Today with the typical family size falling this isn't as common, but I had a brush with it in my own family. My youngest sibling (of 5) was born when I was 16 years old, and when I was 18 my father took me aside to let me know he and my mother had rewritten their wills so that if they both died I would have custody of my younger brothers and sisters. He then gave me some advice about how to handle such a situation. I was a sober child, so it didn't freak me out at all. In fact I had sort of assumed since age 14 that I would be in charge if both my parents died. My friends were a little shocked though.

I'm on the opposite end of this. Though I'm coming to the end of needing it now, ever since my eldest sister (my siblings are all 10-15 years older than I), she's been named my guardian in the event my both my parents passed away.

Similar situation with this troper, although both siblings are closer in age to herself. At age 15 or so, it was basically stated that if anything happened to this troper's parents, she'd be the one in charge.

This troper is Promoted to Parent every Tuesday, at least, while this troper's parents go to family therapy. This troper is normally responsible for taking care of both this troper's younger siblings. It's tough being the oldest.

This is pretty much the norm in my family. When my mother's parents got divorced, the oldest (my uncle) started working to help their mother support the family, while the second oldest (my mother) became the 'mom' of the house. In the current generation, there's my aunt's family, where the eldest daughter is 20 and the others aren't even teens yet. And then for me, it's pretty much assumed that I will take care of my little sister (13 years younger) should anything happen to my parents.

My older sister had my niece when she was 15. When she was 19, she moved out, leaving her daughter for the rest of my family to deal with. For the most part, my mother took care of the child, until she passed away. After that, my niece was in the care of my youngest sister (still older than me) and I. Eventually my other sister moved out as well, so now I'm basically singlehandedly caring for my niece. It's been a year now since my PromotionToParent, and my dad, and even the child's own mother, tell me I'm "a good father", even though this isn't even my kid. I feel honored, but at the same time I feel odd about it all.

When my mom moved to America, her parents were stuck in Venezuela. So she, a 21 year old, served as a mother to my then 10 year old aunt and 16 year old uncle. Despite only having my mom's waitress salary, she put all three of them through private schools and college (including Harvard and Penn).

Both of this troper's grandfathers had to help raise their younger siblings after one of their parents died.

Subverted with my family though. When Dad was in the middle of a nervous breakdown and Mom was constantly freaking out in an attempt to keep the peace, my oldest brother tried to be a parental substitute, only to screw up royally. It was the biggest contributer to our inability to get along for most of our lives.

Not serious like other examples on this page, this troper was called "Mother" by a friend and "wife" by another. It all started from an argument, but it got stuck. We even developed a whole family after that. And said troper is a guy.

This Troper is 19 and the oldest of five. The others are all quite young, and I am practically the second parent, because none of our fathers are very useful.

A Pokemon fanfic that this troper wrote had the main character become a dad, of sorts, to a Riolu (later Lucario). He then becomes a grandpa in the fourth story to his "son"'s son.

Kinda similar for all my 'mon. They are my brothers, sisters, my dearest friends. But all the ones I've recieved as eggs, (Togepi, Happiny, Riolu)they are my babies, and any kids they have are my grandcubs. Yes, I'm completely serious. I may never have children, so this could be the closest I'll ever get.

This troper always assumed this would end up happening if anything ever happened to her parents, despite the age difference between her and her brother is only about 2 years. However, it's kind of a moot point now since both are leaving off for post-secondary schooling.

Probably a faint inversion somewhere, but this troper's sister was practically this troper's mother when I was about ten (ok, I could only make tea then. Otherwise, I was completely useless), even though she was a year younger than me: if I had a major problem, I would often discuss it with my sister first, rather than my dad. If both of us were in the house alone, she would cook, while I did the tea. If I needed encouragement with something, I often got it from my sister than from my dad. This lasted for a few years, during which my parents split up messily after four years. After an incident which resulted in my sister falling out with my dad and my step-mother (long story short, teenage party while we were in Spain which went a bit out of control), I decided to try to make an effort with cooking. Still got a (very) long way to go, but I can cook pasta dishes without any risk to the kitchen...oddly enough, I'm probably the more mature of us now!

This troper's mother abandoned the family six weeks after I was born. My dad was great but worked 7 days a week, so my sister (9 at the time) was Promoted to Parent for me and my then-5-year-old brother. She did a wonderful job, and to this day she and I are incredibly close.

Additionally, my older sister married when I was 14 and had twins when I was 16. In their will, she and her husband named me as the legal guardian of the twins if anything happened to both of the parents--even though I, her little sister, was only 16.

This troper is three years younger than her brother, but said brother also has some minor mental... difficulties. This troper and her parents have had some discussions on what the future will hold when Mom and Dad are no longer able to take care of him. In fact, this troper's mother thinks I became the "big sister" many years ago.

This troper got promoted to housewife and part-time parent when her mom was going through treatment for cancer. I turned some laundry pink and created some "interesting" meals (I still get teased about the tuna salad omelet), but we got through it. And at least I wasn't that kid in the college dorm who couldn't cook mac and cheese.

This troper's father was the youngest of five, and ignored by his parents a lot of the time, since his father had to work and his mother appears to have had severe Autism/Asperger's Syndrome (she died before we found out it was in the family, so no specific diagnosis). Safe to say, she didn't handle it well, and spent most of the time off in her own world. My aunt ended up as his main caretaker, although it helps that there's a significant age gap between them, and she's a very motherly type anyway. Dad's still very attached to her.

This troper has basically been this since middle school after her father passed away. She was put as the official care-taker of her two little sisters in the event that anything ever happens to her mother at 18. As much as fitting this trope sucks in theory, honestly, it's nice to know how to take care of a household, cook, clean, deal with little kids...

This Troper's dad lives in another city and her and her little siblings live with their mom (they're not divorced; dad's work is in another city) who is most of the time on errands, with her group or in her room, so she has become a mother-like figure, specially to her brother eight years younger than her, who is sixteen.