How to Write the Single Dad Romance Trope

I'll be honest: I'm not sure when the single dad romance trope became so popular. Unlike some tropes that have positively blown up in recent years, such as enemies to lovers, this one has experienced of a quieter, slower rise to popularity. It isn't splashed across loads of top ten lists, but it's an enduring favourite for many readers, and like all my favourite tropes to blog about, it's blessedly easy to define.

What is the single dad romance trope?

The single dad romance trope is exactly what it says: it's a romance about a single dad. However, all single dad romances have a few things in common. Usually the single dad is struggling in some way, often with their ability to parent. The most common reasons for their struggle are:

-they've recently become a single dad either because their partner has died or they've been left guardianship of a child in the will of a relative or friend

-their job is making it difficult for them to juggle work and home life. This is why there are so many single dads who are also CEOs/billionaires.

The second reason is why you'll often see this trope combined with the nanny/babysitter trope or, in historical romances, the governess trope. The nanny/babysitter/governess allows the single dad to share some of the caretaking responsibilities, and the boss/employee relationship adds an element of forbidden romance that creates internal conflict and delicious romantic tension. Great examples of single dad x nanny romances include Man Advantage by L.A. Witt and The Good Girl Effect by Sara Cate. These single dad romances often feature an age gap, and when used in M/F romances, it's usually the man who is older.

What other tropes are often combined with the single dad romance trope?

Single dad x teacher romances are also popular, and they carry a flavour of the forbidden with them, since both parties are usually worried about what others in the school/community might think of them getting involved with someone so integral to the child's life. Cara Bastone's Just a Heartbeat Away is a great example of this type of single dad romance.

And I can't write about single dad romances without mentioning fake relationships and marriages of convenience; these are profuse in the single dad romance world. In these romances, the single dad usually needs a partner to bolster his reputation so he can gain/maintain custody of his child, and enlists his love interest to help him. But of course, as always happens with fake relationships and marriage of convenience, what starts as just a ruse soon turns into real love. The Bluff by Devney Perry is a delicious example of this type of single dad romance.

Are there single dad romance novels that don't feature nannies, teachers, or fake relationships?

Heck yes! What I love most about romance novels is that while there are many books that follow a particular trend, like single dad x character in a caretaking/education profession, there are also loads that break the mould. These include books like Tal Bauer's You & Me, about a single dad falling for his son's best friend's father, and Love Hard by Nalini Singh, about a former bad girl falling for a strait-laced rugby hero despite her reservations.

As with most romance tropes, the sky is the limit. you can write a single dad falling for a chef, a single dad accidentally falling for a werewolf moonlighting as a dentist—as long as you nail the single dad trope and the romance arc, readers will eat it up.

How important is the father-child relationship in single dad romances?

You can't write a single dad romance without including at least a few scenes showing the single dad and his child interacting, but you might be wondering—how important is the single dad's relationship with his child to the plot? How much of the plot needs to include the child?

This really depends on your story. Some single dad romances include multiple scenes of the single dad interacting with his child, with and without his love interest, to bolster the single dad's character development, particularly if, at the outset of the story, he is struggling with their relationship/his ability to parent.

Single dad x nanny and single dad x teacher romances often use scenes showing the nanny/teacher and the child bonding to further the romance, because as the love interest grows more attached to the child, the also grow more attached to the child's father and, often, understand more about the father.

However, other books skim over the child and place the focus mainly on the love interests; this is the case in The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham.

Now go forth and write your own single dad romance!

And until next blog post, happy reading and writing.