#i should not be struggling to eat and do basic chores then participate in a class discussion and come home eat lunch and write 2k words
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to the many people who saw my router modem griddlehark yesterday and said "yes you are crazy," you will be happy to note that I spoke to multiple people in person today and it DID make me less insane, unfortunately
To the people who said "abi, you're absolutely right," I am baking you bread. It's not MY locked tomb brain rot it's OUR locked tomb brain rot
To the one person whose only comment was that my modem and router should be farther away from each other, I'm obsessed with you. However I can't separate them! That's griddlehark
#i'm lying i put them a little bit more distant#okay actually. i'm lying again i didn't but it's because i forgot and as soon as i get up off this couch i will (truth)#anyway you know what i think? i think failing to adequately interact with people irl should have no mental consequences#i think god (hypothetical) should give that to me for free#i should not be struggling to eat and do basic chores then participate in a class discussion and come home eat lunch and write 2k words#that shouldn't be how that works#i shouldn't feel better after spending time with family. you know that's the thing i have complex emotions about!#you know i am struggling to decide how involved i want them to be in my life and it does not help that every time i go home i'm like#this is great! this isn't that bad! why did i move? we get along so well my brain says it's happier the jesus thing isn't even that big a--#no that is the devil talking!!!#that is the devil talking
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so frustrated with my dad. he tells me, in a loving father voice, that if i want to change my life and do more and see the world, i just need to change my mindset
i'll give him that yeah, i could use a few adjustments to my "mindset", i have this helplessness about me that isn't always warranted. i know i have the ability to choose to go to bed sooner so i can wake up earlier. i know i can choose to make all sorts of changes that could bring me a lot of relief and stability.
but i just want to scream "changing my mindset won't cure my fibromyalgia, or give me the ability to eat freely without fear of pain, or fix my POTS and pain induced fatigue."
the problem is. that's the mindset he wants me to change. he thinks i can do whatever i want regardless of my limitations, and i should set higher goals so i can see the world and do impossible things because i can.
what's so infuriating is that i so desperately want the things he wants for me. i want to climb mountains, travel the world, swim with whales. i want to learn kendo and roller skating and modern dances. i want to go on road trips with my friends for no other reason than to enjoy the journey.
and i feel so robbed of it. i'm missing out on so much life has to offer because of how terrified i am of being caught in an IBS episode and having to use a public restroom, because of how much pain and exhaustion driving or even just riding in cars for long periods makes me.
i've physically improved in the few months since moving in with my dad just bc i have to use the stairs multiple times a day and walk further distances to get from my room to the kitchen. i can walk up a short hill now with only a little pain! but walking still hurts. basic chores are a little easier but still take more spoons than a normal person.
my dad means well. he wants to see me happy and it bothers him to watch me drift through existence. he's a man of action, and he can't comprehend why i'm so hesitant to "participate in life".
but he's never been disabled, outside of sports injuries. he's a physically fit, athletic middle aged man defying norms by leading boxing workouts with guys half his age, by climbing 14,000 ft mountains, by being a well known soccer referee when most refs are, at minimum, fifteen years younger. his idea of a vacation is a long, hard hike on challenging paths. "rest" is not something he's familiar with.
how the fuck am i supposed to explain to this man that i'm fighting against my body every single day just to accomplish the barest minimum? how do i explain that self discipline means jack shit when brain fog dominates my existence?
i know i can do better. i know i can be healthier, happier, and able to rely on myself.
it's just. it feels like a slap in the face when he sees this struggle and thinks i'm choosing this life. when he told me i shouldn't lower the goalpost, that i should aim high and ignore my limitations, it felt like he dismissed my disabilities as things to "overcome". as though i haven't been wading through waist high pain and depression just to survive.
that fucking hurts. he believes he's being helpful, and there's probably some gain in challenging me bc some part of me wants to take up that challenge. but i really fucking wish he would stop treating me like an able-bodied person.
sigh. anyway. i'm so tired of this.
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smut prompts 9, 10, 16, & 23
ao3 request: The reader is Jason’s lover and is very quiet and a bit timid, but at night, she is cold and collected to focus on her vigilante work. She and Jason only made love once and she wants to do it again, but she thinks she’ll be boring bc she doesn’t have much experience unlike Jason. Batgirl offers advice, which involves seducing and making Jason mad. For the next few days, S/O has pretended not to notice her tempting Jason, sitting on his lap, teasingly touching his crotch or other parts, usually leaving early for work or other chores, all increasing Jason’s temptation. Finally, one night, they had to investigate some illegal work in a night club, and Batgirl dresses S/O in the most tight dress that shows her curves and other things to attract her. In the end, S/O got the evidence and the illegal business was arrested, but that night, Jason couldn’t handle it anymore.
prompts:
9: “1, 2, I’m going to fuck you.”
10: “The cuffs stay on, until I say otherwise.”
16: “I want to be the only one you feel.”
23: “Stop talking and put it in your mouth already.”
smut prompts are from here
warnings: smut → use of handcuffs, daddy kink, rough sex lol, dirty talk, pet names, throat fucking // fem!reader // mentions of violence / injury. // not proof read either lmao
word count: 2.9k
Kinktober has finished, so the prompts are no longer in use, but thanks so much for participating!!
•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:• ☾ ☼ ☽ •:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•
From the moment Jason met you, he knew you were special. Although you were quiet and a bit withdrawn, you were dedicated to your work and knew what it took. It almost amazed him how you could be so timid at home or around him and the rest of the crew, yet be practically another person while working. Your job as a vigilante often required you to take down illegal drug rings and other like-businesses, and you knew just how dangerous it can be.
The relationship between you and Jason new over time, and conjured up into something special. Though you were still quite quiet as relationships were still a new thing for you, Jason didn’t mind either way; in his words, “I’ll love you no matter how quiet or loud you are.” The lack of sex, however, gets you worried sometimes. Despite only having sex with him once, you still can feel he wants more. Jason doesn’t really like to communicate the wants in his life; he’s very much a person to let things happen when it’s time. It can come to your advantage though. You’ve never once felt pressured to do anything you don’t want to, nor feel like you have to do something just to please him. He’s patient. He’s kind. He’s everything you need.
Nonetheless, you still feel like you have to bring more to the table. Dialling Batgirl’s number, you asked her for advice. Batgirl, being your oldest friend in this industry, obviously knew of your relationship with Jason. You and him decided to keep everything lowkey — more for the bad guys than anyone else. Knowing Jason will be out later today to find out more information about an illegal business that’s operating, you invite Batgirl over.
•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:• ☾ ☼ ☽ •:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•
A small knock was placed on the door and a smile appears on your face as you answer it.
“Hey, girlie!” Batgirl greets gleefully as she embraces you in a tight hug. Both of you walk over to the living room couch, where you had already placed two glasses of wine on the coffee table.
“oh god bless, I need this,” Batgirl chuckles as she sits down with the glass in her hand. She takes a sip before repositioning herself to face you. “So, what’s up?”
“I don’t know, I just-“ you struggle to find the words, almost becoming embarrassed from having to ask advice on how to basically have sex with your boyfriend. “well, Jason and I have only had sex once and — I don’t know, I just don’t feel experienced enough to know how to do…anything.”
“So you want to know how to have sex?”
“no, well, yes, but no,” you stumble over your words causing Batgirl to chuckle sweetly at you. “I just don’t know how to start anything, you know?”
“Oh girl that’s easy. Maybe try and seduce him a little bit.” My eyes widen at her words.
Taking a bit mouthful of the wine, I ask “how do I do that?”
“All you gotta do is tease him. Rub up on his arm, or ‘accidentally’ drop something so you can bend down and pick it up,” she advises.
Batgirl stayed over for a little while until you got a text from Jason asking what you wanted for dinner, meaning he was close to home. You both gave each other a hug and after she left, you knew what you had to do.
Hearing the click of the front door lock, you know Jason is home and you immediately got to work. You bend yourself over the kitchen bench away from him so your ass is gonna be the first thing he sees when he walks in. You scroll innocently through your phone and feel your heartbeat increase with each movement he took. You listen carefully as he took his boots off, leaving them at the door so they don’t track dirt throughout the apartment.
“h-hey, gorgeous,” Jason stutters, completely caught off guard. You feel like letting out a little squeal of excited as you could tell it’s already working.
“Oh hi,” you turn around and innocently bat your eyes at him. “how’d it go?”
“Um,” he coughs. “yeah good, we got the name of the business. So now all we gotta do is track them down, which won’t be too hard.”
“Oh good, I’m glad. We’ll catch them before they even know they’ve been caught,” I joke. You both made your way to the couch and Jason took the remote, flicking through the channels on the tv. You knew you had to start somewhere, so you place your hand high on his thigh. Your hand is so close to his zipper, you almost feel like just getting down on your knees and taking him here right now. But how would he respond to that? Would he even like that? You shake your head and regain focus, trailing your eyes up to watch his face. He doesn’t seem all that bothered by it which surprises you a little bit. You know need to turn it up a notch, so you stand up and “accidentally” drop your phone.
“oops,” you giggle as you bend over to pick it up, giving Jason a perfect view of your ass. He coughs and shuffles in his spot, coughing again as he looks down at his phone. Jason subtly watches as you walk into the kitchen and open the fridge. Your pour yourself another glass of wine and sigh as you saw nothing that you wanted to eat in the fridge. Sitting back down next to Jason on the couch, you ask if he wants take out.
“yeah, I don’t mind. What’d you want?” He replies and opens up the Ubereats app. You ‘accidentally’ pour the tiniest bit of wine onto his pants, causing you to let out a fake gasp.
“oh my god, I’m so sorry. Here,” you reach forward and grab a tissue, dabbing it dangerously close to his crotch. Jason swallows thickly.
“oh, ah, it’s okay. I was just gonna go and change anyway,” he stutters, feeling the room become hotter by the second. And that’s when you know you’ve got him right where you needed him to be.
•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:• ☾ ☼ ☽ •:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•
It had been a week of teasing and nothing had happened. Jason couldn’t tell if you were genuinely being innocent, or if you were trying to tempt him. Either way, you knew it was working just as you’d planned. The way his hands would ball in a fist in an attempt to control himself, or the way his breathing would become shallow every time you ‘accidentally’ brushed your hand over his crotch. It was all working.
Tonight was the night of the big bust of the underground business. Batgirl had come over while Jason was out with Tim Drake to secure traps in the club.
“So,” she wiggles her eyebrows at me, causing my cheeks to heat up. “How’s everything with Jason?”
“Um, yeah, it’s going better than I expected. We haven’t done anything yet, but I feel like he’s really getting worked up over the teasing.”
“Well then I feel like you should wear this,” she smirks, taking out a black leather dress. It looks like it’ll be tight on you, but you accept anyway. Though Batgirl is known for being tough, she loves having a friend like you to spend time doing girly stuff with. You let her do your makeup, smokey eye of course, and you’ve never felt you’ve hotter in your life. It is honestly a confidence boost, and it makes you feel even more excited to try on the dress. The dress has bra padding inside so you didn’t need to wear a bra — how convenient.
Coming out of the bathroom, Batgirl’s jaw drops and her eyes grow wide in either shock or lust, you couldn’t tell.
“holy fucking shit. Jason is going to lose his goddamn mind after he sees you in that,” she gawks. You feel the heat rise in your cheeks again and sweat begin to form on your palms from nervousness.
“I don’t know, are y-“
“oh my god shut up and look at you,” she grabs my hand and pulls me to the vanity mirror. “you’re stunning in that dress, and I’m sure Jason is gonna take you.”
“Oh my god,” you laugh and swat her arm playfully. Putting on some heels, you text Jason saying you and Batgirl were on your way to the club.
•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:• ☾ ☼ ☽ •:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•
The strobe lights dance around the club and the music can be felt thumping through your chest. Jason looks up and notices you and batgirl already in the V.I.P zone where you’re gonna meet with the boss of the illegal business. His jaw, just like Batgirl only mere minutes ago, drops when he sees you in that stunning dress that compliments your figure so well.
The boss enters the V.I.P lounge and you seductively stalk your way over to him, purring how you’ve been “waiting to see him.” The excitement in his eyes, and pants, humours you because you know you’re gonna bust him. You look at the asshole with bedroom eyes, and you finger curls in a ‘come here’ motion. He follows you out to a private room, where some of the crew are already waiting.
“what’s going on here?” The Boss asks, turning to face you.
“don’t act like you don’t know who we are,” you chuckle darkly at him, pushing him down into a chair. Jason ties the Boss up with rope while you interrogate him.
“you’re gonna listen to me, and you’re gonna listen good. Shut your business down or-”
“How about a little game first,” the Boss snickers as he interrupts you. He leans back in the chair to admire the view of your gorgeous body.
“oh sweetie,” you pout, hands grasping onto the sides of the chair so you can lean down over him. “I don’t play games.”
“that’s a shame isn’t it. Would’ve been nice to fuck that gorgeous pu-“
“alright that’s enough,” Jason interrupts. Although you couldn’t see his face from under his mask, you knew he was pissed off at this Boss asshole.
“shut this business down or we’ll take out everyone you love,” Jason threatens.
“why do I have to listen to you?” The Boss rolls his eyes.
“Because we’re your worst nightmare,” you purr in his ear. “And baby, you don’t wanna mess with us.”
•:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:• ☾ ☼ ☽ •:•.•:•.•:•:•:•:•:•:•:•
Throughout the whole car ride, Jason was teasing you, with one hand on the wheel while the other toyed and teased your clit. Getting you so close to the edge before pulling his hand away completely. You knew your teasing would eventually build up his sexual frustration and cause him to unravel at some point, but you never thought he would tease you right back.
The second you and Jason enter his apartment, you jump and wrap your legs around his waist, which caused your dress to hitch up to your stomach. You grind your hips up and rub your crotch against him as your hands tangle in his hair and pull at the strands of hair, making Jason groan into your neck as he plants rough kisses into it. He carries you to the bed and throws you down onto it.
“get on all fours,” he demands in a low voice. His eyes burn into you, watching as you turn your body around and stick your ass in the air for him. Jason gets out of his Red Hood suit, placing it on the chair in the corner of the room before stalking his way over to you. He wants you to beg for him.
“now, do you think you’ve been a good girl?” He asks while kneading your ass, trying to work you to your breaking point.
“no, daddy,” you breathe out, twisting your fists in the bedsheets to release some frustration. Jason smacks your ass suddenly, causing you to yelp from the stinging sensation.
“that’s right, princess.” He smacks his hand against your ass again. You bite your lip to stop you from moaning, and you can already tell that your ass is red and raw.
“jason, please,” you finally plead. He spanks your ass again, a smirk forming on his face as he hears you moan.
“that’s not my name,” his low voice causes your pussy to get even wetter.
“i’m sorry, daddy,” you whimper.
“I want to be the only one you feel,” he growls. “you understand?”
Letting out a small “mhmm,” Jason chuckles.
“now count with me.”
smack.
“1, 2, I’m gonna fuck you,” he leans over and whispers in your ear. A shiver runs down your spine and you feel like screaming ‘finally!’. Jason stands beside the bed and instructs you to kneel in front of him, already knowing what he wants.
“Jay, when are you gonna fuck me. I need you so bad,” you practically pine for him.
“Stop talking and put it in your mouth already,” he demands, eyebrows furrowing in frustration. Jason grunts as you take him in your mouth. A moan is suppressed as you bob your head up and down his cock, feeling his hands grip your hair.
“fuck, babygirl. Your mouth feels so good on my cock,” he moans, throwing his head back. J bucks his cock into your mouth, smirking slightly as you gag. He lets out a grunt when he hits the back of your throat, and you hollow your cheeks so you can take more of him. His hips thrust into your mouth faster. His hands grips your hair so tightly, you let out a whine against his cock.
Suddenly, he pulls you off him. Instructing you to lay on the bed, you do as you’re told. You watch in curiosity as he searches through his drawers, and your eyes widen as he pulls out a pair of handcuffs. Jason takes your hands and binds them to the headboard.
“the cuffs stay on, until I say otherwise,” Jason instructs. He sits back on his knees and watches in amusement as you squirm underneath him.
“Jason, please,” you whine.
“In a minute, princess.” he chuckles, tracing his finger up your thigh, stopping once he reaches your wet pussy. You continue to whine and sigh in pure frustration and your clit was throbbing angrily; just wanting and waiting to be touched. Being impatient was certainly an understatement at this point. Jason’s finger flicks your clit, and you gasp at the sudden feeling. His eyes never leaving your as he moves in closer, his tongue flicking up and down at a rapid pace. You gasp and moan, wanting to reach down and grip his hair, but the handcuffs on your wrists restrain you from doing such things. Jason’s tongue circles your clit, before he sucks hard on it, pulling back the skin and watching it snap back. His finger slams into you, causing you to let out a loud moan as he pumps it in and out of you. He proceeds to add another finger, curling it upwards. Your back arched and you once again, pull on the restraints, and subtly hissing at them.
“Oh Jay… please just uncuff me! I’ll be a good girl, I promise!” You beg, pulling on the handcuffs. You continue to whine he ignores you and pound his fingers inside you and hitting your g-spot.
“Fuck!” you moan out, clenching around his fingers.
“Can I cum?” You whine, rolling your hips into his hand. Jason grants permission and your vision turns to white. Your body has never shook so hard in your life and you’ve certainly never cum this hard before.
“Thank you! Thank you!” You breathe out as you calm down from your high. Jason chuckles and sucks your wetness off his fingers. Reaching over, he pulls out a condom from the bedside drawer and rolls it on. A loud moan exists the both of you as he slides himself inside you. Jason begins rocking his hips in a slow motion before gradually increasing the speed.
“god,” he sighs into your mouth, pulling away and drooping his head into the crook of your neck, one hand gripping the bedsheet tight, while his other hand grasped your hip. Jason sits up on his knees and brings your leg up to his shoulder, driving his cock in deeper into you. He closes his eyes and lets out small grunts from the pleasure. He made you feel so good, you couldn’t help but scream his name and arch your back. Your hand came up to the headboard, gripping it tightly as he pounded into your wet pussy, making the bed squeak with each thrust.
“Are you gonna cum again, princess?” Jason asks, holding your hips up as he gyrates his hips. You nod quickly, throwing your head back and rolling your eyes as you close them. Your body begins shaking as your orgasm took over you once again. Jason’s hips jolt as he cums inside you, his moans muffled through his lip which was sucked in and bit by his teeth. The grip on your hips softening as he calms down from his high. Jason pulls out and disposes the condom before cuddling into you tightly.
“you know you can just ask for sex, right?” He teases, chuckling as he strokes your hair. Your cheeks flush a shade of red and you’re lucky that it’s dark in the room.
#Jason Todd#jason todd smut#jason todd titans#jason todd imagine#red hood#red hood smut#under the red hood#Jason Todd kinktober
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Matthew Taylor Relationship Headcanons
You meet him at one of the college football games. You’re sitting in the stands, spectating, and he’s on the sidelines, waiting to be swapped in. It’s when he looks up into the crowd, he spots you. He doesn’t know why, but you drew his attention immediately. But after you gift him with a shy smile and hesitant wave, Matt knows he wants to meet you.
So after the game, he finds you at the gates. Que the awkwardness as you and Matt attempt small talk and try to avoid eye contact. After a few minutes of stumbling over each other, Matt finally manages to ask you out.
Matt is a gentleman, through and through. He opens the door for you, pulls out your chair, thanks you for every little thing you do; he loves you with all his heart and wants to show you how much he cherishes you.
He loves it when you wear anything related to the sports teams he plays for. You’re his #1 Fan!
Out of all the Until Dawn guys, Matt is the cleanest. He hates mess, disorganization, and he’s never understood the concept of “organized chaos.” He also likes to split up chores, like you cook and he does the dishes or you clean the toilet and bathtub and he cleans the sink, mirror, and sweeps and mops the bathroom floor. One, it lessens the burden of cleaning an entire room yourself, and two, it makes you and Matt feel like equals. It’s nice to know that you’ll never have to worry about cleaning up after this man.
Study dates are very common. Though he doesn’t like to admit it, Matt isn’t the smartest person and struggles in most of his classes, and knows that he needs decent grades in order to play sports. Scenery varies, depending on both your moods; sometimes you huddle up in the corner of a coffee shop, or a secluded table in the library, or maybe just in your dorm, dressed in your comfiest of clothes. Matt is always appreciative of your help, always making sure to thank you afterwards.
Matt can’t help but compare you to Emily, who he broke up with after the events at Blackwood. While Emily could be outwardly mean and condescending to him, a revelation Matt didn’t have until after he started dating you, you were always patient and kind to him, always so happy to see him and never cruel. You didn’t put him down for his poor grades, something that Emily always jabbed at, but instead you always helped him. And he didn’t hate any shopping trips you went on because you always involved him, asking his opinion on clothes and whatnot and sometimes finding things for him to try on and never mocking his choices. Anytime he was left to his thoughts and started comparing you and Emily, he would always smile knowing that he was in a much better, healthier relationship.
If you wear his signature Letterman jacket, this boy will die of cuteness overload. He can’t handle seeing you in his jacket.
Communication is something that Matt has to work on. He’s a pushover and all his past girlfriends used this to their advantage; he would much rather let his partner have their way than have to deal with confrontation. Not you, though. It’s awkward and uncomfortable, but you always have to sit Matt down and talk out whatever problem you two have. After a couple successful conversations, Matt isn’t so opposed to the idea of bringing up any issues he has about the relationship, knowing that you’d rather find a solution than talk over him.
Matthew absolutely loves massages. He works out a lot so he tends to get sore, especially if he pushes himself. Lay this boy down on the bed and rub all the knots out of his back and he’ll be putty in your hands. And...it might just lead to something a little more intimate.
If you start showing interest in his hobbies, Matt will be absolutely elated. Go to the gym with him and let him show you how to work out properly so that you don’t hurt yourself. Attend all his sports events so you can cheer him on. Shoot hoops with him down at the rec center on campus or go to the batting cage at the baseball diamond. Emily was always dismissive of his interests, so he’ll be so happy if you ask him questions about anything he’s interested in. And don’t worry, this is not a one-sided thing. Matt will support you in whatever you’re interested in as well. If you like to paint, he’ll take a painting class with you. If you like to write, he’ll ask so many questions about your stories. If you participate in a sport that he doesn’t, you bet that he’ll be out there on the field trying to learn the basics. Matt just loves spending time with you.
Matt is actually a decent cook. He’s a pro at meal prepping and reserves Sundays for cooking. As mentioned in a previous bullet point, Matt doesn’t like mess and is very organized, and this reflects in his meal prepping. The fridge is stocked full of healthy foods, with all the fruits and veggies cut up, all the meats seasoned well and cooked perfectly, and any condiments you need poured into little individual dipping containers. He has all your breakfasts and lunches neatly packed so you can grab them on the go. All your co-workers are in awe at how colorful and delicious your lunches are and you can’t help but brag that your boyfriend made them for you. It fills you with such pride when they all tell you Matt is a keeper.
Somewhere down the line, you and Matt bump into Emily, who Matt hasn’t talked to since Blackwood. At this point, you and Matt have been happily dating for almost a year, but yet, Matt hasn’t mentioned Blackwood to you, in hopes that he can just forget it and move on with his life. You both run into Emily at the grocery store and Matt knows that Emily is going to say something awful to you just by the way the woman looks you up and down in disgust.
“Jesus, Matt, you really downgraded, didn’t you?”
You’re honestly shocked and are speechless and Matt steps in between you too, holding up a hand to Emily.
“Please, Em, don’t start anything.”
“What? Scared that they’re going to find out what a douche you really are? Are you going to leave them for dead too?”
You’re tugging on Matt’s sleeve. “Matt, what is she talking about?”
Emily smirks. “Wow, Matthew, keeping secrets? Figured you would be too cowardly to tell them all the shit you pulled back at Blackwood.”
Before Emily can continue, Matt pulls you away, ignoring Emily as she continues to taunt him. Both of you wander to one of the registers, bringing your shopping trip to an abrupt end. At this point, Matt doesn’t even care if you haven’t gotten everything on your list; he just wants to go home. Once you both get home, Matt doesn’t say anything, and just goes to the bedroom, shutting himself inside. You know not to push, knowing that Matt would just shut you out even more. You go about fixing dinner, constantly looking over your shoulder at the door of your shared bedroom, worried.
“Matthew, dinner is ready!”
No response.
You eat dinner alone, forcing yourself to eat, but eventually giving up since you don’t really have an appetite. You try to distract yourself by cleaning the dishes from dinner, on homework, on anything, but you find yourself pacing outside the bedroom door, internally debating on whether you should go in and confront Matt or let him come to you instead when he was ready.
You decide on the former. Testing the doorknob and seeing that he never locked it, you push the door open, met with darkness. You feel your way towards the lamp that sits on your nightstand and flick it on, light flooding the room, and illuminating your boyfriend, who was curled up on the floor with his knees pulled to his chest and face buried in his arms. Kneeling beside him, you contemplated on how to start this conversation, before gently reaching out and touching his arm.
“Matthew, please, talk to me.”
“You’ll hate me if I do,” he said, voice muffled.
“No, I won’t. Just please, speak to me. I don’t like it when you shut yourself out to me like this.”
Matt was quiet for a moment before lifting his head from his arms. That’s when he tells you everything: the prank he and his old friends played on Hannah, resulting in both her’s and Beth’s deaths; going back to Blackwood with Emily as his girlfriend and seeing her and Mike hugging through the telescope, causing him to be salty toward her for the rest of the night; rushing to the fire tower after Chris and Ashley told them about Josh getting killed by some psycho wandering around the mountain; the fire tower falling through the mines, trying his best to save Emily from falling, but only causing the tower to shift, resulting in her fall anyway; being grabbed by the Wendigo and only managing to escape because Emily had given him a flare gun she found at the tower; leading Jessica out of the mines and escaping with their lives. He poured his heart out, expressing his guilt in not trying hard enough to save Emily, remembering how scared he was that he had possibly caused her death.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell all of this to you sooner. I just...didn’t want you to think I was crazy or something and...I didn’t want you to think I was a horrible person. A failure because I couldn’t save Emily when that tower was falling.”
You’re quiet and the silence kills him, twisting his insides into a painful knot. He knew this was going to happen. He knew you would break up with him for being a failure, a horrible person, a-
“Matthew, there is no way in hell that I would ever think of you as a terrible person.”
Matt stares at you, stunned. “W-What?”
“You’re a good person, Matt. While I’m a little disappointed that you went along with that prank, you didn’t know what would happen to those two girls. If you had known, I know you wouldn’t have gone through with it. As for Emily, I know you tried your damnedest to save her. I didn’t believe her for a second when she said all that about you. Because I know you, Matthew, and I know you’ve got a big heart.”
Matt just looks at you, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. That’s when he grabs you, pulling you close, burying his face in your chest, letting the tears fall. You hold him close, running your fingers through his hair, rubbing soothing circles into his back.
“Thank you.” He tightens his hold on you. “I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too, Matthew.”
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Nam Jaejoong
28 years old - Genius - Slob - Bookworm
@simvicii Alex’s Bachelor Challenge
(NOTE: Under the cut is LOOONG story with his earlier life containing tw violence and depression. If you’re okay with that content, I hope you take the time to get to know Jae.)
Backstory:
Jae was orphaned when he was 10, and he had been keeping to himself mostly ever since then. His family had gone through series of tragedies, but most of those things do not make sense to a child. When he was 6, his older sister was diagnosed with Leukemia. Their parents’ relation started to strain as they struggle to earn money for his sister’s treatments and for their basic needs. They worked multiple jobs, and took turns in taking care for their children, but Jae was mostly overlooked. Both of them had to stop school, and so their only activities at home were reading and house chores (which eventually Jae had to do most as his sister’s condition worsened). Their parents were barely home, and when they were, all they would do is fight (screaming at each other and throwing things around the house). Eventually, his father stopped coming home. Without enough financial aid, medical treatments for his sister halted. She died when Jae was around 9 years old.
After years of struggles and pain, his mother was pushed to a point of experiencing depression. Again, a child wouldn’t know what to do in his situation. After all these things, the worst was yet to come for him. Robbers came to their house one night, and his mother tried to fight them of from stealing what is left of their savings. Jae rushed to help her but one of the robbers attacked him, all he could remember was a sharp pain on his face before he passed out (This resulted in him having a scar on his face). He woke up in a hospital bed, wherein a police officer broke the news to him, his mother was killed in the robbery. The orphanage has sent him from foster families after foster families. Jae spent most of his time on his own, reading books and trying experiments (when he has resources). He had a hard time at school because most kids and teachers just saw him as a weird kid. When he was 17 his genius potentials were noticed by their school principal who decided to give him a test, wherein if he passed he is then qualified to continue on to college despite him stopping school for a few years.
After passing the exam, Jae was then introduced to a couple willing to adopt him even though he is almost in legal age. The couple were both middle-aged doctors, who never had a chance to have a child of their own. They think that he will fit right in their household, and he did like it there. He had access to a library with a lot of medical books, a comfortable bed, and supportive guardians. During his time spent with them and in college, he slowly started to open up to other people. It was a little awkward for him at first to call them “mom” and “dad” but he got used to it.
For his bachelor’s degree, he took up BS Psychology. His course was a big part of how he was able to help himself heal and to also attend therapy. His social life also started to grow as he participated in different organizations that are about healthcare and environment preservation. When it comes to his dating life, well, college girls and boys don’t usually take interest on someone who has his face buried in a book. He went on a few first dates, but none of those developed into anything serious.
He did of course still spend most of his time reading, especially fictions which are fantasy genre since that was his interest when he was a kid. Jae was usually submerged in studying; this applies to all kinds of topics ranging from social issues up to medical discoveries. Whenever this happens, he tends to ignore the random papers, candy wrappers, water bottles littered in his room so his mom describes him as bit of a slob. (Their housemaid confirmed this).
His motto in life is “Keep Learning”. He values individual growth and always finds ways on self-improvement. He tried out sports during this time too, which are basketball and tennis. They were fun for him but they didn’t exactly become his favorite activities. But his experience did help him realize that hobbies aside from reading are important as well. This was how he developed the habit of jogging every other day, and he also tried going to the gym but that didn’t work out for him so he opted for exercising at home instead.
Jae entered medical school when he was 22, and he originally planned to pursue being a General Practitioner. But during his third year, when he had to choose his field of specialization in medical practice, he chose to focus on being a surgeon. Furthermore, his goal is to be a neurosurgeon.
When it comes to family bonding, they genuinely enjoy discussions related to their field of expertise. His dad is a Physician and his mom is an OB-GYN. But medical field aside, they enjoy watching action movies together. They also go out to eat ice cream during summer, and their favorite food to eat during winter is ramen.
Right now, at age 28, he has finished 2 years of internship. He is currently evaluating his life and his goals in life.
“I’m working as an intern in the same hospital where my parents work. But I decided to take a small break from that for now. I am passionate about my career, but I’m also the kind of guy who dreams of having his own family. And uhm.. I’ve been thinking that I’m not getting any younger, and now more than ever I want to take this shot at love. I talked it out with my parents, because they’ve always been supportive of my career, and they said they want what’s best for me, and that I’m the one who knows that. I’m going to admit that the idea of my own family also terrifies me, but I also know that with the kind of person I am now, I’m going to be a responsible and loving father/husband.”
The reason why Jae is even able to make this choice, despite the well-known fact that doctors are busy as heck, is because of his security in his workplace and the support from his parents and friends. The hospital he works on ensures not only the best care for its patients, but also to its workers. The board members and all staff are aware of Jae’s capability as a doctor and treats him with high regard even though he’s only an intern so far. He had a discussion with the Director of the hospital before he started internship, to which he expressed his intentions and wishes regarding his working hours incase he decides to start a family. The Director is a good friend of their family, and one of the few people who knows about his past. Which is why he has made arrangements for Jae, with the knowledge that he will still be able to work his best.
Jae doesn’t really know what to think of fate or coincidences, but just during the start of his break, he saw “The Bachelor: Alexander Goth”. He wasn’t one to have crushes immediately on someone, more so on someone he hasn’t met. But boy did Alex leave an impression on him. The more he read about him, his interest in him develops and he hopes to get to know him in person someday. He deeply respects Alex’s work as an author, and he’s pretty excited to read his works!
“I’m entering this challenge and I view it as me spending time with possibly the love of my life. When it comes to what I look for in a relationship, I want someone I can grow with. People are so obsessed with finding their Perfect Match, and most of the time they just look for someone who is completely compatible with who they are at the moment, and worse they only want these ideal soulmates. I think that it’s important for partners to respect, trust and love each other. But they should also be aware that people continuously change overtime, and that as partners they must grow together and always choose each other.”
Here is a CAS picture of him where his scar is now visible:
squishybuttercup’s notes: hi love!! I know that your aim with this challenge is to have gameplay-centered legacy. But the reason why I wrote this much detail about him is for you (and alex) to get to know him well. Gameplay-wise he can just work as doctor in the sims world and be one of the two best dads in the sims world. Also Jae isn’t the type of person who shares his life story away, so I imagine him telling Alex himself about that part ^_^ I’m super excited for this and I hope Nam Jaejoong gets picked! Anything else not mentioned here you may ask me or opt to have your own interpretation I don’t mind as I am literally offering him to be in your game ajsdfsjkl this also means i acknowledge that you might change his looks to fit your game’s aesthetics. also ily :p
#ts4#the sims 4#the sims#sims#sims 4#maxis mix#simvicii#ts4 edit#sims 4 edit#sims edit#s4 edit#ts4 male sim#male sims#alexgothbcentry#my edits
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cooking headcannons with poly Billy and Stu and their s/o? 😎 i feel like stu is the type to flip pancakes super high and get them stuck on the ceiling and billy is the type to just order in bc he gave up after 2 seconds
A/N: you’re braver than any us marine to be in a kitchen with these two
billy loomis x reader x stu macher ft. cooking for (with) dummies
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For this we are assuming you can cook and thus, fair warning, you will always be cooking. They’re not assholes so they’ll totally do dishes for you (Billy will. If Stu can worm his way out of a household chore he will do so by any means necessary) but why should they cook when you’re so good at it? Their logic? Unbeatable.
They both walk away real fast whenever you seem to be about to “teach them” something. They don’t want to know! You’re the chef of this house. Don’t be grouchy about your designation. How about some kisses? Would a kiss make all this free labor better? Stu sure thinks it will.
Billy kinda likes rigid roles in the relationship because it gives him the illusion of stability. So you always doing this one thing in the relationship is like a security blanket of sorts. Please get him some therapy-
Express to him that cooking can be a bonding activity as well as an important life skill to have and you’ve got him! He tends to like lowkey “dates” and more than that he really enjoys “couple activities” though he’d rather die than admit it. It’s because he wants you to spend 100% of your time with him and Stu. Like some kind of exotic leech you can’t get rid of.
Stu is gonna groan because work and he’s never cooked anything in his #Life but you can get him into the kitchen with both promises of affection and by strategically withholding said affection. He’s needy.
So you got them in there! What now? Strap in for the ride of your fucking life buckaroo-
Billy has a lot more cooking experience than Stu but like….not much compared to you. At least in terms of quality if not quantity. Meat. Breakfast food. Pastas. Crappy soup. Enough that if he was living in a college dorm alone he wouldn’t die. Eats raw vegetables (and fruits) but has probably never cooked one I won’t lie.
Only learned and figured out cooking because you know …MIA Mom. His Dad certainly didn’t buck up and learn that particular skill for the two of them. It was either takeout or semi-crappy Billy cooking.
Stu, if he wasn’t living with you and Billy, would have scurvy and he’d be dead. No cooking skills. Can’t cook ramen. Can maybe use a toaster. Perhaps even a toaster oven. If you ever leave him alone he’d die like a tamagotchi but faster.
Takeout and fast food are his only saviors. He knows all the numbers to every place that delivers by heart and he knows closing times and menus too. He survived his teenage years by the grace of his Mother, occasional family chefs, and God.
Start on the basics. Stu knows nothing and Billy is (shittily) self taught. This will be the most maddening part of living with the boys since moving in with them. They are struggling. You are struggling.
They’re good with knives so that skill translates pretty quickly. Everything else is a mess.
Stu you teach one skill and he goes overboard with it. Overzealous … if you will. So yes he will flip a pancake into the ceiling. He’s going to over-whisk/stir everything. And if you need him to chop something?? He’ll just sit there and mince it to shit. Anything you put in front of him. Minced to granule. Very proud of himself.
you: baby i needed it in chunks stu: :D you: nevermind. great job, babe-
He’s so eager to please he’s doing his best and genuinely following all instruction to the best of his ability. If you just hang in there eventually he’ll do everything you teach him to do just the way you taught him to do it. He’s a good student in that sense. Just… hang in there.
Billy can get all the basics of cooking down great. It’s the recipes and seasoning that’ll get him. The finer points of cooking will be his downfall. He’ll rage quit long before you can register his mounting frustration.
The type to not want to do something because they’re not immediately good at it? Billy? Never.
Stick with it and he’ll actually enjoy it to some extent. Doesn’t mind cooking alone but only really likes doing it when he’s doing it with you. He likes the normalcy and familiarity of it. Moving around each other like clockwork. Little jokes. Playful nudges. It’s a routine he’ll start to love, in all honesty.
Wiping down a counter (he’s a clean as you go type) and you pop up beside him with a spoon for him to taste? But wait! It’s too hot so you’re just gonna blow on it for a second first?? He started cool guy smirking like “god look at them” but missed the mark and it wound up a sappy “god look at them” smile.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again he’s a sucker for domestic life. He’s trying to build a love nest and you and Stu had better be on board, eager participants or so help you god-
Stu is good at all things prep work. He can still barely cook honestly but he won’t burn the house down trying to make something basic. He shines at breakfast foods like all men who can’t really cook but like to say they can. Could he offer you a waffle? Grits? Some perfectly cooked eggs? French toast?
If he can be bothered to wake up in the morning before you or Billy he will make you both breakfast in bed. It’s rare because he never wakes up first. Sweet when it happens though.
Always very careful about getting out of bed but Billy is the world’s lightest sleeper so he notices instantly someone’s left the bed. You’re up next because Stu cannot cook quietly under any circumstances. Pots and pans and banging of all volumes come from the kitchen.
You and Billy always share sleepy smiles before curling up together and dozing back off, all the while waiting for your boyfriend to come kick open the door dramatically while bearing food.
Billy eventually gets pretty good in general but he really enjoys cooking you and Stu’s favorite foods. These are things he can cook perfectly with his eyes closed. Were you moping today? Go take a nice, hot shower to relax. Come back and oh wow? Your favorite comfort food on the counter. Where’d that come from?? If you gush over it he acts like it’s no big deal but he loves the praise and loves babying you. Want him to stab whatever made you upset? Just asking! Just as a side note! No? Fine.
Stu cooks/helps you prep mostly so the “who’s turn is it to do the dishes” debate will be more confusing and in the end Billy will usually wind up doing them to avoid a secondary Great Stalemate (there was a lot of bastard energy in the house the first year of living together. it mostly belonged to Stu). Also does them because Billy’s a softie for you ….and Stu, admittedly. Why else would he not stab him when you all know it’s Stu’s turn to do the fucking dishes-
Billy wants to try and cook something new with you once a month. You guys don’t really have set date nights (billy vc: lame) but if you did this would be one of them. Stu loiters but rarely joins the actual cooking process. Mostly just hanging out in the kitchen while you and Billy work your magic. He will distract one or both of you with dancing and singing.
Dancing may begin as lighthearted and goofy but be wary and wise — he can get the drop on you and make it groping and grinding quicker than you can say “burning food-”. Billy? 50/50 chance on him prying you away from Stu and scolding him because you’re both busy or him joining in.
You have all nearly set the house on fire because somehow Stu wound up on his knees between your thighs, Billy’s hands tangled tightly in his hair while he whispered feverishly what he wanted to do to you in your ear.
If it had been a scary movie you all would’ve been killed since you literally didn’t notice the small stove fire until Billy jumped out of his skin with a yelp of, “Oh shit!”
If you don’t live a long life with these disasters you’ll live a short but sweet one together.
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#billy loomis x reader x stu macher#billy loomis x reader#stu macher x reader#billy loomis imagine#stu macher imagine#slasher x reader#scream#slasher imagine#the only task more unbearable and impossible to do with them is driving
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I finished both the main story and the postgame story of Pokémon Sword, so I figure I’ll type up a little informal review on it, if for nothing else than to have my thoughts on record.
Overall: I liked it, and think despite Game Freak’s failings, it was an improvement over both the Kalos and the Alola games.
First, just from a gameplay standpoint: While I’m still upset about the National Dex being axed, as well as upset over Mega Evolution being axed, and mad about Mimikyu being nerfed even though I knew last gen it would happen, overall gameplay improved VASTLY in this game when compared to the Alola games especially. True, your outfit is still ugly when you’re on your bike, but the music doesn’t change to something hideous, and you can use the bike to maneuver over both land and water. The curry minigame in Camp might be a bit finicky, and the play options are limited (+ I miss being able to pet my pokémon), but Camp lets all of your pokémon out at once, and they can interact with each other, and I think that’s really great. Additionally, I like the immersion of being on a journey and being able to set up camp and cook. It’s nice. Customization is far better in this game than in previous games (even if I found the perfect outfit right at the start and never changed it---though hell, that’s a bonus), I like controlling everything with the buttons rather than using a touch screen, the wild area is a lot of fun to run around in, I like having pokémon visible on the overworld . . . overall, I just find it to be an improvement over the Alola games in terms of gameplay in virtually every way. At least for me, the Alola games were not very much fun to play. I loathed the Ride music and the fact that I was using someone else’s pokémon instead of my own (and as a result had to walk everywhere since they didn’t give me a goddamn bike), the customization options were really lacking, the level balance was horrible and so grinding was an absolute chore, Refresh was annoying because your pokémon were dirty after basically every single goddamn battle and you could only tidy one of them up at a time, and so on and so forth. The Galar games aren’t perfect, but in terms of gameplay they’re a huge improvement over Gen VII and that makes me breathe a sigh of relief at least, because the most important thing about video games is that they have to be fun to play. If you’re not having fun because the mechanics are bad, there’s a problem.
As far as the story goes, it definitely had its issues, most notably in the fact that Chairman Rose’s goals were never properly explained, the cover legendaries didn’t really factor in much until the postgame, and the fact that Chairman Rose and Oleana were evil at all felt more like a “well we have to have some evil organization in here huh” than anything else---like Game Freak was trying to adhere to tradition rather than writing a villain-based story because they genuinely wanted to write one. The whole situation surrounding Macro Cosmos (a company that I keep forgetting the name of because it wasn’t mentioned until the end) makes a bit more sense to me now than when I originally finished due to reading someone else’s explanation of how Rose was a PokéVillain who had already won by the time the story starts, given that he owns and controls everything in Galar (literally, he controls the very energy they need to keep the lights on and their houses warm), and so what he does is more about maintaining that (thousands of years into the future?) than anything else. Which I get, but . . . it still makes his actual actions and motivations feel weak and poorly explained.
But despite that, as well as a few other flaws (the annoying enemy characters in the postgame, the fact that Marnie was TRAGICALLY underused), I actually did enjoy it. Despite my disdain for organized sports in real life, I liked that the Gym Challenge was set up as a tournament in which your rivals participated (and that there were many other participants, too) because finally it felt like there was a reason to go after the badges, versus doing it just because the Gyms were there and you wanted to become Champion for no reason. The fact that more and more NPCs started to take notice of you as you progressed as well is another thing I liked. Although I hated that we couldn’t customize the Gym uniform (it’s so ugly!!), I did like having a personal number (mine is 494---Victini’s National Dex number), as well as the fact that it was yet another way for the fans in the game to identify you. Not only that, but having your rivals be fellow competitors in the Gym Challenge was also a nice touch. Sure, Hop was yet another hometown friend, but the others were just fellow competitors that took notice of you, and I really enjoyed that.
Speaking of Hop and the other rivals, the characters were, I felt, by and large another improvement over Kalos and Alola games. Aside from the antagonists in the postgame (who were poorly designed and also terribly annoying), as well as Gym Leader Gordie, there aren’t any characters that I really disliked, and in fact, I found the development for most of the major ones (in particular Sonia, Bede, and even Hop) to be pretty good.
A bit more detail on that:
Sonia: Honestly, Sonia is probably my favorite character from these games (although Marnie is a close second). I am absolutely surprised by her and how much I came to love her considering I wasn’t too interested in her before the game was actually in my hands. Sonia is set up as being a twenty-something-year-old who fancies herself her grandmother’s assistant, but honestly is just kind of languishing at the beginning of the game and doesn’t really have a clear goal---to the point where her grandmother boots her out and makes her travel the region exploring the history to learn more about the Dynamax phenomenon. (And yes, Sonia is definitely in her twenties; both she and Leon refer to themselves as adults, and these games were created in Japan, where the age of adulthood is 20. So while we don’t know their exact age, we know they’re at least over 20.) Sonia is a little miffed about this at first, but as the story goes on she becomes more and more interested in and passionate about her studies, which culminates in Professor Magnolia passing the lab coat over to her. And it was at that point I realized: Although Professor Magnolia is the official professor at the start of the game, the fact that she has absolutely no impact on the game whatsoever (or at least very minimal impact) is because the real professor of the game is Sonia. We interact with her regularly, she helps compile information about what’s going on with regards to the game’s main plot, she guides and influences both the player character and Hop, and ultimately she comes to realize her own goal and dreams. The fact that an adult character in these games got to have an arc like this---one where she wasn’t sure what to do with herself at first, but came to find her own dream and take over the lab---was absolutely wonderful to me, an adult player. Sonia was definitely a refreshing character for the series and I was so, so proud of her when she finally got her lab coat, found her goal, and started living her best life. Sonia’s brilliant and I’m a huge fan.
Hop: On a personal, personality-level, I find Hop to be kind of annoying. He’s the type of person who would wear me out quickly in real life, and I honestly would have preferred if the primary rival was Marnie instead of him (since I feel him eating up so much screentime is part of why Marnie got shafted---but more on that later). But that said, I feel like Hop was Hau done right, that his character arc was well-written, and I love that we see him finally step out of the shadows and find his own path at the end of the postgame story. Hop, like Hau, has a famous relative that he looks up to and wants to surpass one day. But Hop, unlike Hau, also takes his training seriously from the start, struggles and shifts through various strategies as he tries to figure out what it is that he should do rather than just sticking to the same thing and hoping that it produces a different result, and ultimately concludes that he can do something different with his life, that he can change fields and make a name for himself his own way, without having to live up to expectations of what others think of him, or what his brother has done. While Hop resembles past rivals in the series in various ways (e.g. Barry’s impatience, Hau’s famous relative), he also sets himself apart by having a clear and defined character growth arc, culminating in his capture of the other mascot legendary and his newly appointed position as Sonia’s research assistant. I’m not personally a big fan of Hop’s, but as a character I think he was well done and I don’t dislike him either. At the very least, he easily tramples all of Kalos’ rivals (not that that’s hard, since the Kalos Friend Group is the most annoying set of rivals the series has ever seen), and I like him more than Hau as well. (The fact that Hop doesn’t delegitimize child abuse the way Hau does in USUM is a big point in his favor.)
Bede: On the other hand, I love everything about this little shithead. I love that we finally, FINALLY have a jerkass rival for the first time since Gen IV. I love that even after his character development (which he gets!) he doesn’t stop being a jerkass, he just becomes slightly less of one. (Very slightly.) While it was touched upon only a little, I like that the reason why he’s such a little asshole is because of how Rose and Oleana were using him (Oleana is the one that gets blamed, but it was Rose who gave Bede his first pokémon and endorsed him, and then later in Hulbury acted like he didn’t even know who Bede was, thereby implying that Bede feels that he has to work extra hard to gain Rose’s approval and attention), and that once he was taken in by a good guardian (Opal), he improved not only as a trainer, but as a person. It was so great to see Bede finally happy near the end of the game, once Opal took him in, and also great that even though he was a little shit to everyone around him, he also treated his pokémon well (and thus wasn’t a “he’s an asshole so he uses his pokémon as tools!” type). Bede’s great. I love Bede.
Marnie: I also love Marnie, though as I’ve said numerous times, she was critically underused. Despite the fact that her older brother is a Gym Leader, Marnie has pretty much no impact on the plot, barely shows up at all, doesn’t appear in the postgame story at all (even though she’s a Gym Leader now!), and overall feels like she’s just sort of . . . there. This frustrates me not only because I love what little we do see of her (the fact that she has a south London accent is already a huge plus in her favor, along with her design, battle music, and overall character), but because I feel this happens all-too often with female rivals in Pokémon games. Granted, it’s not like we have a surplus; aside from the opposite-gender player rivals, the only dedicated female rivals we have in the entire series apart from Marnie are Bianca and Shauna (because given that Lillie doesn’t battle for the majority of the story, she does not count as a rival). Shauna, like all the rivals in XY, has an ineffective, weak team and doesn’t really accomplish anything at any point. And while Bianca’s team is fantastic and she does end up becoming Professor Juniper’s assistant in the second game, in the first game she’s sidelined after her Munna gets stolen and spends the rest of the game with her spirit broken as a result of it (which, IMO, is the one being flaw in BW’s otherwise excellent storytelling). So to get another dedicated female rival, only to have her barely be involved in the plot at all and not really go through any meaningful development is incredibly disappointing. If there is a follow-up game to the Galar games, I hope Marnie gets more to do. (And as a side note, Team Yell is in a similar situation to Macro Cosmos; it honestly feels like they only exist because Game Freak feels they have to have an “evil team” at this point, much like Skull in the last gen.)
This is long, and also it’s almost 3am and I’m tired, so rather than typing up blurbs for all the other characters, I’ll just give short lists:
Other characters I loved: Nessa, Kabu, Bea, Opal, Raihan
Characters that were OK but had certain things about them that were off-putting to me: Leon, Chairman Rose, Oleana
Characters I’m completely ambivalent about: Professor Magnolia, Milo
Characters I hated: Gordie, the Sword and Shield brothers I’m not even going to bother to remember their names because they were that fucking stupid
And that’s it, I’m going to go see if I can sleep now.
#pokemon spoilers#pokemon swsh spoilers#scrawlers is born to be a winner born to be a champion#i feel like there's a LOT more i could say but#i'm tired so#i'm just going to end the post here lmao
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@enchcntd - THE OG GAYS, OFC — ultimate ship meme!
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Send in two (or more) names and I’ll fill all this out about the ship!
General:
Rate the Ship - Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs
How long will they last? - Uh? Forever? Obviously?
How quickly did/will they fall in love? - I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight but it was definitely “good god, this is something”, at first sight (at least for Patrick) so I’m thinking it didn’t take that long, they were infatuated pretty early on, and they both feel Very Strongly, SO HERE THEY ARE
How was their first kiss? - It had the intention to become steamy because at first Patrick thought “yes, this’ll do it, this’ll show him my feelings” but then their lips touched in that random-ass bathroom stall in the men’s toilet at a gala event organised by one Anthony Sullivan, and it was just... slow sparks, it was the “we have to pull away after a literal second because neither of us can believe this is happening and oh god this is what i’ve been missing all my life, isn’t it”
Wedding:
Who proposed? - The absolute idiot that is Patrick Finch (said, of course, affectionately) he just kinda suggested it and well, hey, once you’ve put it out there, all you gotta do is get a ring and PUT IT ON IT because I’m mad Pat didn’t show up with a ring right away >:( but then again, it wasn’t exactly a planned proposal
Who is the best man/men? - We haven’t discussed this yet BUT ALLEN’S DEFINITELY THERE, I don’t know who’d apply for Spencer so feel free to scream the names at me <w< I don’t think either of them would want people who aren’t like, super close to them, though, right?
Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - Not applicable, but to be honest Liv should be IF yknow
Who did the most planning? - Patrick struggled a bit here because he’s used to planning things SOLO (comes from having a naturally strategical mind AND being alone for so long and all the time) but he wouldn’t want to just leave Spencer out of it when he’d know he’d feel bad if he couldn’t participate, so they probably balanced it according to their abilities... And then Pat’s mum Susan flew in and had to be physically restrained by Allen because planning a wedding is on her bucket list and she adores Spencer so she literally is usually sitting there, in a corner, waiting until she can help with something
Who stressed the most? - This would go to Spencer, right? Patrick does his own fair share of stressing on the daily (can’t he rest) but he having Spencer nearby calms him down ALSO because he wants to be calm enough to help Spencer when he’ll start stressing (this is probs the planning only, because I feel like if we’re talking about the idea of marriage itself, Patrick wouldn’t sleep for a week, but I dIGRESS, Allen is here during that period, he’ll smack some sense into him, don’t worry)
How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.
Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - Anthony Sullivan, Reginald Finch, and Patrick put off inviting Robert until his mother ripped him a new one
Sex:
Who is on top? - They both are... ON TOP OF THE WORLD because they are very deeply in love with one another
Who is the one to instigate things? - They haven’t worked their way up to that topic/situation yet and they both seem fairly comfortable with just letting it rest wherever it may be for a while longer, lmao
How healthy is their sex life? - Well, healthily nonexistent, LEAVE THEM ALONE Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now
How kinky are they? - No Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head
How long do they normally last? - Fellas, I don’t even know if Spencer masturbates, I know Patrick doesn’t even do that, HOW AM I SUPPOSED-
Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - Hypothetically speaking, because this is literally all we’re doing here (I’m tryna swerve this section, not gonna lie) the answer would be YES, although Patrick would be more inclined to take care of Spencer’s because for obvious reasons
How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.
How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.
Children:
How many children will they have naturally? - None! Biology doesn’t work that way!
How many children will they adopt? - AT LEAST one, I don’t feel like they’re thinking of adopting another at the moment, BUT DEFINITELY one! Her Royal Highness Samantha Finch
Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - Sammy didn’t use diapers anymore when they adopted her!
Who is the stricter parent? - Patrick! Outwardly! He tries to be! He’s a big softie but he’s also terrified of losing her
Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - BOTH! They’re quite apprehensive BUT at the same time, Patrick believes if a kid’s feet aren’t dirty at the end of the day, have they really lived the day? Falling of a low branch off a tree every so once in a while is okay, it depends entirely on what Sam can handle, because she may be on the spectrum, but he’s not made out of glass neither should she be treated as such, mic drop LMAO
Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - Kitchen is Spencer Terrain! Therefore, by extension, SPENCER!
Who is the more loved parent? - She loves them equally for different reasons! You can’t really compare them, because they’re two completely different beings and she adores them for who they are as individuals.
Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - Patrick would make it a habit to be around for them CERTAINLY because he wants not only to be there for Sam, but also for Spencer the first few times, thinking the idea would stress Spencer out. Not to mention, Patrick has a deep-rooted passion within him to go against every and all systems out there, so he’d want to be there right away if the school Fucked Up because that’s his daughter they’re talking about (but he’d also try to get Spencer to come every time because it’d be important to Spencer as well to be there, right?)
Who cried the most at graduation? - To be honest they probably spent 20 minutes just all three of them crying into the best family hug in the history of all family hugs
Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - Patrick, because he INVENTED trouble with the law, NAH omg hopefully neither
Cooking:
Who does the most cooking? - Spencer! Patrick can cook well enough to keep himself alive, but Spencer is basically a CHEF at this point and well, it’s his thing :3
Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Maybe Sammy? Patrick isn’t picky in the slightest, he’s very likely to eat something he doesn’t like either (at the end of the day he always be “everything’s better than trench food, so”) and Spencer doesn’t seem very picky? So if anybody had to pick that title, it’d probably be some child-pickiness
Who does the grocery shopping? - Who happens to! Depends on schedules and such, but I also believe that Spencer is more likely to, also because he’s the cook so Patrick would be constantly calling him anyway
How often do they bake desserts? - Any time Spencer would feel like it >:)
Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - Well, Spencer is a vegetarian so there’s that, Patrick definitely enjoys meat
Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - SPENCER! Although, it depends, are we talking a dinner out or a dinner in, although it’s a dinner in either way right, SO SPENCER! Because he cooks. Patrick would surprise him with something else.
Who is more likely to suggest going out? - PATRICK! But he means... OUT out, as in out into nature, on a field, for a picnic, or to star-gaze, he’s more likely too because if he can’t breathe fresh air at least once a day, he withers away (like a dog, yknow)
Who is more likely to burn the house down accidentally while cooking? - NEITHER!
Chores:
Who cleans the room? - BOTH!
Who is really against chores? - NEITHER! I can see it being rather relaxing for both of them, just getting things done around the house
Who cleans up after the pets? - WHOEVER HAPPENS TO!
Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - APPLE! Lmao
Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - SPENCER! Because Patrick is just gonna boot them out if he doesn’t like them, he’s a master at skillfully kicking people out of places, but also because he’s taken to trying to be calm during situations like these so that Spencer can rely on him, so even if he WAS stressed, he’d probably get over it
Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - SAMMY! It’s her Treasure
Misc:
Who takes the longer showers/baths? - SPENCER! For the sole reason that Patrick’s showers are fast as lightning lmao and he doesn’t take baths
Who takes the dog out for a walk? - THEY DON’T OWN A DOG!
How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - THEY DON’T MISS A SINGLE ONE EXCEPT FOR THANKSGIVINGS PATRICK DOESN’T PARTICIPATE IN THAT ONE LMAO
What are their goals for the relationship? - EVERYTHING THEY GOT RIGHT NOW TBH
Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - NEITHER! Both seem pretty early risers
Who plays the most pranks? - PATRICK! I’m kidding IT’S APPLE
#enchcntd#a writer and his wolf;patrick & spencer#TOOK ME A THOUSAND YEARS BUT HERE WE GO#actually jokes on all of us i usually take much longer#;queue
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Headcanons: Special Operations Squad as Parents
Levi Ackerman
Levi would be totally against having kids from the very beginning, even after he's married his s/o and the two of them are happily settled. His s/o will have known what she was getting herself into from the moment she started dating Levi, so she would be completely fine with or without kids, until one day they both get caught up and his she ends up pregnant.
Levi’s s/o will be a sobbing mess when she finds out she's pregnant after missing her period and taking several pregnancy tests. She would take the tests alone, while Levi is away or at work one day. She would sit in the bathroom for hours, crying, wallowing in her own thoughts about how it could have happened, what she was going to do, what Levi was going to say or think, and how they were going to handle the situation.
After a couple days of changed behavior, Levi will finally confront his s/o about why she's been acting the way she has. His s/o won’t be able to hold herself together and will break down crying while dropping the big news to Levi. At first Levi will be stunned, wondering exactly how something like so could have happened considering the fact that they were both careful, but then he would brush it off and comfort his s/o, reassuring her that everything will be alright.
I feel like Levi would be the type to let his s/o decide what they would want to do. He would feel like because they are the ones who have to undergo all of the physical changes, they should mostly get to decide whether or not they really want to go through with the pregnancy. Whichever choice they make, he would stand by their side. When his s/o decides to keep the baby, his only response will be, ‘alright.’
He would feel very overwhelmed and troublesome about becoming a father, fearing that he would not be cut out for the job due to losing his mother at an early age in his life and lacking the needed attention as a child. But with the help of his wife, Eld, Gunther, Petra, and Oluo, Levi will learn the definition of what it means to be a parent and will grow to become a great father towards his daughter.
He would fall in love with his daughter the moment he laid eyes on her. He would cherish and protect her and would bring hell to anyone who tries to hurt her. He would raise and teach her how to be confident, strong, and to not take shit from anybody. It would be left up to his wife to teach her how to love and show kindness, all of the traits that come with being an overall nice person.
Levi would spoil his daughter, but only to a certain extent and usually it would be out of bribery for not telling his wife something mean/rude he did/said about or to someone. His daughter will always oblige knowing that she will get a treat in return, making her the epitome of “you are your father’s daughter.”
Eld Jinn
Eld would definitely want children because he's a family man. Girl or boy, it wouldn't matter to him because he will love them unconditionally. He'd probably end up having three kids. Two boys and one girl.
He would teach his children common courtesies as well as how to treat others with kindness and respect. He would raise his children equally. They also would learn how to do basic household chores when they become of age, like cleaning, cooking, building and fixing things, wash clothes. Eld wouldn't want his wife to be the only one making sure the house is in order since he as well as the kids live there, too, so he will make sure she gets all the help she deserves.
Since Eld would be family oriented, he will often take time out of his day to spend it with his kids despite his busy schedule. Whether it be playing a board game, cards or watching cartoons on a rainy day, or participating in games like tag or hide-and-go-seek along with them outside, Eld will make sure his kids get the attention they want and need, even as they grow older.
Eld would not spoil his children. He believes in discipline and earning what you work for. If they want a piece of cake after dinner, then they'll have to eat their greens. If they want to go play outside, then they’ll have to do their chores first, etc. Some may think he is too harsh or mean, but Eld believes that as a parent, it will be his responsibility to make sure he raises his kids to act and behave as proper human beings to society.
Overall Eld would be a bomb dad. Though he may be old schooled, and maybe even a little bit strict, his children will grow to look up to and respect him more and more each day. He would also serve as an inspiration to people like Levi and others who may be struggling with parenting.
Gunther Schultz
Gunther would want at least two children. I see him ending up with a boy and a girl. Much like Eld, Gunther would love his kids unconditionally and teach them how to be decent members of society. He would be a little bit more relaxed than Eld, but would still make sure his kids are disciplined to where they aren't going around thinking everything should be handed to them on a silver platter.
Learning how to do things for themselves will be a crucial part of Gunther’s teachings. He refuses to allow his kids to grow up not knowing how to do basic household chores or not have any idea on how to work certain household items.
Gunther would spoil his kids, especially his little girl. He would try to act tough whenever he has to scold his daughter for something bad she did, but his hard exterior will melt once his daughter begins to cry. As a result, Gunther would buy her a treat of some sort to cheer her up, much to his son and wife’s demise. Gunther would be much more capable of scolding his son without falling victim to feeling bad because he will expect his son to be tougher than his sister, which, in many cases, is true because his son will more than likely take after him.
As his kids grow older, things like dating, mental illness, sex, drugs, etc. will be mentioned and discussed regularly, as Gunther will want his kids to be completely comfortable talking to him about personal things that most kids would otherwise feel embarrassed about. He also would want them to be able to come to him if they ever needed him no matter the situation. Honesty and safety are his top priorities, therefore, he could care less about what his kid did. As long as they tell the truth and are safe from any mental or physical harm.
He and Eld’s children would be the best of friends, often referring to each other’s parents as their aunt and uncle. They will spend many nights at each other’s houses, attend the same school, and grow up to be closer than ever, making proud fathers out of Gunther and Eld.
Petra Ral
Petra would only have one son and boy would she be crazy about him. She would spoil him rotten and treat him like her little prince. She would love him with every fiber in her being and threaten anyone who has anything bad to say about him.
Despite spoiling him, Petra would make sure to teach her son how to remain humble. She would want to raise him to show compassion, which in turn will motivate him to act graciously and kindly towards others.
He would adopt her natural trait to help people and to make sure his family and friends are taken care of, making a super proud and emotional Petra at times.
Petra’s son will look up to Levi, Eld, and Gunther as role models, but Petra will be sure to set the record straight that her son does not fall victim to Oluo’s dramatism. She will often scold her son for listening to Oluo or for going along with any of his shenanigans. Of course, she would still allow her son to look up to Oluo for his overall bravery, intellect, and talents.
Petra would be the type of parent to make sure her baby boy looks spick and span every time he leaves the house. Whether it's fixing his hair, licking her thumb and wiping off something on his face, or adjusting his clothes so that they look and fit properly, Petra would want her son to go out representing what a job well done she did as a parent.
Oluo Bozado
Oluo would want kids, of course. Who else would he pass down his beloved surname to? He would want two boys, but his luck is so bad he would end up with two girls. Nevertheless he will love them equally and treat them all as princesses, holding them to the highest standards and making sure everyone and their mom knows who they are.
He would want the best of the best for his princesses, no matter how much he has to pay. He will dress them in beautiful, frilly clothing, and if any boy so much as looks their way he will threaten their life.
Oluo would raise and teach his daughters how to be confident, work hard, and overall slay in everything they do. School, sports, household chores, you name it. They will make sure to do it with the utmost perfection.
When it comes to Levi, Eld, Gunther, and Petra’s kids, Oluo’s daughters will dominate all of them in literally everything. They will still get along really well with everyone, but will have a natural competitive attitude towards each other as sisters, thus making them a bit more aggressive.
They will look up to Petra as a strong feminine figure, which Oluo would object to, but his lack of valid points won't be enough to convince his daughters.
#shingeki no kyojin#snk#attack on titan#aot#shingeki no kyoujin headcanon#levi ackerman#eld jinn#gunther schultz#petra ral#oluo bozado
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long post ahead
Today marks my 20th day of staying at home since my city has declared Community Quarantine in response to the spread of COVID-19 in the country. To be honest, I’ve been enjoying staying at home.Because of all the time on my hands, I had been able to allow myself to do the things I’ve been meaning to do but haven’t because of school, or because I deemed I didn’t have enough time/energy/focus for it.
I had found a way to keep myself busy the past 20 days:
cooking (-ish, i don’t exactly cook cook, but I have been able to spend more time in the kitchen)
eating healthily (I have to admit my daily intake isn’t even close to ideal, and it’s a known fact to my friends/family that i’m a very very picky eater, which is why really I’m proud to say that I had been trying - my very best - to eat more food that would be healthy for my body.)
watching tv series and movies (during school time, I prefer not to start on a series that I would likely not be able to focus my attention to or would likely distract me from the tasks I should be prioritizing. I find it hard to focus when I know I should be doing something more important first e.g. school work, duty reqs, or simply studying; which is why I’ve only found the time to do this now)
reading (I’ve probably posted more than once about how I miss being able to read freely and for long periods of time without having to worry about all the other responsibilities I have, which is why this period is the perfect time to finally be able to read something other than nursing books again)
needlework - crochet, cross stitch, embroidery (if you’ve known me since grade school, you’ll know how engaged I was with needlework back then and into early high school; but for some reason, I had stopped doing somewhere in the middle of junior high school and since senior high, I had been meaning to get back into it again because for one, I missed it - it was peaceful and therapeutic and stress relieving and it gave you something to focus your energy and attention to; second, it reminded me so much of Nanay, it was one of the things she had taught me back then and something we would bond over and I liked that doing it again makes me miss her in a good way)
working out!! (this is probably one of my proudest achievements during this stay-at-home-time not only because I’m known to be very lazy when it comes to physical fitness and any and all related activities [I made sure to make my way out of having to do high school PE, a story for another post i guess, which is why I have never participated in a proper PE class until I was in college], but also because despite my body aching, badly, from it, I’m actually having fun??? +++ I do it with everyone in the family which makes it more enjoyable)
learning how to drive (I literally had my student permit since I was 17 but had only started learning how to drive now, which I am slightly embarrassed about. the real reason why I hadn’t been able to learn earlier was because my parents believed it was better for me to learn and master driving a manual car first before settling into driving an automatic one, and our manual car had only been recently fixed [about 6-10 months ago]. on the other hand, by the time the car was fixed, I was too busy and tired with school and duty that I opted to use my time on school stuff or to rest during sundays [my father worked on weekdays and I had saturday classes, so he could only teach me on sundays]; my progress has been slow since I only started 3 days ago but I’m really glad that I’m learning na)
learned more songs on the kalimba (I learned Maybe the Night, Here Comes the Sun, How Deep is Your Love, etc. but I have yet to master them heheheheheheheh)
doing household chores (to be honest, doing household chores is actually therapeutic and I additionally enjoy doing them now that I’m not time-restrained and I don’t have to worry about neglecting school-related responsibilities. the smol oc part of me enjoys all the cleaning to be honest)
the biggest takeaway from this is that my family has been spending a lot of time together and it’s been really fun and sometimes it makes me soft thinking that (although, no offense, compared to other families, we spend time, go out, have fun more often than others) we hardly get to spend time like this and do activities for long periods of time without me interrupting that I still have homework or studying to do or without my mom worrying about the business and etc. In the last 20 days, we had cooked, binged tv shows, played board games, worked out together, and had even moved all the mattresses from our bedrooms into the living room floor and we’ve all been sleeping there for a week now because it was easier for us to watch movies together.
Despite my being perfectly content with having to stay inside for long periods of time, being active on social media and reading current news daily has truly put things in perspective for me.
For the longest time, I had chosen to ignore engaging myself in political discourse with other people simply because I didn’t have much to say - I knew very little and basic information about what was going on in the Philippine government and had never bothered to learn more. In high school, I was not very invested in trying to figure out and understand how politics worked. I found it boring and uninteresting and frankly, I had found it better not exhaust myself trying to argue about something I did not properly understand and I left it at that for years.
Because of the response of the government to this pandemic, the shortage of health workers in the country, and everything else happening in between, I have arrived at quite a few thoughts:
At first, I honestly found it annoying that people kept going out and disobeying quarantine rules. It was only later on that I had realized that I was speaking from a position of privilege. Because of all the discourse online regarding that topic, it was only then that I had realized just how blessed I was to be enjoying community quarantine - to be able to stay at home with my needs provided for and not having to worry about my safety, my health, and my finances. I found it unsettling, that I was not able to think of the millions of other people out there who were struggling amidst the current situation, that I was so focused on myself and the people I knew that I completely forgot to look at the bigger picture.
Moreover, it was more unsettling to realize that the government was doing visibly minuscule if not irrational and unjust responses to combat the situation and ones without clear compassion for the general public and for the greatly impoverished. It was frustrating to think that from my position, I could only do so little.
On the other hand, what frustrated and bothered me more was that there still are a handful of people who continually dismiss and/or condone the actions made and orders mandated by the government and are too close-minded and apathetic to understand what exactly the general public is demanding for and enraged about.
To add to my frustration, I find (present tense) it hard to voice my opinions. I am afraid of having to engage in full-on active arguments with strangers, with people opposing the general public’s unanimous views even though I know in my heart that I can and that my stand is valid and important. Perhaps I am not used to debating and fighting for what I believe in, or perhaps I find it exhausting to aimlessly argue with people who have their minds set on one thing. But for now, I merely repost and retweet the things I support and find relevant - just to let people know where I stand among all of this. I cannot bring myself to voice out entire full-length opinions and to be so out there yet, but I would like to try to voice out my concerns more effectively in the near future.
For now, I truly hope for more assistance to be carried out for the marginalized and less fortunate - for those without a steady income due to the community quarantine; I hope for more deserved compensation for all the frontliners, for the implementation of mass testing and to abolish the prioritizing of government officials in this process as well as for the government to adopt and embody the responses and values of notable local governments in the country such as Iloilo and Pasig, instead of seeing these as threats to the presidency. Seeing everyone actively engaged in the current issues the country is facing is empowering and inspiring and I’m hoping more people follow suit, in order to send a powerful message to the government.
I apologize (but not really?) for the long post AHASHASB my mom has been trying to wake us all up early in the morning for the 2nd day in a row now and I have all this ~peace and quiet and calm to myself and I’ve been thinking about a lot - just trying to get these thoughts into writing so it doesn’t feel so heavy. I hope everyone else is finding a means to keep themselves busy and to help in the ways that they can and I pray pray pray that all this will end soon.. Hoping for better days :) char
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The First Step in Finding the Right Nursing Home
Once you have pinpointed the type of care your loved one needs, you will want to make a list of possible nursing homes locally that will fit their requirements, preferences, and care level. The more choices you have in a nursing home, the easier it will be to find the perfect facility for your loved one.
If you are beginning to look for a nursing home, you may have questions about how to find the perfect one. The following are some frequently asked questions and things to look for as you prepare to find the right nursing home for your loved one.
Should I visit the nursing homes I’m considering?
Yes, but you do not need to visit every single nursing home on your list. Instead you should first make phone calls to find out if the nursing homes you are considering are actually accepting new residents, if they accept Medicare or Medicaid, and what type of care they provide. That should help to narrow down the list and make visits more manageable.
When should I visit the nursing home?
When you find a nursing home you’re interested in, plan on visiting three times. One visit should be in the late morning to observe lunch being served. A second visit should be during afternoon activities, and a third visit should occur in the evening for dinner and preparing for bed.
Your initial visit should be announced, and you should allow an administrator to take you on a guided tour. The subsequent visits should be unannounced so you can observe staff and residents when everyone isn’t always on their best behavior. If a nursing home does not allow you to visit while unattended, it is a sure sign that they are hiding something.
How do I know if a nursing home is certified?
Most nursing homes will have their certificates and licenses displayed for the public to see in their lobby. If they do not, ask to see them and ensure they are current. You should also ask for the latest inspection report or state survey for every facility you visit.
Do not use any facility that does not have their required long-term care facility license or does not have the required license for their nursing home administrator.
In addition to these certifications, a nursing home is also required to allow the public to inspect other documents, including:
A copy of the statement of ownership;
The personnel employed by the nursing home and their certifications, licenses, or registrations;
A description of the services provided, the rates the nursing home charges, and a list of things a resident may be charged for separately;
A complete copy of every inspection report for the past five years;
A copy of every order issued by the Department of Public Health or a court in the past five years.
If a nursing home will not allow you to inspect these documents, or they do not have them of file, you can file a complaint with the Department of Public Health.
What should I look for on a tour?
There are numerous things that you should look for besides certifications when you tour a nursing home. These things include:
Cleanliness-A dirty nursing home is a bad nursing home. Some nursing homes may have a lived-in look, which is ok, but they should not have dangerous clutter or have a strong odor. The smell of urine may be present in a good nursing home as it is difficult to completely remove, but the smell will be slight, and they should not be using strong scented sprays to hide it.
If you see rodents or bugs, garbage overflowing, and blocked passageways, it is a sure sign that the nursing home does not take cleanliness seriously.
Bedrooms-Every bedroom should have a window, no more than four beds per room, and space to move around comfortably. Each resident should have a call bell for the nursing station, a reading light, fresh water, and their own closet or drawers for their belongings.
It is important to question the administration how they choose roommates and what happens if roommates do not get along.
Bathrooms-Bathrooms should be close to every resident’s room and have a sink with hot and cold water and a toilet that allows for wheelchair-bound residents to use it. There should be assistance handles and bars in each bathroom, as well as a call button for the nursing station.
Shower and bathing facilities for those in wheelchairs should be available, although they may not be available in every personal bathroom. Make sure the floors are non-skid and handles are present.
Kitchen and dining rooms-Dining rooms should have comfortable seating for residents and tables and chairs that can be moved easily for residents in wheelchairs. Both the kitchen and dining room should be kept clean. Kitchen staff should keep refrigerated things cold and hot foods hot enough for food safety standards. Sample the menu when you visit to determine if they are providing the food that the menu claims; nursing homes that are trying to cut corners will often make substitutions to the menu.
Activity rooms-All nursing homes should have space for activities. Pay attention to what types of activities are offered and if residents are partaking in them. The activity room should be bright, cheerful, comfortable, and inviting.
Emergency exits-A good nursing home will practice fire drills and other emergency preparedness drills with their residents routinely. Make sure that emergency exits are clearly labeled and have a clear passageway and ask to see the most recent fire safety inspection report. Do not choose a nursing home that hasn’t been inspected in more than a year.
Outside grounds-A good nursing home should encourage its residents to spend time outside. The grounds should be kept well-maintained, have adequate comfortable seating, and possibly have gardens that residents can garden in.
What services will a good nursing home provide?
A good nursing home will have many services available to its residents. These services include:
Medical services-A good nursing home will allow a resident to be treated by their own doctors but should also have emergency staff available either on-call or on staff. Prior to admission, a resident will be required to have a complete physical and have a care plan developed. A good nursing home will adapt this plan as your loved one’s health changes.
If your loved one will require eye or dental care, find out who the nursing home uses for this care and what the added cost might be. You should also find out what hospital the nursing homes uses in case of an acute emergency.
Nursing services-Pay special attention to the attitude of the nursing staff that works with the residents. Ask about the training their certified nursing assistants receive and if a Registered Nurse is on duty round-the-clock. Licensed Professional Nurses should be on duty both day and night.
Rehabilitation services-Residents should have access to whatever type of rehabilitation services they may require, including help with walking, talking, and dressing.
Activities-A good nursing home will not let its residents remain in isolation but will not be pushy about participation. Activities should be planned both inside and outside the nursing home, with field trips and the ability to visit family and friends. Volunteers should be welcomed, and outside services should be invited into the nursing home, such as libraries, museums, hair dressers and barbers.
Each resident should have an activity plan geared towards their likes and interests, and games, arts, crafts, and social functions should be included in the itinerary.
Religious services-Nursing homes should offer the ability for all its residents to practice whatever religion they are accustomed to, but should never force any resident to take part in religious services.
Food services-Each resident will have different nutritional needs and a dietician should be available to ensure their diet is healthy, varied, and palatable. Meals should be served at normal times and snacks should be available. Staff should bring food to those residents that are bed-bound and assist them in eating as needed.
Social services-A good nursing home will have a social worker available for its residents. If a resident is struggling or has concerns, a social worker should help them to adjust to nursing home living and answer their questions.
What other rights does my loved one have?
Just because your loved one has entered a nursing home it does not mean they have to stop being themselves. Every person is unique and should be treated as such. They should not have to give up their basic human rights and a good nursing home will be flexible to their wants and needs.
Nursing home residents should be allowed to be involved in their own care and allowed to manage their own finances if they are able. Nursing homes should provide privacy for each resident and married couples should be granted privacy and allowed to reside together unless it is prohibited.
Residents should be allowed to dress in their own clothing and decorate their room as they see fit. If a resident wishes to do chores, they should be allowed to, but never forced into it. A resident should never be moved from a nursing home without advance notice and a nursing home is not permitted to discriminate against a resident for any reason.
For more information on a resident’s rights, you may review the “Residents’ Bill of Rights” provided by Medicare and Medicaid that all nursing homes they certify must follow.
And, for any nursing home you’re considering, ask for the names of other residents’ families and contact them on their experiences with the nursing home. They will often give you an honest opinion about the nursing home and its care.
What about the cost?
The more services your loved one will require, the more they will likely pay. When you tour nursing homes, be sure to ask what the normal monthly charge covers and what extras they may have to pay for. Prices will vary from nursing home to nursing home, so you should outline exactly what your loved one will need and get an estimate on monthly cost for those needs.
You should find out if your loved one is eligible for Medicare or Medicaid and if they are not, you should determine what personal insurance may cover. If your loved one will be paying privately, the nursing home will want to know exactly how long they will be able to afford care and when Medicaid will begin making up the assisting in payment. A good nursing home will help a resident with paperwork regarding Medicaid as well.
The Nursing Home Care Reform Act requires a written contract between the nursing home and the resident upon admission. This contract must state what services will be provided, their cost, terms of service, any supplemental services that will be provided and their cost, who is liable for payment, the amount of a deposit, and the rights, duties, and obligations of the resident. Before the contract is signed, it should be thoroughly reviewed and anything that is not clear should be explained fully. Once the contract is understood, both nursing home representatives and the resident or their guardian must sign it.
If there is any question or confusion, an experienced personal injury lawyer can review the contract and advise you accordingly. Agruss Law Firm is prepared to help and ensure your loved one is receiving everything they are entitled to in regards to a nursing home and it is done fairly.
Read Full Article Here: The First Step in Finding the Right Nursing Home
Agruss Law Firm LLC 4809 N Ravenswood Ave #419, Chicago, IL 60640 https://goo.gl/maps/5g8VjKMDr3k
from https://www.agrusspersonalinjury.com/the-first-step-in-finding-the-right-nursing-home/ from https://agrusslawfirm1.tumblr.com/post/184080679762
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The First Step in Finding the Right Nursing Home
Once you have pinpointed the type of care your loved one needs, you will want to make a list of possible nursing homes locally that will fit their requirements, preferences, and care level. The more choices you have in a nursing home, the easier it will be to find the perfect facility for your loved one.
If you are beginning to look for a nursing home, you may have questions about how to find the perfect one. The following are some frequently asked questions and things to look for as you prepare to find the right nursing home for your loved one.
Should I visit the nursing homes I’m considering?
Yes, but you do not need to visit every single nursing home on your list. Instead you should first make phone calls to find out if the nursing homes you are considering are actually accepting new residents, if they accept Medicare or Medicaid, and what type of care they provide. That should help to narrow down the list and make visits more manageable.
When should I visit the nursing home?
When you find a nursing home you’re interested in, plan on visiting three times. One visit should be in the late morning to observe lunch being served. A second visit should be during afternoon activities, and a third visit should occur in the evening for dinner and preparing for bed.
Your initial visit should be announced, and you should allow an administrator to take you on a guided tour. The subsequent visits should be unannounced so you can observe staff and residents when everyone isn’t always on their best behavior. If a nursing home does not allow you to visit while unattended, it is a sure sign that they are hiding something.
How do I know if a nursing home is certified?
Most nursing homes will have their certificates and licenses displayed for the public to see in their lobby. If they do not, ask to see them and ensure they are current. You should also ask for the latest inspection report or state survey for every facility you visit.
Do not use any facility that does not have their required long-term care facility license or does not have the required license for their nursing home administrator.
In addition to these certifications, a nursing home is also required to allow the public to inspect other documents, including:
A copy of the statement of ownership;
The personnel employed by the nursing home and their certifications, licenses, or registrations;
A description of the services provided, the rates the nursing home charges, and a list of things a resident may be charged for separately;
A complete copy of every inspection report for the past five years;
A copy of every order issued by the Department of Public Health or a court in the past five years.
If a nursing home will not allow you to inspect these documents, or they do not have them of file, you can file a complaint with the Department of Public Health.
What should I look for on a tour?
There are numerous things that you should look for besides certifications when you tour a nursing home. These things include:
Cleanliness-A dirty nursing home is a bad nursing home. Some nursing homes may have a lived-in look, which is ok, but they should not have dangerous clutter or have a strong odor. The smell of urine may be present in a good nursing home as it is difficult to completely remove, but the smell will be slight, and they should not be using strong scented sprays to hide it.
If you see rodents or bugs, garbage overflowing, and blocked passageways, it is a sure sign that the nursing home does not take cleanliness seriously.
Bedrooms-Every bedroom should have a window, no more than four beds per room, and space to move around comfortably. Each resident should have a call bell for the nursing station, a reading light, fresh water, and their own closet or drawers for their belongings.
It is important to question the administration how they choose roommates and what happens if roommates do not get along.
Bathrooms-Bathrooms should be close to every resident’s room and have a sink with hot and cold water and a toilet that allows for wheelchair-bound residents to use it. There should be assistance handles and bars in each bathroom, as well as a call button for the nursing station.
Shower and bathing facilities for those in wheelchairs should be available, although they may not be available in every personal bathroom. Make sure the floors are non-skid and handles are present.
Kitchen and dining rooms-Dining rooms should have comfortable seating for residents and tables and chairs that can be moved easily for residents in wheelchairs. Both the kitchen and dining room should be kept clean. Kitchen staff should keep refrigerated things cold and hot foods hot enough for food safety standards. Sample the menu when you visit to determine if they are providing the food that the menu claims; nursing homes that are trying to cut corners will often make substitutions to the menu.
Activity rooms-All nursing homes should have space for activities. Pay attention to what types of activities are offered and if residents are partaking in them. The activity room should be bright, cheerful, comfortable, and inviting.
Emergency exits-A good nursing home will practice fire drills and other emergency preparedness drills with their residents routinely. Make sure that emergency exits are clearly labeled and have a clear passageway and ask to see the most recent fire safety inspection report. Do not choose a nursing home that hasn’t been inspected in more than a year.
Outside grounds-A good nursing home should encourage its residents to spend time outside. The grounds should be kept well-maintained, have adequate comfortable seating, and possibly have gardens that residents can garden in.
What services will a good nursing home provide?
A good nursing home will have many services available to its residents. These services include:
Medical services-A good nursing home will allow a resident to be treated by their own doctors but should also have emergency staff available either on-call or on staff. Prior to admission, a resident will be required to have a complete physical and have a care plan developed. A good nursing home will adapt this plan as your loved one’s health changes.
If your loved one will require eye or dental care, find out who the nursing home uses for this care and what the added cost might be. You should also find out what hospital the nursing homes uses in case of an acute emergency.
Nursing services-Pay special attention to the attitude of the nursing staff that works with the residents. Ask about the training their certified nursing assistants receive and if a Registered Nurse is on duty round-the-clock. Licensed Professional Nurses should be on duty both day and night.
Rehabilitation services-Residents should have access to whatever type of rehabilitation services they may require, including help with walking, talking, and dressing.
Activities-A good nursing home will not let its residents remain in isolation but will not be pushy about participation. Activities should be planned both inside and outside the nursing home, with field trips and the ability to visit family and friends. Volunteers should be welcomed, and outside services should be invited into the nursing home, such as libraries, museums, hair dressers and barbers.
Each resident should have an activity plan geared towards their likes and interests, and games, arts, crafts, and social functions should be included in the itinerary.
Religious services-Nursing homes should offer the ability for all its residents to practice whatever religion they are accustomed to, but should never force any resident to take part in religious services.
Food services-Each resident will have different nutritional needs and a dietician should be available to ensure their diet is healthy, varied, and palatable. Meals should be served at normal times and snacks should be available. Staff should bring food to those residents that are bed-bound and assist them in eating as needed.
Social services-A good nursing home will have a social worker available for its residents. If a resident is struggling or has concerns, a social worker should help them to adjust to nursing home living and answer their questions.
What other rights does my loved one have?
Just because your loved one has entered a nursing home it does not mean they have to stop being themselves. Every person is unique and should be treated as such. They should not have to give up their basic human rights and a good nursing home will be flexible to their wants and needs.
Nursing home residents should be allowed to be involved in their own care and allowed to manage their own finances if they are able. Nursing homes should provide privacy for each resident and married couples should be granted privacy and allowed to reside together unless it is prohibited.
Residents should be allowed to dress in their own clothing and decorate their room as they see fit. If a resident wishes to do chores, they should be allowed to, but never forced into it. A resident should never be moved from a nursing home without advance notice and a nursing home is not permitted to discriminate against a resident for any reason.
For more information on a resident’s rights, you may review the “Residents’ Bill of Rights” provided by Medicare and Medicaid that all nursing homes they certify must follow.
And, for any nursing home you’re considering, ask for the names of other residents’ families and contact them on their experiences with the nursing home. They will often give you an honest opinion about the nursing home and its care.
What about the cost?
The more services your loved one will require, the more they will likely pay. When you tour nursing homes, be sure to ask what the normal monthly charge covers and what extras they may have to pay for. Prices will vary from nursing home to nursing home, so you should outline exactly what your loved one will need and get an estimate on monthly cost for those needs.
You should find out if your loved one is eligible for Medicare or Medicaid and if they are not, you should determine what personal insurance may cover. If your loved one will be paying privately, the nursing home will want to know exactly how long they will be able to afford care and when Medicaid will begin making up the assisting in payment. A good nursing home will help a resident with paperwork regarding Medicaid as well.
The Nursing Home Care Reform Act requires a written contract between the nursing home and the resident upon admission. This contract must state what services will be provided, their cost, terms of service, any supplemental services that will be provided and their cost, who is liable for payment, the amount of a deposit, and the rights, duties, and obligations of the resident. Before the contract is signed, it should be thoroughly reviewed and anything that is not clear should be explained fully. Once the contract is understood, both nursing home representatives and the resident or their guardian must sign it.
If there is any question or confusion, an experienced personal injury lawyer can review the contract and advise you accordingly. Agruss Law Firm is prepared to help and ensure your loved one is receiving everything they are entitled to in regards to a nursing home and it is done fairly.
Read Full Article Here: The First Step in Finding the Right Nursing Home
Agruss Law Firm LLC 4809 N Ravenswood Ave #419, Chicago, IL 60640 https://goo.gl/maps/5g8VjKMDr3k
from https://www.agrusspersonalinjury.com/the-first-step-in-finding-the-right-nursing-home/
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7 Tips to Improve Your Self-Care (When You’re the One Who Takes Care of Others)
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7 Tips to Improve Your Self-Care (When You’re the One Who Takes Care of Others)
You sneak quietly towards the bathroom, holding your breath as you silently pray you’ll miss the creaky floorboard. Closing the door with a click, you breathe a sigh of relief. You stimulated it to the bathroom without waking the kids!
You know you’ve likely got, at most, 10 minutes of peace. So, following the inevitable minute( or two) on the loo, you do the very best to construct yourself presentable. Clothes, hair and a dash of makeup — since having kids, you’ve got your routine down to a fine art. In 6 and a half minutes, you’re ready to meet the day.
But nobody is stirring yet. You know it’s inevitable at least one of them will wake when you open the door, and once one is up, they’re all up. You’ll be lucky to get some alone time — even in the bathroom — before 10 p.m. tonight. You take a deep breath and let your intellect wander to your favorite daydreaming — a beach vacation where you begin every day with a massage, and finish it with cocktails by the pool.
You hear a thud as one of the children springs out of bed, and it snaps you back to reality. Breathing a heavy sigh, you think to yourself “If only I had period for self-care … Maybe once the kids leave home.”
As the remnants of the daydream dissolve, you reach for the door to begin your busy day.
When You’re the One Who Takes Care of Others
Parents and personal trainers are very similar in one respect: by nature, they’re hard-wired to look after other people first. This quality is what stimulates trainers so good their jobs, and parents great parents.
Unfortunately, this giving nature can mean many girls find themselves on a fast-track to burnout because their own dreams, goals, and self-care happen once everyone else’s needs are met.
Many females don’t pursue what’s important to them because they feel guilty about taking time out for themselves. For mothers, it’s easy to feel like self-care period should be spent with your children instead. For coach-and-fours, there’s always a session to plan, an email to write, social media to check, and often infants to spend time with too. Naturally, those responsibilities come first, so self-care in particular often falls by the wayside.
The trouble is, annoyance constructs when you don’t achieve your goals because it feels like there’s never any time left at the end of the day to complete the actions required to achieve them. Before long, you find yourself riding the rollercoaster of resentment, wishing you had more time to pursue your personal accomplishments, then circling right back to guilt for wishing you had a few child-free — or client-free — hours to look after yourself.
But you don’t. To top it all off, after running at a hundred miles an hour, day after day, you hit the wall. One morning you wake up feeling so exhausted you’re not so sure you have the energy to drag yourself out of bed.
If you’ve ever run head first into the wall of exhaustion, you know what I’m talking about, and you likely don’t want to go there again. By taking steps to add a dose of self-care to your day, you are able to keep exhaustion, annoyance, and guilt at bay.
What Is Self-Care?
The term “self-care” often triggers visions of a day at the spa wearing a fluffy robe, with a glass of champagne in hand, chatting with your bestie while a beautician gives you a pedicure. What’s worse, self-care sounds like it requires expensive studio memberships, Instagram-worthy outings or childcare that costs more per hour than you earn in a day.
While a spa day, a five-course brunch or a Caribbean vacation sounds lovely, it’s simply not realistic that this vision of self-care can happen daily; nor does it have to.
In reality, self-care is so much more( or less) than this.
Day to day self-care is the basics :P TAGEND
Getting enough sleep. Eating nutritious food that fuels your body. Exercising a few days per week. Spending focused quality day with your partner, infants, household, and friends. Getting the medical care you need. Participating in leisure activities. Even doing absolutely nothing.
We all know we should be completing these activities almost every day. But regrettably, many females don’t tick these boxes, be it because even doing the bare minimum feels inaccessible, or because their many responsibilities leave them with little time for themselves.
If you’re struggling to construct self-care a priority in their own lives, try these seven tips to improve your self-care.
1. Start Slowly
Trying to change your whole life at once will likely be your downfall. Instead, focus on one self-care task at a time. Depending on the chore, try taking five minutes per day( for example, to prepare a healthy lunch) or an hour per week( for example, to start a new exert routine) to prioritize your self-care.
In approaching self-care this way, you set yourself up for success. It’s a lot easier to determine five minutes in a day than it is to set yourself a goal of an hour per day when you’ve scarcely had time to visit the bathroom alone for the last five years.
2. Choose the Easiest Option
Success breeds success, and failing spreads like the beset. That’s why it’s so important to chose the self-care strategy you love and hence, are more likely to complete. For example, if you dislike operating, it’s probably not the best selection for beginning your self-care strategy.
If, on the other hand, you love to read, you’re far more likely to be successful if you try to read a chapter of a novel one night per week. When it’s something you’re looking forward to, you’re far more likely to prioritize the undertaking( and prioritize your self-care ). So choose something you love and set yourself up for self-care success.
3. Construct It a Habit
Depending on the difficulty of the habit, it can take between two weeks and three months to get into a habit of doing something new. Once you’ve prefer your first self-care chore, work on it — and merely it — until it becomes a habit. Try to schedule the task at the same time each day, or each week so you develop a regular routine.
In time, you’ll notification you look forward to your weekly yoga session, nightly reading or fortnightly catch up with friends. Once this happens, you’re likely ready to add a bit more self-care by introducing another task that will, in time, also become a habit.
4. Book Self-Care Time in Your Calendar
Until it becomes a habit, treat self-care period as a situated appointment. If you want to exercise more, volume it into your calendar. If “youre supposed to” meditate often, add it to your daily to-do listing. Then remember, you wouldn’t skip a doctors appointment or an eye exam because you had too much work to do, so once it’s scheduled, don’t skip your self-care day either.
Set the time in your calendar to “busy” and don’t book other appointments during this time. Don’t be seduced to constantly reschedule either. Book self-care time, then use it. You’ll thank yourself later.
5. Plan Ahead
When you’re busy, scheming ahead is essential for maintaining a self-care routine. There’s plenty of things you can plan ahead, like :P TAGEND
Deciding what you’re doing on the weekend by Friday evening at the latest, so you don’t waste a day trying to decide “what were doing”. Writing a menu, shopping and preparing dinners in advance so you’re eating healthy meals throughout the week. Creating your own( or hiring a coach to create a) workout scheme so when you arrive at the gym, you know exactly what you need to do to construct the most of your session.
When you make healthy decisions in advance, you remove the last-minute decision-making that may take you further away from your goals, like grabbing Chinese takeout on your route home from work on a Tuesday evening.
6. Take Your People
One of the biggest barriers to self-care — for mothers in particular — is feeling like they have to give up day with household in order to look after themselves. Rather than seeing self-care as taking hour away from others, consider how you can get them involved instead.
Want to be a little more active and spend more quality time with your kids? Try planning an active weekend outing with their own families, like stand up paddle boarding or cycling.
Need some time out from home or run and feel like you need to expend more quality period with your partner? Make a reservation at your favorite eatery and make it a date.
Struggling to fit in workouts and catching up with friends? Rather than going for coffee and cake with friends, ask them to meet up at a local park and go for a walk instead.
While “alone time” is an important part of self-care, you don’t always have to be alone to look after yourself.
7. Ask for Help
As someone who’s always supporting others, it can be hard to ask for help. In order to stimulate self-care a reality, you have to. Ask a family member to watch the kids for an hour so you can take some time out. Hire a babysitter. Talk about self-care with your partner. Just because you’re looking after yourself, doesn’t mean you have to go it alone.
The Key to Making Self-Care a Reality
The key to adding a dosage of self-care into your life is letting run of visions of perfection. Don’t wait until you have enough time on your plate to meditate daily or exert five days per week. Start with just as much as you can do, even if it’s five minutes per week, and build up from there. Because five minutes per week is always better than nothing, and starting is better than waiting for the perfect time to start.
So, what self-care undertaking will you make time for today?
The post 7 Tips to Improve Your Self-Care( When You’re the One Who Takes Care of Others ) seemed first on Girls Gone Strong.
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MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 143, February 2019
On Monday night, I went to my Boxing small group training session at CinFull Fitness. Quite a few people were running late so Cinamon and I were wondering if anyone was going to turn up for tonight’s class. Luckily, Jade, Patrick, James and Scarlett ended up coming in the end. Tonight’s workout consisted of: several boxing drills, med ball slams and kettle bell squats (5 reps +5 each round), 3 rounds of walking lunges, 10 squats and 10 push ups, one minute of jab box combos (increasing by 1-2 reps).
I was struggling a little tonight. Maybe it was due to my sleeping problems, lack of energy during the day, lack of air circulation, group performance anxiety, who knows? But I feel like my boxing technique is gradually improving. At times, I do miss a rep or forget a movement but I just keep going, keep trying and keep striving. Thankfully the weather outside was pretty mild and not overly hot so I could breathe and recover easily.
On Tuesday night, I did my Body Balance class with Astrid Christophersen at YMCA Casey RACE. The weather was acting particularly strange tonight. One minute it was clearing up, the next it delivered another downpour of rain. Luckily I was undercover inside the group fitness room when it did decide to come down. Tonight we ended up doing release number 68 which consists of tracks including Of The Night by Bastille, Elastic Heart by Sia, Come Get It Bae by Pharell Williams, Maps by Maroon 5 and Pretty Hurts by Beyonce.
It was generally a pretty cruisey release with a double Tai Chi Warm Up to start. Sun Salutations & Standing Strength (Mountain pose, Downward Facing Dog, Plank, Crocodile, Intense pose, Warrior 1 into Warrior 3. Triangle pose. Side Angle pose). Balance & Hip Openers (Eagle pose, Angel pose, Star pose, Divers pose, Frog pose, Swan pose with quad stretch). Pilates (Oblique twists with crunches, Extended toe taps, Bridge pose, Arm balances, Crocodile pose). Twists (Seated twist, Twisted Down Dog, Twisted Pyramid pose). Hamstrings (Supine Hamstring stretch, Turtle pose, Wide Legged Forward Fold). http://www.totallylesmills.com/site/BODYBALANCE
On Thursday morning, I had an appointment to see my psychiatrist Dr. Ricardo Peralta at Vita Healthcare in Mount Eliza. Today it honestly felt like I had a snowball of pressure mounting up inside of me. It didn’t help that I was feeling weary and restless either. It was difficult to tell if my medication (50mg Quetiapine) was actually having a benefit besides making me sleep for longer. Sadly it wasn’t doing much for my energy levels during the day as I’ve felt a steep decline this week.
The 50 minute drive from home to Vita Healthcare honestly felt like a chore possibly because I had a large to-do list to get through today. Annoyingly, I felt sleepy the entire time behind the wheel which meant that I had to dig up extra energy to concentrate and focus more on the road. I relaxed a little when I finally arrived at the clinic, though it didn’t take long for me to get really flustered and nervous. I guess I really didn’t want this appointment to be a waste of time and actually get my money’s worth. (Dr. Ricardo is NOT cheap to see but he’s worth it!).
It didn’t spend much time beating around the bush, I got straight to the heart of the matter: my sleeping problems and low energy levels. I asked him whether he knew of a sleep specialist that I could see in order to get a sleep study done and come up with an official diagnosis. Thankfully he did and he wrote me up a referral to see one located at Wattletree Consulting Rooms in Frankston. Now the next step will be to book an appointment with them and hopefully they can work out why my sleep has been so terrible.
I couldn’t explain why I was feeling so anxious today. Perhaps it could be related to the unstable and inconsistent weather this month, my poor sleeping patterns, not eating the right foods, my mood swings, high stress levels from work. Could be a whole lot of things. But things felt a lot more smoother today at the clinic with the receptionist processing my medicare rebate and booking another appointment for me. Unlike my last visit in which everything felt like it was up in the air. https://www.vitahealthcare.com.au/our-team/#ricardo
On Thursday night, I cooked a basic fish and chips with steamed vegetables for dinner. This was probably the easiest meal I’ve done so far and thank goodness for that because I haven’t been feeling particularly energetic recently. Following this recipe, you start by mixing chopped herbs, olive oil and lemon juice together. This will be the coating for your fish at the end. Then you can fry up the fish fillets in a frying pan. I bought the blue grenadier as they were on special at Coles. Whilst this is happening, you can cook up some frozen chips in the oven and steamed vegetables in the microwave. That’s pretty much it. https://www.mumslounge.com.au/lifestyle/food/lemon-herb-fish-fillets-recipe/
On Friday morning, I caught up with my Mum and her friend Jules for coffee at Degani Cranbourne Park. We spent an hour talking about our experiences with driving tests, Jules’ recent overseas trips to Scotland and the Northern Territory (Watch out for those crocs!) to our poor sleeping patterns and finding sustainable employment. It was a nice time even with all the visual and auditory distractions that a large shopping centre tends to bring.
On Friday night, Mum and I went out to the movies to see Escape Room at Village Cinemas Fountain Gate. *START SPOILERS* Directed by Adam Robitel (Insidious: The Last Key), this film combines elements from Saw, Cube and Final Destination and is based upon the idea of real-life escape rooms. Six strangers get send a mysterious package containing a black cube and once opened, they discover that they’re each invited to participate in an escape room challenge hosted by MINOS ESCAPE ROOMS. There is a cash prize of $10,000 up for grabs for the winner.
Let’s run through each of the strangers. Zoey Davis (Taylor Russell) is a quiet achiever, has a shy personality and university student studying Quantum Physics. Ben Miller (Logan Miller) works inside a store room at a local grocery store and is generally an arsehole to everyone. Jason Walker (Jay Ellis) is a stockbroker from a major corporation and is very cocky and arrogant. Mike Nolan (Tyler Labine) is the oldest and also the most likable and talkative of the bunch. Amanda Harper (Deborah Ann Woll) is a war survivor and has claustrophobia plus post-traumatic stress disorder. And Danny Khan (Nik Dodani) is a video game nerd, escape room veteran and very annoying (He just won’t shut up!).
Once they all arrive inside the waiting room, this is when the game actually begins. The objective is to find clues hidden around the room, solve puzzles and find a way to “escape” each room. But the twist here is that these rooms are designed to kill the participants inside. This first room for example becomes a giant furnace. The rooms themselves become more complex and elaborate as it goes on. The strangers also discover that they are actually connected to each other by the fact that each of them have been the sole survivor of a major traumatic event.
Later on, we also discover that the “game” is being controlled by a mysterious Game Master named Dr. WooTan Yu, who’s name seems to pop up everywhere in each of the rooms. Speaking of rooms, they are very creatively designed and easily the best feature of the film. My favourite would have to be a deadly bar complete with a billiard table and a liquor shelf. Each time the phone rings, an ear-piercing dial-tone noise can be heard and the room suddenly starts falling apart to reveal an elevator shaft on the outside. Then the classic song “Downtown” by Petula Clark starts playing and gets increasingly more distorted.
Like the films I mentioned before, each of the strangers starts to get knocked off one by one until there’s only two left. Of course the film doesn’t come to a simple conclusion but throws in plenty of twists and leaves it open to a future sequel. Besides the corny dialogue and paper-thin characters, I still really enjoyed what Escape Room had to offer in terms of the thrilling set pieces and a shadowy organisation pulling the strings. 7.5/10 *END SPOILERS* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXk5qYKpq0Q
“So we're different colours. And we're different creeds. And different people have different needs. I can't understand. What makes a man. Hate another man. Help me understand. People are people so why should it be. You and I should get along so awfully.” Depeche Mode - People Are People (1984)
“Now I'm not looking for absolution. Forgiveness for the things I do. But before you come to any conclusions. Try walking in my shoes. Try walking in my shoes. You'll stumble in my footsteps. Keep the same appointments I kept. If you try walking in my shoes. If you try walking in my shoes.” Depeche Mode - Walking In My Shoes (1993)
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The Best Things I’ve Learned About Raising Children
By Leo Babauta
I don’t consider myself a parenting expert, but I have helped raise six kids (along with their mothers), and being a father has been one of the most rewarding things in my life.
And while I’m not a perfect father, I think I’m pretty good at it. Mostly because I absolutely love it.
Eva and I also have some slightly non-conventional parenting ideas that might be useful to parents who are always looking for new ways of thinking about things.
So I’m going to share the best things I’ve learned about raising children, not because my way is the best, but because it’s always helpful to have a discussion about parenting.
A really important note: Much of the work of parenting, if not most, was done by my kids’ moms (my wife Eva and my first two kids’ mom). I can only take a little credit.
Here are some of the best things I’ve learned:
Your main job is just to love them. We have to take care of their basic needs, of course, but parents add all kinds of extra things on top of that, and make the job really hard. Parenting is often not that complicated — OK, taking care of basic needs is a lot of work, but the basic job of parenting is to love your kids. You don’t need to shape them, to pressure them to be better, to make them do all kinds of activities to become the perfect kid. They’re pretty damn perfect already. Just love them as they are, and make sure they can feel that love.
Don’t hover — let them fall sometimes. Parents these days tend to be overprotective, to be constantly trying to make sure every need is met, and to be afraid of the smallest fall. Nah. Let them live. Let them have some independence. Let them go out and play without you. Let them fall down and scrape their knee. Let them fail at things. This is how they grow. Imagine if you sheltered kids from failure and pain and struggle their whole lives … they’d be totally unprepared for the adult world! I’m not saying you should never protect your kid, but the less you can do that, without them dying, the better. Then help them cope with the failure or pain on their own, with you helping them to understand how they can do that. Be there for them, but only to the extent that you’re helping them learn to do it on their own.
Harsh disciplinarian methods are more hurtful than helpful. When I first started parenting, I would yell and spank my kids and punish them for all their wrongdoings. It was totally hurtful, and made them afraid of me. Yes, they would do everything I told them to do, but only because they were scared to do otherwise. And often they’d just hide the things they did, so I wouldn’t know. I’ve learned to mellow out over the years, to control my temper and be more compassionate. I’m not perfect, as I said, but now I see everything as an opportunity to educate them, an opportunity for them to grow, and a chance for me to just love them. If your parents were disciplinarian, that doesn’t make it the way you need to do things.
Reading to them regularly is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I read to my kids most days. My wife and I have done that with all the kids, and it’s a wonderful way to spend time with them, to foster a love for reading that will help them for the rest of their lives, and to explore imaginative new worlds together. My kids have found a love for reading on their own that came from cuddling with me and reading Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter (a series I’ve read 4 times over with different kids) and Narnia and Arabian Nights and Don Quixote.
Let them direct their own learning. Four of my kids are unschooled, but all of them have done learning projects on their own, and I encourage them to learn about whatever they’re interested in. Many kids are so used to top-down learning (where they’re told what and when and how to learn) that they don’t know how to direct themselves. They’ll have to learn as adults. But instead, we can encourage them to learn what they’re interested in, help them with learning projects until they can do it on their own, and have them learn like adults do.
But give them fun challenges and encourage them to try new things. Self-directed learning is an incredible method, but sometimes they need inspiration. I like to encourage them to look things up, to dive deep into a topic that interests them, to learn about something they don’t know yet will interest them. I try to talk about these things in positive ways, that show how interesting I find them, and I’ve found that sometimes, that interest and curiosity are contagious. Other times, I challenge them — let’s do a drawing challenge, a pushup challenge … let’s see if we can travel a month with only a backpack each, or memorize the capitals of all the states, or as many digits of pi as we can. Let’s try to program a simple game. Kids (and adults) respond well to fun challenges.
Teach them to do things on their own, early. As soon as we could, we taught our kids to do things on their own. Tie their own shoes, brush their teeth, shower and dress themselves, make their own breakfast and lunch, wash and dry the dishes, clean the house, do their own laundry. For one thing, it made our job as parents easier, if they were helping plan meals, do the grocery shopping, and cook dinners once a week. Soon we didn’t have to do very much for them. But just as importantly, we were teaching them self-sufficiency — they don’t expect things to be done for them, and they learn that they can do anything for themselves that they want taken care of.
Let them take charge of things or participate in work when you can. Along the same lines, we try to get them to take charge of things … for example, planning a trip. They do research, look for Airbnb apartments, plan train routes, book flights. When they get to adulthood, they already know how to do these things. They also know how to take responsibility.
Try a democratic process of decision-making. When we decide where to eat out, or what we should do this weekend, we have a discussion, each contribute ideas, and take a vote. This teaches them to take part in making decisions, instead of having their lives decided for them. But it also teaches them to respect the opinions of others, and that what they want is not the only thing that matters. We do similar things when planning for a trip, deciding whether we should move to a new city, and so on.
Practice mindfulness with them. I have meditated with all my kids. Not regularly, but enough that they know what it’s all about. When my daughter comes to me upset about something, we practice mindfulness of how the emotion feels in her body. Being with the emotion. When my other daughter is feeling anxiety, we talk about how to practice with that as well. They’ve also seen me meditating in the morning, so mindfulness practice becomes a normal thing for them.
The main way you teach them is by your example. Speaking of watching me meditate … this is the main way that I teach them anything. By my example. By how I am in the world. If I want to teach them not to fight, I have to be peaceful. If I want to teach them to be good people, I have to be compassionate, considerate, loving. If I want to teach them to not be on their devices, I have to do the same. If I want them to be active, to eat healthily, to read, to meditate … then it starts with me doing it. And talking to them about what I’m doing and why and what I’m learning and how I’m doing it. They learn almost everything from what people around them do.
Don’t pretend like you know everything. That said, while I try to do my best in life, I have to humble myself and admit that I don’t know everything. In fact, I barely know anything. I can’t always think I’m right, nor can I pretend to have all the answers, even if I’m the dad. Maybe my kids know somethings I don’t. Maybe we can learn together … but it starts with me saying, “I’m not sure, let’s find out!” This mindset of not-knowing is where learning starts, the space that we can explore together, the space where we become open to each other. Many parents (and people in general) come at you with the stance that they know exactly what they’re doing, know the answers. This leaves no room for anything else. It’s fundamentalism.
Admit when you’re wrong. Apologize. Make it right. Along those lines, when I think I’m right, and insist on it … that’s often when I’m wrong. And I’ve been humbled like this so many times. What I’ve learned is … instead of continuing to pretend like I’m right, it’s so much better to admit that I’m wrong. To humble myself. Actually apologize if I’ve done anything to hurt them. And do what it takes to make it right.
Let them earn and pay for things early. And teach them about debt. In our house, we don’t have an allowance. We buy them the basics of what they need, but if they want anything beyond that, they have to pay for it themselves. And earn the money through things beyond their basic chores. They might do things for us, or work for my business, or make things or do services for others to earn money. This also teaches them to save for goals. I also talk to them about the dangers of getting into debt, the high cost of credit card debt, and some simple financial truths that I’ve learned.
Don’t shield them from sex and drugs and technology. Some parents don’t want their children to hear anything about sex or drugs, and shield them from that for as long as possible. This just makes sex (for example) a taboo subject, and gives the kids an unhealthy idea of how bad it is. I’ve found it much better to speak frankly about it, and if I were going to do it all over again, I’d start that frank talk much earlier. Sex isn’t something that should be made dirty or forbidden. It’s a natural thing that all adults do. Kids should get that sense from adults, and be helped through that confusing world by their parents rather than having to figure it out through what they hear from friends or happen upon online. I think the same is true of drugs. Another thing that some parents shield their kids from is technology — no devices ever! But that means that kids don’t learn a healthy way to deal with technology. It’s better to just help them learn to deal with all this stuff, rather than not trust them.
It’s OK to hang out without them, and let them have separate time from you. I love hanging out with my kids. But that doesn’t mean it’s healthy for them to be with me every second of the day. Sometimes, they can go play by themselves, while my wife and I have alone time. Sometimes, they can have an evening at home while we go on a date (when they’re old enough). Other times, we can drop them with a relative and go on a trip by ourselves, or with friends. I think alone time, and time away from parents, is a healthy thing for kids. Give them space. Let them learn to deal with being on their own (again, when appropriate). Give yourself space to replenish yourself, or find romance with your partner, without them.
Parenting ain’t over when they reach adulthood. I used to joke, “If I get my kids to 18 years old alive, I’ve succeeded as a parent!” Of course, that’s absolute bunk. I’ve learned that parenting is far from over once they reach adulthood. Four of our kids are adults now, and it’s a whole new challenging phase of parenting for us. We’re trying to teach them how to do adult things, how to be financially self-sufficient, how to get the dream jobs they want, how to deal with relationship stuff, and much more. I love it, but it’s not like I can just retire now.
In the end, they will be the person they are. You don’t get to decide who that is. Each kid is already a fully formed person when they’re young. They continue to grow every year, of course, but their personalities when they’re young continue to be mostly the same as they grow older. We don’t shape these kids, they are already themselves. They will choose their own paths, decide what life they want, and grow in the direction they choose. I don’t have control over any of that. In the end, that’s what we parents need to accept — we don’t really control our kids. We just try to guide them when we can. And love them for who they are.
I’m still learning. I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing. And yet, I hope some of what I’ve learned so far will help a few of you.
I love being a dad. It’s an incredible privilege, and one of the deepest joys in my life. Thank you kids. And moms.
The Best Things I’ve Learned About Raising Children published first on https://mensproblem.tumblr.com
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By Leo Babauta
I don’t consider myself a parenting expert, but I have helped raise six kids (along with their mothers), and being a father has been one of the most rewarding things in my life.
And while I’m not a perfect father, I think I’m pretty good at it. Mostly because I absolutely love it.
Eva and I also have some slightly non-conventional parenting ideas that might be useful to parents who are always looking for new ways of thinking about things.
So I’m going to share the best things I’ve learned about raising children, not because my way is the best, but because it’s always helpful to have a discussion about parenting.
A really important note: Much of the work of parenting, if not most, was done by my kids’ moms (my wife Eva and my first two kids’ mom). I can only take a little credit.
Here are some of the best things I’ve learned:
Your main job is just to love them. We have to take care of their basic needs, of course, but parents add all kinds of extra things on top of that, and make the job really hard. Parenting is often not that complicated — OK, taking care of basic needs is a lot of work, but the basic job of parenting is to love your kids. You don’t need to shape them, to pressure them to be better, to make them do all kinds of activities to become the perfect kid. They’re pretty damn perfect already. Just love them as they are, and make sure they can feel that love.
Don’t hover — let them fall sometimes. Parents these days tend to be overprotective, to be constantly trying to make sure every need is met, and to be afraid of the smallest fall. Nah. Let them live. Let them have some independence. Let them go out and play without you. Let them fall down and scrape their knee. Let them fail at things. This is how they grow. Imagine if you sheltered kids from failure and pain and struggle their whole lives … they’d be totally unprepared for the adult world! I’m not saying you should never protect your kid, but the less you can do that, without them dying, the better. Then help them cope with the failure or pain on their own, with you helping them to understand how they can do that. Be there for them, but only to the extent that you’re helping them learn to do it on their own.
Harsh disciplinarian methods are more hurtful than helpful. When I first started parenting, I would yell and spank my kids and punish them for all their wrongdoings. It was totally hurtful, and made them afraid of me. Yes, they would do everything I told them to do, but only because they were scared to do otherwise. And often they’d just hide the things they did, so I wouldn’t know. I’ve learned to mellow out over the years, to control my temper and be more compassionate. I’m not perfect, as I said, but now I see everything as an opportunity to educate them, an opportunity for them to grow, and a chance for me to just love them. If your parents were disciplinarian, that doesn’t make it the way you need to do things.
Reading to them regularly is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I read to my kids most days. My wife and I have done that with all the kids, and it’s a wonderful way to spend time with them, to foster a love for reading that will help them for the rest of their lives, and to explore imaginative new worlds together. My kids have found a love for reading on their own that came from cuddling with me and reading Dr. Seuss and Harry Potter (a series I’ve read 4 times over with different kids) and Narnia and Arabian Nights and Don Quixote.
Let them direct their own learning. Four of my kids are unschooled, but all of them have done learning projects on their own, and I encourage them to learn about whatever they’re interested in. Many kids are so used to top-down learning (where they’re told what and when and how to learn) that they don’t know how to direct themselves. They’ll have to learn as adults. But instead, we can encourage them to learn what they’re interested in, help them with learning projects until they can do it on their own, and have them learn like adults do.
But give them fun challenges and encourage them to try new things. Self-directed learning is an incredible method, but sometimes they need inspiration. I like to encourage them to look things up, to dive deep into a topic that interests them, to learn about something they don’t know yet will interest them. I try to talk about these things in positive ways, that show how interesting I find them, and I’ve found that sometimes, that interest and curiosity are contagious. Other times, I challenge them — let’s do a drawing challenge, a pushup challenge … let’s see if we can travel a month with only a backpack each, or memorize the capitals of all the states, or as many digits of pi as we can. Let’s try to program a simple game. Kids (and adults) respond well to fun challenges.
Teach them to do things on their own, early. As soon as we could, we taught our kids to do things on their own. Tie their own shoes, brush their teeth, shower and dress themselves, make their own breakfast and lunch, wash and dry the dishes, clean the house, do their own laundry. For one thing, it made our job as parents easier, if they were helping plan meals, do the grocery shopping, and cook dinners once a week. Soon we didn’t have to do very much for them. But just as importantly, we were teaching them self-sufficiency — they don’t expect things to be done for them, and they learn that they can do anything for themselves that they want taken care of.
Let them take charge of things or participate in work when you can. Along the same lines, we try to get them to take charge of things … for example, planning a trip. They do research, look for Airbnb apartments, plan train routes, book flights. When they get to adulthood, they already know how to do these things. They also know how to take responsibility.
Try a democratic process of decision-making. When we decide where to eat out, or what we should do this weekend, we have a discussion, each contribute ideas, and take a vote. This teaches them to take part in making decisions, instead of having their lives decided for them. But it also teaches them to respect the opinions of others, and that what they want is not the only thing that matters. We do similar things when planning for a trip, deciding whether we should move to a new city, and so on.
Practice mindfulness with them. I have meditated with all my kids. Not regularly, but enough that they know what it’s all about. When my daughter comes to me upset about something, we practice mindfulness of how the emotion feels in her body. Being with the emotion. When my other daughter is feeling anxiety, we talk about how to practice with that as well. They’ve also seen me meditating in the morning, so mindfulness practice becomes a normal thing for them.
The main way you teach them is by your example. Speaking of watching me meditate … this is the main way that I teach them anything. By my example. By how I am in the world. If I want to teach them not to fight, I have to be peaceful. If I want to teach them to be good people, I have to be compassionate, considerate, loving. If I want to teach them to not be on their devices, I have to do the same. If I want them to be active, to eat healthily, to read, to meditate … then it starts with me doing it. And talking to them about what I’m doing and why and what I’m learning and how I’m doing it. They learn almost everything from what people around them do.
Don’t pretend like you know everything. That said, while I try to do my best in life, I have to humble myself and admit that I don’t know everything. In fact, I barely know anything. I can’t always think I’m right, nor can I pretend to have all the answers, even if I’m the dad. Maybe my kids know somethings I don’t. Maybe we can learn together … but it starts with me saying, “I’m not sure, let’s find out!” This mindset of not-knowing is where learning starts, the space that we can explore together, the space where we become open to each other. Many parents (and people in general) come at you with the stance that they know exactly what they’re doing, know the answers. This leaves no room for anything else. It’s fundamentalism.
Admit when you’re wrong. Apologize. Make it right. Along those lines, when I think I’m right, and insist on it … that’s often when I’m wrong. And I’ve been humbled like this so many times. What I’ve learned is … instead of continuing to pretend like I’m right, it’s so much better to admit that I’m wrong. To humble myself. Actually apologize if I’ve done anything to hurt them. And do what it takes to make it right.
Let them earn and pay for things early. And teach them about debt. In our house, we don’t have an allowance. We buy them the basics of what they need, but if they want anything beyond that, they have to pay for it themselves. And earn the money through things beyond their basic chores. They might do things for us, or work for my business, or make things or do services for others to earn money. This also teaches them to save for goals. I also talk to them about the dangers of getting into debt, the high cost of credit card debt, and some simple financial truths that I’ve learned.
Don’t shield them from sex and drugs and technology. Some parents don’t want their children to hear anything about sex or drugs, and shield them from that for as long as possible. This just makes sex (for example) a taboo subject, and gives the kids an unhealthy idea of how bad it is. I’ve found it much better to speak frankly about it, and if I were going to do it all over again, I’d start that frank talk much earlier. Sex isn’t something that should be made dirty or forbidden. It’s a natural thing that all adults do. Kids should get that sense from adults, and be helped through that confusing world by their parents rather than having to figure it out through what they hear from friends or happen upon online. I think the same is true of drugs. Another thing that some parents shield their kids from is technology — no devices ever! But that means that kids don’t learn a healthy way to deal with technology. It’s better to just help them learn to deal with all this stuff, rather than not trust them.
It’s OK to hang out without them, and let them have separate time from you. I love hanging out with my kids. But that doesn’t mean it’s healthy for them to be with me every second of the day. Sometimes, they can go play by themselves, while my wife and I have alone time. Sometimes, they can have an evening at home while we go on a date (when they’re old enough). Other times, we can drop them with a relative and go on a trip by ourselves, or with friends. I think alone time, and time away from parents, is a healthy thing for kids. Give them space. Let them learn to deal with being on their own (again, when appropriate). Give yourself space to replenish yourself, or find romance with your partner, without them.
Parenting ain’t over when they reach adulthood. I used to joke, “If I get my kids to 18 years old alive, I’ve succeeded as a parent!” Of course, that’s absolute bunk. I’ve learned that parenting is far from over once they reach adulthood. Four of our kids are adults now, and it’s a whole new challenging phase of parenting for us. We’re trying to teach them how to do adult things, how to be financially self-sufficient, how to get the dream jobs they want, how to deal with relationship stuff, and much more. I love it, but it’s not like I can just retire now.
In the end, they will be the person they are. You don’t get to decide who that is. Each kid is already a fully formed person when they’re young. They continue to grow every year, of course, but their personalities when they’re young continue to be mostly the same as they grow older. We don’t shape these kids, they are already themselves. They will choose their own paths, decide what life they want, and grow in the direction they choose. I don’t have control over any of that. In the end, that’s what we parents need to accept — we don’t really control our kids. We just try to guide them when we can. And love them for who they are.
I’m still learning. I still don’t know what the hell I’m doing. And yet, I hope some of what I’ve learned so far will help a few of you.
I love being a dad. It’s an incredible privilege, and one of the deepest joys in my life. Thank you kids. And moms.
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