I expect you have come across relationships that ought to be mandatory in both directions. It's just that SQL makes it hard or impossible to implement them declaratively and so database designers have got into the habit of ignoring them or having them implemented in application code. Take almost any example of a multi-table relationship that includes the words "at least" or "exactly": Order must have at least one Order Item; every Employee must be assigned to exactly one Department and every Department must contain at least one Employee; every Branch requires exactly one Branch Manager.