#Bruce being a good dad

[d-1hater]

honestly one of the main reasons I like dc is that they can’t keep a storyline straight for shit. anything I don’t like is just *not real*. that’s different storyline babes what are you talking about???

like at this point I can consider shit like wfa and hell even well written fanfics as canon bc who knows what’s going on with those funky little people?? certainly not the dc writers

[haveihitanerve]

Okay but bruce is 100% the type of dad who treats his kids like an adult because he doesn't know how to handle kids so he treats them the way he treats adults except, y'know, after dick he learns a little and is also soft and gentle with them and learns how to treat kids, but for the most part bruce is a gentle parent, listening to all of their problems, believing the things they say without a seconds hesitation (until of course he learns them well enough to tell a lie from a truth) but just like- imagine how much of a mind fuck that must have been for his kids

Dick- newly orphaned, and instead of being treated the way most adults are treating him, here is bruce, who understands, and treats him normally. He treats him with sorrow of course, but he also acts like dick is an adult, like he knows that dick can handle things after his parents death

Jason- who was beaten by his father for ‘telling lies’ is now believed automatically by bruce, no matter how outlandish it is(because they live in Gotham so everything is outlandish)

Tim- who was ignored by his parents and told to shut up when he spoke is now waited on, listened to, comforted

Cass- who had her vocal cords ripped out and broken- bruce learns sign language for her, touches her gently, offers quiet words of support and always allows her to read his body language

Damian- silenced by older assassins who know better, every member of the family stops and listens when he speaks, lets him finish what he needs to say, trusts his words without doubt- no punishments dealt out for being wrong

[batfamhastwitter]

A little mini update while I work on part 8! I just wanted to do a little explanation on jason's thought process and why he didn't tell people.

Prev ~ Beginning ~ Next

[everwalldigan]

Under the red hood alternative story where Jason doesn’t go the drug lord “choose me or him” route and instead hatches a plan to make Bruce love him ‘again’ and get attached to him and then he lets himself get killed again cause CLEARLY Bruce didn’t mourn him enough the first time. It totally makes sense.

Jason, while hugging Bruce after the DNA test came back positive, grinning evilly behind his back: hahahahaha yeah this’ll fucking show him!

Except. He miscalculated. Severely. Suddenly the thought of dying is a terrifying one because his life has never been this peaceful. Bruce helped him finish his school education and convinced him to enrol into university, even helped him take over crime alley’s underground in the meantime.

Jason, while spending time with Bruce, not fighting and just existing peacefully in each other’s company, realising that he doesn’t really fancy dying anymore and his plan is effectively Ruined: fuck.

[shower-phantom-ideas]

Bruh emotional support ghost kid? Well thats what they are calling him

Suicide cases in gothem are about to fucking plummet boiz cause this one weird blue eyes, black haired boy is now heading to your location.

How does he know where to be? Having a bad day and are all alone? No the fuck your not cause don’t turn around now but theres some shiny blue eyes coming at you from that dark ally. Oh shit hes here to drop some information about you and your lost loved ones that he should know. Oh god the closure. How could you have been afraid on this sweet, creepy, boy who just helped you find your way.

Meanwhile Danny is chillin in Gothem cause the GIW hate it there (none of they equipment actually functions in Gothem so it’s either super haunted or actually not haunted at all). Then all of a sudden he gets approached by a random ghost begging for his help because their sweet baby girl is about to do something horrible. Oops now all the ghosts are following their most loved ones around just to make sure they are there to rush to Danny for help when all else fails. Now hes getting to fulfil his protection obsession double time because one hes helping protect people from themselves and two hes protecting everyone in Gothem by stopping people from becoming villains for revenge. Plus he gets to see first hand how hes making a difference because all those people he saved are sending him some good vibes from all across Gothem.

Thank god he followed Jazz around so much to slightly absorb some of her phycology knowledge over the years. Plus it was actually pretty interesting so she gave him her old text books. Shes also helping him deal with the rare events where he can’t save someone. Just a moment too late or he stops them but they later succeeded in the hospital. Neither are his fault. Now only if he could convince his core of that.

Anyway why Gothem you ask? Amity Park would have been just as good tbh but imagine Batmans face when he finally gets to be face to face with the emotional support ghost boy. Why is he here? Bruce is fine. Batman is fine. Hes not gonna do anything crazy. It’s just a hard time of year. Around their death always gives him grief. But hes an adult and can manage it.

“You know they are so proud of you.” The boy states. As if it’s clear as day, even though it’s Gothem and never a clear day. Batman blinks at him, stunned for a moment. “What?” This boy can’t possibly know that. No one will ever know that, Bruce can only hope. “They see their home, full of such life. That big house that felt so empty, so cold, to them as well for years. Then you filled it with Family and Love like they had always wanted for you. They are so proud of what you have turned it into. Somewhere full of life and warmth.” A small smile graces his face as finally “you have made your parents so proud” and its all he can do to contain himself. Emotions are running high and sue him because he really did need to hear that ok. The boy suddenly looks to Bruces right with a confused face “aren’t all basements like that though?” Before Bruce can even get a word in hes gone. Just vanished before his eyes.

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt in Memes 6

Let's make it some in-world memes this time :)

[fanfic-writer-and-rambler]

Bruce meeting his son: Damian. This is my headcanon and a comedic spin on the meet up. I just love the trope of "I have a child?!" Don't worry, Bruce loves his son, it's just a bit of a shock he wasn't rendered impotent from all his excursions as Batman.

Talia: Bruce, this is Damian. Damian, this is Bruce.

Damian holds out his hand for a handshake. Bruce obliges, but is unsure why he was being introduced to the young child.

Damian: Why is he dressed like a bat?

Talia (mock sweetness): It's a thing he does.

Bruce: Okay you don't have to talk about me in front of him. Why are you showing me this child?

Jason behind Bruce covers his mouth, chuckling.

Talia: He's my son.

Dick: He's your son? Which means... Oh wow. Wow!

Dick laughs, but stops when Bruce stares at him confused. He turns back to Talia and Damian, confused.

Damian (waving): Hello.

Bruce: Hi... And Talia?

Dick Grayson: Oh... Oh wow you don't get it?

Jason: He doesn't get it. Hahahaha!

Talia: Bruce, I'm going to hold your hand when I say this.

Talia takes Bruce's glove hand. Ra Al Ghul walks over holding up a camera to record the exchange.

Dick and Jason stood by waiting to see how Talia would word her reveal.

Talia: He is my son... And he is your son.

Bruce blinks not responding. He heard what she said but he was not sure what to say himself.

Damian (confused): The guy in a giant bat suit is my father?

Damian taps his chin.

Damian: Not the craziest thing I've had to deal with.

Talia: Bruce, you going to saying something?

Dick: Bruce?

Bruce (gulps): ...

Jason claps while laughing.

Jason: This is great. I am so glad I got to be here today for this.

Bruce (finally speaking): I'm sorry. I hallucinated that you just said the little boy standing in front of me is my son.

Talia (repeating herself): Bruce, he is your son.

Bruce (disbelief): No he's not.

Jason (enjoying this): There's the denial.

Talia (exasperated): Here we go again, yes he is.

Bruce (panicked): No... no he's not. I can't have kids my swimmers are broken.

Damian: Swimmers?

Talia covers Damian's ears.

Talia: They most certainly are not.

Dick: You can have kids?

Jason: I know right!

Bruce: He's not... Not... Not mine.

Talia (uncovering Damian's ears): Yes he is- I got a DNA test done! He is your child. I have your blood from a... Not important and he is yours! The baby is yours!

Damian: I'm 9.

Dick (holding back his laughter): Oh God.

Jason walks while clapping again.

Ra Al Ghul (continuing to record the reaction): She unfortunately speaks the truth. I'm disappointed you share DNA with him, but we have the test. He's yours.

Damian: The guy dressed as a bat is my father? I'm sorry to repeat myself, but he's dressed like a bat.

Ra: I know. I know.

Dick: Bruce, say something other than, "No he's not." Or "He's not mine."

Bruce stands stunned and silent. His oldest son walks over to him and waves his hand across the man's face.

Dick: Oh he's actually speechless.

Talia (sighing): To be expected. Jason I'll send you a video of his reaction like we discussed.

Jason: Thank you.

Dick: You knew?!

Jason: For 9 years! Yes!

Dick: Why didn't you say anything?

Jason: I was fucking mad at him and wanted revenge and this... This is the best revenge.

Dick: I'll deal with you in a second. Bruce, are you with us?

Bruce faints, falling backwards. Damian looks down at the man in a batsuit.

Damian: I'm not sure I want him to be my father.

Ra (ending the recording): I agree with you child.

He walks off with the camera.

Ra: I'm going to burn this on to a DVD and keep a copy.

Talia (frustrated): You do that father.

Dick walks over to Damian, stepping over Bruce.

Dick: Um, Bruce is just a bit shocked he actually can have kids without adopting them. He's a good guy though.

Damian: Are you sure about that?

Damian lightly kicks his father's leg, but all the man can do is twitch his leg while still unconscious.

Dick: Yeah, he's an amazing crime fighter and usually can compose himself. I'm Dick, by the way.

Damian: That's your legal name?

Dick (upset, but hiding it): My birth name is Richard Grayson.

Damian: Why do you go by-

Talia and Jason: Don't ask.

Dick groans annoyed then holds out his hand. Damian shakes his hand to show respect, but remains perplexed by his strange new family and that was saying a lot.

[bruciemilf]

Most people think Batman is Harvey Dent’s number one nemesis, but they’re actually wrong.

It’s Joe Chill.

Literally the first thing Harvey should do as a mobster is hunt that fucker for sport. THEN, his second most important foe is the barista who never gets his order right.

To be entirely fair; It is Tim’s first job. (He does it on purpose)

[brucewaynehater101]

HI? I need help finding fics or prompts about this one Tim angst concept that I read somewhere but I don't remember if it was a fic or a post. You could also add onto the idea yourself if ur willing! Preferably I need help finding a fic tho-

ANYWAYS

It's basically "Tim doesn't like reading books because whenever Bruce saw him read a book he would get mad because it reminds him of Jason."

I remember something about Tim being banned from the manor library too, but that's all I remember.

If you do help me, I owe you my life because this has been on my mind for WEEKS-

Hi!!! 👋 Not a fic (that I'm aware of). Here's the post, though:

Fantastic premise that Tim hates reading, though. That, or he refuses to admit/do it publicly.

Here's the AU set up:

Tim loves reading (it was a way to occupy/busy himself when no one else was around)

He prefers sci-fi, fantasy, and crime novels

His parents preferred him to read classics and non-fiction

Tim, trying to feel Bruce out and discern what's allowed, resorts to his parents' preferred reading list

Bruce walks into Jason's library to find Tim reading a classic (Maybe The Picture of Dorian Gray or Wuthering Heights or whatever)

Bruce promptly freaks the fuck out

Tim, as a fourteen year old not yet proficient at reading Bruce (and doesn't have the background data yet of what civilian Jason was like), internalized the lesson that Bruce doesn't want Tim reading at all

Tim avoids any libraries when Bruce is around

To the Waynes and the Bats, Tim only reads technical books or ones related to the mission

When Jason starts getting along with the Bats, he teases Tim on his reading habits (maybe a comment or two about how Tim, a rich kid, should be well-versed with the classics). Tim brushes it off good-naturedly.

Jason also invites Tim up to Jason's library and is a little bit hurt when Tim refuses. Jason rationalizes it and doesn't blame Tim, but it was an olive branch by the older one

Jason finds Tim reading a sci-fi novel which prompts Tim into panicking

Then a reveal or whatnot. Anyways, fun concept ^^

[theredcuyo]

Sleepovers at the manor. SLEEPOVERS AT THE MANOR.

Bruce had always been very wary of who got to and who didn't get into the manor further than the guest spaces, and when Dick appearead in his life with eyes that could make him do literally anything, he feared the day he'd ask to bring a friend over

Maybe that's why he decided to use the ancient ways Alfred has once used against him and Harvey

Embarrasment

Wally West was used as a warning to Dick, and he learned

Dick didn't get the chance to teach Jason that lesson in his time as Robin, but when his little wing and Roy crashed at his place one time, he got it

He'd gotten practice before that, learning from the masters themselves when Tim invited young justice over

Tim got back at him by sending Kory and Babs some of his old stash of Robin photos

Steph tried to escape it, but she and Cass got trapped at the same time by Alfred's cookies, and that day, Tim took notes

By the time Jon first stayed with Damian for a sleepover, Damian knew about the 'tradition' already and he was determined to prove himself over it

He failed when all of his sibblings joined forces, from Dick's retale of when he was his Batman, to Todd's old stories from their time training in the league and somehow Drake had gotten pictures of him when he was younger (Talia gladly contributed)

Was it too late for his father to un-adopt them all?

[arguablysomaya]

the fuck??

WHAT THE FUCK????

[haveihitanerve]

i have this head cannon that Bruce has a wall in his study dedicated to bad pictures of his kids. like, the exact moment when jason got sprayed by the hose? framed and hung. tim slipping and dropping pudding on his head? up there. dick falling from a chandelier? his open mouthed scream is the first picture up there. he has bad hair days from steph, failed pranks from dick, mid spin photos of cass, half asleep pictures of babs, everyone is up there. And then Damian comes and he sees the wall and he must be up there. But Damian is an absolute unit behind a camera, he does not have a single bad picture. ever. After an intense waterballoon fight they take a group picture and everyone is soaked and miserable and laughing but Damian is glowing, his hair swept away by the water just so and it infuriates him.

[sweethotspot]

WHOLESOME BRUCE AND DAMIAN WAYNE IDEA!!

To keep Damian's need to kill at bay, Bruce gets Damian a retractable toy knife and lets him stab his arm whenever Damian's upset.

[im-not-buying-it-ether]

Okay but now I feel compelled to wonder, in that fun AU of CC and Marilyn being Captain and Mary Marvel, what their lives as heroes would be like

Like, villains are the same for the most part with probable lack of antagonism with Sivana, he’s the dude who hired them for the dog in the first place with the public intent of a historical attraction at a park and on the side of the bus he’s campaigning for mayor. Other than that, villains seem to be the same from the brief moments we see.

They stay out of the limelight, they prioritize keeping their identities hidden for the sake of Billy and Mary’s saftey and childhoods, and they take their duties seriously.

But what’s tingling at the brain right now is how they’d interact with the rest of the world of DC, heroes and teams and whatnot, outside of Fawcett and the menagerie of characters there. We know CC accidentally stumbled onto some daring scene with Spy Smasher and the bunch (no joke, time was funky in Fawcett and CC was alive at that time) but I’d love to see him with other heroes

Like, say he fills the normal roles in comics Billy would’ve, joins JLI and, like his son, tries calling the other heroes out for acting like bigger juveniles than his actual kids and ditches bc apparently the people who save the world on the regular cant not try and fist fight the other every few hours. He’s on and off some team, focusing on his city and his family more and more, pops in for bigger fights when they occur but is mostly hometown based and handles his own issues.

Of newer stuff, I turn to YJ’s tv show for another idea. Aka, CC also being a chaperone for the Team at the same time Billy comes in but with a twist, turns out his kids have a percolation for magic and have been getting the hang of some spells so they’re joining the Team too while CC is on chaperone duty. So leads Billy and Mary’s attempt at a slow entrance into heroism that immediately backfires when they get captured, cue heartwarming scene of dad hugging his kids after a dangerous situation that follows him tearing the base apart looking for them. True dad fashion and all that. What becomes complicated is the World Without Grown Ups plot, in which I say have Billy and his had pre-the plot agree that Billy can have Shazam powers for super big emergencies and Billy definitely counts all adults disappearing as an emergency. Cue once more the fun father son bonding of Billy looking just like his old man with Shazam powers.

Onto Marilyn, who unfortunately doesn’t seem to have more beyond “clever” and “good mom” from comics, but she’s got her hutzpah and would probably be as active a hero as CC while still prioritizing her life and family over heroism. The whole Shazam thing is definitely more a job than it is what kind of person she is, she’s an archeologist and likes that profession more than she likes worrying about everyone else. She’s definitely more no nonsense and, if there’s a difference, she’d probably prefer the more grounded crime fighting than the mystical shenanigans CC would do in her stead. Billy and Mary end up closer to her in quality time since that focus of crime fighting keeps her grounded.

Also, the general vibes of the Captain Marvel tropes. Such as the identity shenanigans.

It is a fun thing of fanfic that, since his civilian identity is very vulnerable and people like their identity plots, Billy has his questioned or revealed a lot. Add in CC as Marvel instead and it flips a bit to be a man who is well known in his home city whose entire family, non-powered children included, could easily become targets if anyone knew who he was. And he’s deliberately secretive about it for that purpose, he’s protecting his children with his wife. So, perspective, there’s a new hero who comes in with a hero partner who is also their life partner. They have the power of actual gods and titans, they don’t explain anything past some nebulous Wizard they can’t name as to how they got their powers, they are very hush-hush on their normal lives but everyone knows they have to have one. It’s hard to contact them, you don’t know they’re working or traveling or with their kids because you don’t know they do work or that they have kids, so you worry what they’re up to for what seems to be every hour they aren’t begrudgingly saving the world with the rest of the heroes. You catch them talking to the other but the minute they hear you they clam up and change everything about how they were just a second ago, you could swear they were talking about digs or gods or bringing someone home but you don’t know anything because you don’t know them.

Cue the mistrust, the reveals, how it all goes wrong and someone gets hurt, be it the other when they don’t have their powers or their kids and suddenly you’ve pissed off the man who loves his family so much he was tearing the multiverse open to try and keep the timeline going where they were all alive and happy together and the woman who loves those kids just as much. Or, say that reveal had villains get both of the Batsons, and now those heroes have to look those orphans in the eye and beg forgiveness, and when fate still demands its heroes out comes two new ones that make it seem like the whole Batson sham was fake and no way Marilyn and CC were the Marvels, the marvels are still flying around after they’ve gone and gotten dead and buried. Cue those heroes looking at the new Captain and Mary Marvel, knowing it’s the kids they accidentally made orphans wearing the faces of the friends they betrayed.

[littlefankingdom]

It's funny how in fanfics, people write Clark giving parenting advices to Bruce, when in the comics (see: World's Finest: Batman and Superman) and other media (see: Young Justice), Bruce is the one giving parenting advices to Clark, and he is always very serious about it.

After all, Bruce has been a father figure and mentor for longer and more kids than Clark. Of course he doesn't need to call Clark for help to learn how to take care of his kids, Clark is the one calling Bruce for help when he has an issue and Ma Kent is busy.

[ehliena]

Damian: Father has just given me the Birds and the Bats Talk.

Dick & Jason: *shudders*

Duke: Birds and... Bats?

Tim: It's B's version of the sex talk. And contrary to 1960s slang, we are the birds.

Steph: and for some reason I was both.