn't pan out and asking him to wait later on his son in the meantime. His son, at all of 4 years old, is savvy plenty to bluntly ask his grandfather, "Is he ever coming back?" To which his grandfather just as bluntly answers, "No".

Literature

A fake newspaper advice cavalcade one time had a "tips for breaking upwards" department, which mentioned:
Don't use the old excuse of going to buy cigarettes. Be a human, ship her to buy cigarettes for you lot, and flee through the rooftops before she remembers you never smoked.
Marcus Didius Falco: The main character's male parent went out 1 evening for a game of draughts; as far as Falco knows, he's still playing it.
Twelve Days: When the Dorseys withal lived in Miami, Raoul left the house, saying he was getting pizza and would be back in xx minutes. Instead of coming dwelling house, he emailed Olympia to say he needed to work things out. The next she heard was from his lawyer.

Live Action TV

The Cosby Show. A janitor at Cliff'southward infirmary mentions that after a year of marriage, her husband went out for cigarettes and never returned.
Volition's dad in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air disappeared when his son was five and used this excuse.
30 Rock:
- Parodied in the final episode when Tracy Jordan'southward father returns from the store with cigarettes....about xxx-five years after he went out.
- Played straight when Tracy associates the scent of Liz's hair product with his absent father:
"You're notwithstanding hither! You didn't go to the shop for milk and heroin and and then never come up back!"
- Subverted when Jack is talking most his father:
"Thirty-5 years ago my father, Jimmy Donaghy, went out for a pack of cigarettes, came back, smoked 1, told my mother he was leaving forever, and walked out the door."
Gilmore Girls: When Jess was a baby, his biological father Jimmy went to the store for diapers and never came back. He shows upwards again when Jess is 18, wanting to build a relationship with him.
In Monk, Adrian Monk's father ran away from his own family unit after he was supposed to get Chinese food.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: In Cry Wilderness, they reference this in one of the riffs:
Mr. Douglas: What did your father have to say most these meetings?

Paul: I never told him.

Mr. Douglas: Why not?

Servo: He hasn't come up back from buying cigarettes yet...
Friends: Phoebe's dad for his second family. He went to the drugstore four years ago, and then he should be back any minute now.
Married... with Children: Seven's parents went to "get cigarettes". Al notices they used the excuse to exit town and leave Seven with them.
In Punky Brewster, this was how the title character wound upward living alone before being institute at the beginning of the series. Her mom had gone to the store and never came back. In a slight twist, Punky and her dog were waiting outside the store instead of at home. The mystery of her mom's fate served every bit an occasional plot point for the rest of the series.
The George Lopez Show: George's father, Manny, also went off to become some cigarettes, though Benny already knew he wouldn't exist returning because they already had cigarettes.
Manny: I'1000 gonna get some smokes!
Benny: Nosotros've got smokes right here. Option another lie.
Manny: I'll stick to my start one! [leaves].
Midnight Caller: Jack'southward father went to buy a pack of cigarettes and never returned, leaving the family $486 and an overdue rent nib.
Played very seriously once on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit where a father really didn't come home from the store because he got killed in a holdup. This does not do expert things for the mother'southward sanity, and it really doesn't turn out well for the children.
Basic has Brennan'southward parents. One episode has her say they went Christmas shopping and never returned due to going on the run. Yet, another version is told in another episode likewise.
Shtisel: In the first episode, Lippe is going to Argentina for a year to piece of work for a kosher meat processor. He uses the opportunity to cut ties and abandon his family. He eventually comes back, just they take a long time to forgive him.
NCIS: When Nick Torres was v years old and living in Panama, his male parent left in the centre of the night, challenge that he wanted to be offset in line to pick up something from a bakery in a nearby town. The truth was that he was helping the CIA overthrow Manuel Noriega, and leaving his family was his way of protecting them.

Music

Referenced in "Little Things" by Good Charlotte:
And that same year, on Christmas Eve, Dad went to the store.
We checked his room, his things were gone.
We didn't see him no more.
Told from the parent's perspective in "Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen:
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back.
In "Holes" by Passenger, the second verse is nigh a family who had this happen. "One twenty-four hour period her husband went to get a paper and the motherfucker never came back."

Web Animation

Played for laughs in hololive with Calliope Mori, who anybody calls Dad ever since she did a readalong of My Dad's the Queen of All VTubers?!. During one of the times she came back afterwards a intermission, she does it.... past presenting a carton of milk.

Webcomics

Spider web Original

Subverted in ane of Stuart Ashen'due south videos most inexpensive Fathers Twenty-four hours gifts:
That's right, it'southward Father'southward 24-hour interval! The twenty-four hours that we celebrate all dads that went out to get some cigarettes... and came back soon later with some cigarettes.
An Internet meme is that "My father left to walk the dog/went to the store to go milk [number] years agone."
SuperMarioLogan: In "Jeffy's Parents!", this is Nancy's excuse for leaving Jeffy.
Invoked in THE SIMS 4 IN REAL LIFE (at 2:57) virtually The Sims four beingness realistic with one of the Sims upon knocking up their new female neighbor deciding he needs to become abroad from her fast.

Western Animation

Referenced on Take chances Time: In "Escape From the Citadel", while Martin visibly tries to escape into infinite and go out his son Finn behind, he claims to be going to the store. Nobody is fooled.
The Amazing World of Gumball: Richard's father Frankie said he was going to go milk when he left. Richard, being the Manchild that he is, is in heavy denial about this even into his 40s.
American Dad!: Double Subverted in "Holy Due south***, Jeff's Dorsum!". A dad is shown leaving his son, telling him that he's just going to the store for a pack of cigarettes, merely it's clear he's walking out on his family unit. At a crossroads, he decides to interruption the bike and go to the store after all...only to be killed when a shooting star hits his motorcar.
Subverted in Black Dynamite:
Black Dynamite'south Daddy: Now I could prevarication to yous and say, 'I'm just goin' out for a pack of cigarettes.' Just the truth is, I'm leavin' you lot to heighten eight-year-sometime Blackness Dynamite by yourself. At present dig information technology while y'all can, because the light just turned muthafuckin' green. Adieu, bitch!
Dilbert has a variant in which young Dilbert's father abandoned him by going to an All-Yous-Can-Swallow restaurant, refusing to get out until he's actually had all he can eat. It's Played for Laughs, simply Dilbert seems to have been truly traumatized by the abandonment.
Drawn Together: Foxxy'due south male parent left to get cigarettes and never came back.
Inverted on The Fairly OddParents—since Mama Cosma didn't corroborate of Wanda, Cosmo pulled this pull a fast one on when the two got married. To be fair, he did come back... 9,975 years later, when he mistakenly believed that Wanda had forgotten their anniversary.
In the season two finale of Rick and Morty, Rick tells Morty he's going to go go ice cream. Morty begins to worry that Rick is invoking this trope, despite Rick'due south assurances.
In one of Heinz Doofenshmirtz'south flashbacks from Phineas and Ferb, an Inversion happens. He was assigned past his parents to go to the store, merely to discover also late that they were plotting to disown him by sending him on a ship to United States. Its anyone'southward wonder as to why did Doof held no animosity for his parents despite their obvious signs of treating him as The Unfavorite.
The Simpsons:
- Nelson's dad went to the store a few years ago and never came back. It is later revealed that he actually did to become to the shop, at which point he suffered a peanut allergy and got abducted into a circus sideshow; later episodes ignore this, however, and portray him as if he still abased the family. ^note Also note that even the first abandonment was a retcon—in early episodes, Nelson lived with his father and it was his MOTHER who was absent-minded.
- In the episode "Future Drama", Future Nelson pulls the aforementioned trick on Sherri and Terri, both of whom he got pregnant. When they explicitly point out that Nelson's father did the same thing, he replies "I never understood that... until at present. I'Thou COMING, PAPA!" before running abroad.

Real Life

In some countries like Chile, the phrase "my dad went to purchase cigarettes and never came dorsum" is a mutual joke used even past comedians. In Czechia, the saying is "Dad went to a gas station to purchase a pack of cigarettes" and is also commonly used, peculiarly past fans of Simpsons.
This happened with Stephen King'south male parent when Stephen was two years old. He didn't come back. King later joked he must have been looking for a rare brand.
Silent film stars Norma, Constance, and Natalie Talmadge mentioned that while they were immature and poor, their male parent, who was an alcoholic, went looking for food and never came back.