#latchkey kid with the nanny

[yasmindifference]

so @aceofshitposts and I did a little challenge where we spent an hour(+ change) writing for the same prompt! the prompt was Have one character brushing the hair away from the face of the other and here's what I came up with:

Before Robin, Tim was a normal latchkey rich kid—nannies, housekeepers, postcards from his world-travelling parents. He took martial arts with his mother’s bemused approval, but it was all carefully structured, closely supervised katas. Neither of his parents ever imagined he’d need to actually defend himself.

After Robin—well. Bruce very much imagined he’d need to defend himself (ensured it, in fact), but he viciously hated guns. He taught Tim how to handle them safely, but no more than that. There were certainly no lessons on firearms maintenance.

Of course, Bruce never could have guessed what a disadvantage that would leave Tim at, here after the end of the world.

“Wrong,” Jason says without looking up from his own work, and Tim sighs.

“How wrong?”

“Very.”

Tim sighs again, louder, and takes the half-assembled revolver back apart to start over. “I’m not getting better at this.”

“Sure you are,” Jason says. He’s still focused on the gun he’s cleaning—his fifth, while Tim struggles to put his first back together. “You’re only fucking up because you’re rushin’ it. Take your time and you’ll do fine.”

Sounds nice in theory, but—“I need to be fast.”

“Can’t be fast until you’ve got it down,” Jason reminds him, which Tim knows. Of course he does. It’s not just Firearms 101, it’s Anything 101. He didn’t start at disarming bombs in under 15 seconds, he started with hours and worked his way down.

But that was then, back when he was a kid in the safety of the Cave, in danger of nothing more than Batman’s disapproval.

These days, taking too long to do anything—especially weapons maintenance—could get him killed. Or worse, could get Jason killed.

“Freaking out won’t help either,” Jason says.

Somehow, he’s moved on to his sixth gun. His sixth, while Tim is sitting here struggling with his first. He’s got three guns to clean, Jason’s got more than ten, and at this rate, Jason’s going to end up cleaning Tim’s other two while Tim struggles with basic assembly in a way he didn’t even struggle with literal rocket science—

“Hey, hey,” Jason says, and suddenly he’s there, pulling Tim away from the table and sinking to his knees in front of him, brushing Tim’s too-long hair out of his face to kiss him.

It’s sweet. Gentle, soft. There’s no force behind it, but it punches right through Tim’s panic anyway, like a little puncture to let all the anxiety spill out of him. Tim melts into it—into Jason—leaning forward further and further until he ends up sliding out of the chair and into Jason’s lap.

Then they’re both on the floor, a spread of half-cleaned guns on the table above them plus a gun on each of their hips.

“There you go,” Jason murmurs against his mouth. He kisses Tim again once, twice, and then pulls back to look at him. “You good?”

“Yeah,” Tim lies. In reality, he’s embarrassed that he almost worked himself into a panic attack over weapons maintenance—that Jason had to interrupt his own work to calm him down—but embarrassment’s still an improvement over hyperventilation, so…whatever. Close enough.

Jason’s eyes narrow. “Are you lying?”

Tim groans and buries his face in Jason’s neck. Jason, surprisingly, lets him. Instead of dragging Tim up by the hair to face him, he just cups the back of Tim’s neck, one thumb sweeping soothingly over the skin behind Tim’s ear.

“I told you it’s not the end of the world if I have to handle the weapons maintenance,” he says.

“It’s the end of the world anyway,” Tim mutters, and Jason laughs a little.

“Well, yeah,” he admits. “But still. What’s got you so upset about this? You’re not usually this picky about the division of labor.”

Tim laughs humorlessly. Division of labor, right. As if he’s contributed anything at all.

“Hey.” Jason’s hand tightens in his hair, and now he pulls Tim back, forcing eye contact. “What was that? What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Tim echoes. He wants to—to laugh or scream or cry or something. “What’s wrong is that you’ve saved my life a dozen times in the last two weeks and I haven’t been able to do anything for you.”

Jason scowls. “That’s bullshit.”

It’s not. It’s really not.

The world is falling apart and all of Tim’s skills are worthless. He’s worthless.

Three weeks ago, a coordinated strike took out every power grid in North America. Not all at once, no, but ten simultaneous major failures took their toll on connecting systems, causing cascading failures until nothing was left.

They could’ve recovered from that. It wouldn’t have been easy or fast, but it could’ve been done.

Then the virus hit. In Gotham, the hospitals were the first to fall, but far from the last. A wave of zombies—actual fucking zombies, like something out of a movie—swept across the entire city (the entire world, they suspect, but haven’t been able to reach the Justice League to confirm), and hundreds of thousands of people died.

All of Tim’s skills, all of his training—none of it helped. He’s spent his entire career as a vigilante honing himself into a carefully, purposefully nonlethal weapon…and only lethal action works against the zombies.

If not for Jason, he’d have been dead the first day.

If not for Jason, he’d have been dead every day since.

And Tim can’t even pay him back by helping take care of the guns Jason has been using to keep them alive.

Maybe Tim accidentally says it aloud, or maybe Jason can just read him that well by now. Their casual fuck buddies relationship turned serious really fast after the zombies showed up.

Either way, his scowl deepens.

“You think you’re not helping me?” he demands. “You think I’d have gotten half this far without you watching my back?”

“If you didn’t have me to protect—”

“If I didn’t have you to protect I’d be losing my fucking mind,” Jason interrupts. “If I had to do this alone—if I had to actually think about what’s fucking happening here—”

He stops and swallows hard. Tim closes his eyes.

They don’t know what’s happening outside of Gotham. Their phones are charged, but don’t get a signal, and none of their communicators are working. Tim shouted himself hoarse trying to get Kon’s attention with no response.

And inside Gotham—inside Gotham—

Tim wrenches his mind away before it can go back to the Manor and what happened there. Hoping to distract them both, he kisses Jason again.

Jason lets him. Jason kisses him back. Not gentle this time: deep and hard, something filthy that makes Tim’s blood sing.

And when it stops, Jason presses their foreheads together, one hand cupping the back of Tim’s head to hold him in place.

“I don’t give a fuck if you can’t clean the damn guns, baby,” he says. “I don’t need you to help me keep us alive, I need you to keep me fucking sane.”

A sweet sentiment, but—“I need me to help keep us alive.”

Jason takes a deep breath, then another. Then he kisses Tim again and sits back.

“Okay,” he says. “I get that. But you gotta chill, okay? Your shooting’s getting better a lot faster than your maintenance is. Prioritize.”

Well, fair enough.

“Yeah,” Tim says. “Yeah, okay.”

Jason brushes his thumb over Tim’s cheek, then brushes his hair out of his face again, this time tucking it behind Tim’s ear. It’s the kind of tender gesture that always puts Tim’s heart in his throat.

“Ready to try again?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Tim says. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

[starsapphire]

was tim even a latchkey kid is the question... he was for sure poorly supervised but i mean he was either at boarding school or he had a nanny

[dallasgallant]

Time period post: Babies and little siblings

This post has been requested of me and I’m overjoyed that I’m helpful and it’s semi-popular enough that I get requests. Now, a lot of the stuff I mentioned in this post about childhood remains the same into this one. Names, expectations, play and school drills etc. so I’ll try to be a bit more unique to 60s children. A lot of this would also pertain to when teens were younger too, apart from year specific tv shows or brand new products.

Babies-

Ever since its invention plastic has been molded, shaped and put into about everything. At the time a hard but durable material mainly reserved for Tupperware and some tiles and toys. It was far from today where it is in literally everything, but it was getting there. There was a lot more glass, metal, rubber and other stronger, more quality keeping real materials for most things, including baby products. (Pills, drinks, jams, foods etc.- glass! Now usually plastic)

Baby bottles still tended to be glass, though there were some plastic ones. Glass baby food jars. Metal baby spoons with a soft rubber end for the baby. Safety pins for diapers- usually metal but there were cute ones with plastic mold charms on the end or completely plastic. Reusable diapers still held on but disposables like pampers were also popular and could sometimes need a pin.

Kids are going to be well dressed too, of course to your adorability/consideration. Babies weren’t in constant pj’s, once they were old enough they would be dressed like mini adults (look at old photos) and usually in the frilliest little clothes you’ve ever seen.

I mentioned a bunch of names in my previous list here’s some more: Deborah (Girl), Sandra (girl), Laverne (girl), Pamala (girl), Dennis (boy, Jeffery (boy), Lawrence/larry (boy), Donald (boy), Marcus/mark (boy)

Many caretaking activities we would now consider completely unsafe today. It’s important not to have historical relevantism and just think people were dumb or purposefully endangering anyone. These were either believed the right thing or there weren’t many alternatives, it’s just how it’s done:

Lack of baby proofing (less extensive), second hand smoke exposure (universal and everywhere), bikes without helmets, no sunscreen, sleeping in the back of cars, smoking/drinking while pregnant, unsafe cribs and car seats (not on purpose) babies at this time we’re encouraged to sleep on their stomach.

There was less of a hyper-attentiveness but not full on neglect. Young children would be around and close to mother or family but able to move freely around a space but within eyesight hopefully. Getting hurt is a teaching momment (within reason). There’s a lot more of young children learning for themselves, through discovery or curiosity. Rules and behaviors are kept and enforced with time outs or the occasional spanking.

Grammar school and old names-

Grammar school, you’ll see this sometimes in older books but it is a way to refer to an elementary school or sometimes prek or daycare type situation. It is slightly regional but largely phased out today. Same goes for “primary school” being occasionally used for elementary or “junior high” instead of middle school.

I believe I already talked about Latchkey kids at noseum so I’ll move past to some more child care. However, a lot of the time once a kid was old enough the expectation would be they’d walk or find a way home and take care of themselves (or maybe there’s a family member or neighbors house they’d go to once home)

Childcare/day care-

Starting in the late 19th century it was considered charitable and often associated with : The poor, minorities and immigrants. As upper middle class were heavily encouraged to have women stay home and care for the house and children and upper class had private nanny’s and tutors etc.

It started to modernize and reform even in the 19th century but even into the 20th there was a bit of that stigma remaining. That you couldn’t stay home and do it, especially with the rise of the middle class and heavy push of women home post war.

It faced major reforms in the 50s, acknowledging more women choosing to work outside the home, and that childcare could benefit and boost children themselves by adding some education and skill building etc. as well as incentive for poorer women to work and leave children at a facility. By this time it was not quite a preschool facility (not all of them anyway) but it was also not just holding them and napping till you can pick your little kid up like a coat.

Childcare facilities were also early grounds for integration. Or at least planned to be interestingly enough.

Info.

Info

Siblings-

Siblings have always been siblings and will always have the same love/hate dynamic I think until the end of time. There will always be annoying each other or whomping or helping out (spoken as an older sibling). I think the most notable thing would be the greater expectation on the older sibling as a role model and as a caretaker, especially if they’re latchkey kids. The younger sibling might imitate a lot more… as occurring to what I looked into that was like rampant back then idk what they put in the water but little kids were really Monkey see monkey do, no peer pressure needed though occasionally applied.

Batteries-

Really a great time to be a kid, as a lot of great toys already existed but this also saw the rise of batteries and plastic toys. Sound effects! Light up! Movement! (Now there were moving toys like tinker toys but these are different.)

Your toy gun can now make a “pew” or a “bang” - the walk along dog barks and really walks! Not just pulled! Etc.

This goes along with the many many board games, unsupervised time outdoors or indoors etc.

Television became more specialized, more adult v kids programing instead of a broad scrubbed and sanitized family friendly (censor still heavy don’t get me wrong) more child specials or shows. Lot of puppet shows… so many puppet shows since the 40s. Mentioned in my last post but a lot of cowboys too.

[she-walked-away]

🔪 and 🐠 (tarlos) for the ls ask game <3

🔪 What character are you defending with your life?

Honestly, both TK and Carlos as individuals.

I relate to Carlos the most, mainly because I have had really bad anxiety and have had it since the ripe age of 5 years old when I'd throw up before school every day because I was so anxious. So- I really really feel like I understand his avoidance tactics.

And TK- my boy. He's such an sunshiny person for someone who has had so much loss and been through a lot of awful things. He loves love and he loves people.

Both of them do dumbass things- like all humans- but they learn and grow from it.

🐠 (tarlos)

I HAVE SO MANY so thank you for indulging me!

Babies freak them both out. They like kids- but mainly when they're potty trained and can talk. Carlos is annoyingly good with babies, but still prefers being around older kids.

When they broke up, both of them still slept on their respective sides of the bed. They would wake up hugging a pillow and it was actually really sad and both felt kind of pathetic about it and vowed to sleep in the middle the next night, but they never followed through because they'd subconsciously move to their side in their sleep.

TK grew up really independent because he was the upper Manhattan version of a latchkey kid since Gwyn and Owen worked a whole lot. He always had a bunch of sitters and a nanny every once in a while, but he did a lot of his own cooking and cleaning once he turned about 11 and stayed by himself more often. However, he lets Carlos take care of him more often than not now because Carlos has always yearned to be able to take care of someone like his mother did his family and TK really got tired of having to do all the adult things at a really young age. They really balance each other out.

Carlos has such a broad range of reading materials. Woodworking, DIY, health books, but also- bodice rippers/regency romances. He grew up in a household with three older women so he would steal their romance novels and read them late at night. He's a big Bridgerton fan and watches the series when TK is usually in bed after a long shift. He woke up one morning when Carlos was watching an episode in the living room and all he heard was moaning and ran out to see if Carlos was in the mood but ended up getting sucked into the show.

TK's big into QVC and infomercials. His elderly neighbor in Owen's apartment building that checked on him a lot growing up got him hooked into it so every few months, TK's got a new shipment of LocknLock containers or a bulk order of shampoo coming in with some new infomercial gadget that he ordered late at night when Carlos was on an overnight shift.

Carlos cleans the most because clutter makes his eyes twitch, but TK is the better deep cleaner. He spent years polishing fire trucks and rigs so when he cleans- he CLEANS. He also does their laundry because he's very particular about the way things are folded since he always pitched in at the 252 when he was a kid- he would make the people at Macy's cry over how organized their drawers are.

Carlos prefers to drive them around more often because TK's a very aggressive driver and often pulls out in front of people and stops at the very last second and it scares the shit out of him while TK just hums along to a song.

[smthliminal]

⸻ ✧ 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐍𝐆 ⟨ the details ⟩

Name: Nicola Grimm

Nicknames: Nic

Pronouns: she/her

Age: 36

Neighborhood: Lakeside

Occupation: software engineer

Orientation: bisexual

Status: single

Residency: 3 years

⸻ ✧ 𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐘 ⟨ the past ⟩

In Rochester, Nicola was brought into the world by Robin and Stella Grimm. Her father was a renowned surgeon and her mother a hospital administrator, raising her alongside two siblings she was smack in the middle of. The siblings were close and the home was always a happy one despite the long hours each parent tended to work. Nicola’s mother mostly made a set schedule so that she could be as present as possible in the upbringing of her children, denying her husband’s offer to hire help for her every single time he mentioned it. She didn’t believe in her children being raised by nannies nor did she want her children to become latchkey, which meant that she had to be passed up a few times when it came to promotions given that she needed to stick to a strict nine to five schedule. Stella wanted to be home every night to prepare dinner for her family and check on her children’s homework. The siblings couldn’t be any more different from each other; Nicola’s older sister was very much the girly type that was a princess as a child and a popular cheerleader when she reached her teens, whereas her younger brother was adventurous and sporty. She, herself, was the nerdy type. Nicola loved to read and had a knack for tech, she either had her nose in a book or was taking something apart and putting it back together often leaving things to run better once she was done messing with them. She was lucky in the fact that she received two great qualities from her parents, her organization from her mother and her precision from her father.

During her school years, Nicola wasn’t the popular kid, she was either in the library or the science lab. But her lack of popularity wasn’t ever a problem for her, she was never a busy body like that and she was quite overshadowed by her siblings. Her older sister was very popular and her peers were generally nice to her for that reason, although it only made living in her older sister’s shadow that much more difficult. She was beautiful and had a figure enviable of every single girl in school, she had a charm about her that was effortless which only made her appearance that much more powerful and devastating. Nicola would often look at herself in the mirror, stare at her boyish figure and wish to be a little something more, especially since it seemed to be what most people, especially in high school, seemed to put the most value into. Where Nicola had no popularity when it came to dating opportunities she made up for when it came to her scholastic achievements. She was the girl that made honor roll every quarter, was in all AP classes as well as some classes she was taking advanced at the local college, and was in programs such as GATE.

Naturally she earned a scholarship to the University of Minnesota and entered into the electrical engineering and computer science program. Nicola excelled immediately, coding and programming by then were already second nature to her given her tech abilities that had already bloomed in her early teen years. Back in those days, before her life was consumed with coursework and internships at startups and big tech companies that littered Minneapolis, she made a good living with a side hustle as a computer repair. Nicola also did some hacking, for fun, but also for a hefty fee. She did so well that she passed her undergraduate in three years and was already onto her graduate when the job offer came to work for Google. It was a job that Nicola simply could not turn down, but it was the first time her schedule really became a challenge. The demands of her new job as a software engineer and programmer were difficult to keep up with when also trying to balance out the remainder of her university education.

Somewhere along the way she’d met a man, one that was funnily enough a few years her senior. He was a bit of an opposite to her; outgoing and charismatic, a university sport’s star that was going places, someone that was no doubt the popular heartthrob type. It was a huge wonder to Nicola how she’d caught his attention but they seemed to compliment each other because of that. Before she knew it she was married and they were living in a home in Pennsylvania, where he had been drafted to post university to play for the Flyers, and she had been thrilled for his success and rise to stardom as he accomplished his dreams. The things she wanted were put on hold and Nicola saw no issue with making that sort of compromise, she figured she was young and had plenty of time. She never would have guessed that someone that had seemed so devoted to her would betray her by cheating on her with another woman. Her husband couldn’t make it home one night, their anniversary, and when she’d called him another woman answered his phone. It was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. They’d been struggling for some time. Day by day, he grew more and more disinterested in her and their marriage.

When he didn’t fight the divorce and quietly signed the papers, Nicola knew she had done the right thing, as much as it had devastated her. Maybe she had never been good enough for him in the first place and this had all been some big cosmic joke. The women that surrounded him at games, the other player’s wives and girlfriends, well — they looked more like her sister. They were all stunning and model types or could’ve been. Whereas Nicola was small and awkward, the geek who nerded out over tech. After she left, she went to California, working at the massive Google campus in Silicon Valley. It was only a week after the ink had sealed the finality of their divorce that Nicola had discovered that she was pregnant. Deciding that her then ex-husband didn’t deserve it and likely wouldn’t want to have a family with her since he hadn’t wanted her in the end, Nicola kept the pregnancy to herself and eventually raised a son on her own.

The way to Woodside was because of her mother. Stella had been born and raised in the coastal Michigan town and since her father had passed she’d moved back to her origins. When Stella became ill Nicola packed up and moved to Woodside to take care of her ailing mother with her son. By then she’d moved on from Google and had begun working for Dock Yard, Inc and also for a security company in their software and web solutions department. Like father, like son however her boy had a natural inclination and talent for hockey. Now she’s a mom rink side and back in familiar territory she never thought she’d be again.

[f0point5]

Saw that Kelly Anon, what world are some people living in???

Like every child cries on their first day of school, I did and then a few days later I was crying because school was closed on weekends. Moreover that kid has a great support system around her from what I have seen. Also both sides of her family is rich, she probably has nannies whose literal job is to take care of her.

Some people need to realize that mothers have their own fucking lives, that are not just centered around their child. Weird that the Anon has nothing to say about Kyvyat, because if Kelly is considered neglectful, don't know what to say about him.

I love how people are like “oh Penelope was anxious but Kelly doesn’t care about leaving her”…three weeks into the school term? It’s just…such a basic thing that she was nervous for the first day and is now settled in the routine? Were these people not children?

When she takes Penelope with her on trips it’s “oh why is she always with adults she should be in kindergarten”. Now she’s in school it’s “how dare her mother be away for 4 days” as if this kid is some kind of latchkey kid.

It all comes down to, those people are thinking they are more deserving or would do better with the opportunities in life that Kelly has. If they were rich they’d do this, if they were dating Max they’d do that, if they had a child xyz…imagine being that bitter.

If you want her life…go get it. Find the rich guy, settle down, have a kid, and be the parent and partner YOU want to be. Or is that not possible for you because life isn’t fair? That’s the real problem isn’t it? Because if you could be on the yacht in Monaco you would be not sitting around judging the stranger who won the genetic lottery.

Also, people need to go to on a child charity website and see what neglect actually is because they’re so ignorant it’s staggering

[practically-an-x-man]

were any of your OCs latchkey kids? :)

Ooooh, good question!! Thank you!

Out of all of them, Jasper would have experienced this the most, I think. Their dad was a long-haul trucker and was gone most of the time, their mother worked long hours as well, and their household couldn't afford a regular babysitter or nanny. Sometimes they'd have relatives or family friends over to watch Jasper after school, but most of the time they'd just come home to an empty house and get started on chores/homework.

By the same token, Nikoletta would have grown up in a similar situation. She grew up to a single father in another low-income household, so her dad was usually working when she came home from school or other activities. Her dad also had a few close friends who were happy to babysit or just check in on her if he'd been gone for more than a couple hours, but Nikoletta was comfortable coming home to an empty home and quietly doing her own thing until her dad came home.

I could also see this with Rae, but only to a degree. She grew up in a small town, and with a large and close-knit family - so it's not a true latchkey situation, there was almost always someone else in the house or in near proximity when she came home from school, but given it was a safe town to live in, she was allowed to walk home from school on her own, or even to walk to her friends' houses or shops in town from a young age. Her family had been in that town for generations, and at that point they trusted their neighbors enough to look out for Rae if anything were to happen to her.

And of course, Terra and Pluto were latchkey kids in the sense that they didn't have or interact with their parents at all, so they were on their own pretty much all the time save for each other.

[voxxisms]

📂 x 2

@playr1ne whispered a line ;; random / completely useless hc ( always accepting! )

one. - previous relationship expectations.

vox was a pretty run - of - the - mill middle class white family's kid. he was very priveledged, definitely didn't fall under any sort of hero behavior, but he truly never cared about who other people were. he would interact with anyone, even as a kid, always aiming to please. he had many friends, but none who really stayed for any reason other than what he had to offer. his family's big house, the pool, the money, his toys. but people did not find him very interesting. he was anyone's second choice — never first, usually more than second, actually, but still. this has led him over the years to learn how to appeal to anyone, to become the person they want him to be.

two. - attention seeking.

vox's obsession with attention also spans from a lack of parental care. he was essentially a latchkey kid. his father was in the automobile industry, had a very successful number of dealerships that he managed. his mother was a teacher during the day, but worked on the side as a waitress at nights. neither of them had really wanted children, but for the sake of legacy, had vox ( george ) anyways. he was not nannied, but by the time he was old enough to stay at home, he was being left there. he learned to cook && clean from his mother when she was there, learned to sew && keep the house. his father was away much more than his mother, && he clung to her when she was there. however, both were very detached, leaving him for weeks at a time sometimes by the time he was a teenager. he sought attention from them by being a perfect child, but while this never impressed them, his acheivements did gain him attention momentarily, && is now why he focuses so heavily on work && reputation. in hell, he can now demand attention with hypnosis && managing media in general, though it does end up feeling very empty.

thanks for asking!!

[lesbiancloudtail]

okay i've just been really curious about this for a while so i wanted to make a poll about it

[providencepeakrp]

CALLIE HENDRICKS

age: 28.

gender & pronouns: cis female & she/her.

neighborhood: bighorn hills.

occupation: veterinarian at healthy tails.

fc: phoebe tonkin.

BIOGRAPHY

trigger warnings: medical, tumor, death, and miscarriage.

In Pasadena, Callie was brought into the world by Robin and Stella Hendricks. Her father was a renowned surgeon and her mother a hospital administrator, raising her alongside two siblings she was smack in the middle of. The siblings were close and the home was always a happy one despite the long hours each parent tended to work. Callie’s mother mostly made a set schedule so that she could be as present as possible in the upbringing of her children, denying her husband’s offer to hire help for her every single time he mentioned it. She didn’t believe in her children being raised by nannies nor did she want her children to become latchkey, which meant that she had to be passed up a few times when it came to promotions given that she needed to stick to a strict nine to five schedule. Stella wanted to be home every night to prepare dinner for her family and check on her children’s homework. The siblings couldn’t be any more different from each other; Callie’s older sister was very much the girly type that was a princess as a child and a popular cheerleader when she reached her teens, whereas her younger brother was adventurous and sporty. She, herself, was the nerdy type. Callie loved to read and had a knack for tech, she either had her nose in a book or was taking something apart and putting it back together often leaving things to run better once she was done messing with them. She was lucky in the fact that she received two great qualities from her parents, her organization from her mother and her precision from her father.

During her school years, Callie wasn’t the popular kid, she was either in the library or the science lab. But her lack of popularity wasn’t ever a problem for her, she was never a busy body like that and she was quite overshadowed by her siblings. Her older sister was very popular and her peers were generally nice to her for that reason, although it only made living in her older sister’s shadow that much more difficult. She was beautiful and had a figure enviable of every single girl in school, she had a charm about her that was effortless which only made her appearance that much more powerful and devastating. Callie would often look at herself in the mirror, stare at her boyish figure and wish to be a little something more, especially since it seemed to be what most people, especially in high school, seemed to put the most value into. Where Callie had no popularity when it came to dating opportunities she made up for when it came to her scholastic achievements. She was the girl that made honor roll every quarter, was in all AP classes as well as some classes she was taking advanced at the local college, and was in programs such as GATE.

Naturally she earned a few scholarships and chose to attend Providence Peak University and entered into the biology/zoology science program for her bachelor’s degree. Callie excelled immediately, most science and math courses by then were already second nature to her given her educational background and volunteer work that had already bloomed in her early teen years. Back in those days, before her life was consumed with coursework and internships at veterinary practices and rescue organizations that littered the valley, she made an independent living with a side hustle as a phlebotomist. Callie had taken then required course at the local community college and completed her required lab hours before she could be licensed and had used that skill as a step in for internships and also when she completed the next step in becoming a vet tech. She did so well that she passed her undergraduate with honors and was already onto her graduate and veterinary school when the call came from her family about what had been found in her mother’s regular health check-up at the doctor. It was frightening news learning that her mother had a brain tumor and was in need of surgery, but by then Callie also had support in the life she’d built around her in Providence Peak. During her senior year of university, she met Orion Williams, they were in the same course and his family owned the Wild Wolf Rescue, a place she’d always wanted to volunteer and/or work with yet hadn’t. The demands of her new job post bachelor’s degree was difficult to keep up with when also trying to balance out the remainder of her university education and knowing her mother wasn’t doing well back home.

Somewhere along the way Callie moved in with Orion and they began building a life together. He was everything she had ever dreamed of in a partner and pinched herself sometimes to make sure it was all real and she wasn’t dreaming. Especially with how supportive he was of her trying to do it all. Even though Callie was far away from her older sister there was a part of her that always overcompensated and was in competition. It was something they eventually put to rest when she made the tough decision to go back home to Pasadena and take care of her mother. Stella had put off surgery for long enough that she had begun to have motor function issues, and her siblings weren’t able to upend their lives as easily as Callie was. Not that sitting down with Rion and saying she had to leave Providence Peak and their home was easy, he just somehow made it that way. Wanting to keep their relationship steady despite the distance that would be between them. Post surgery she took care of her mother on a daily basis and balanced veterinary school demands, another thing Rion seemed to ease in all the stress she endured through that time. They exchanged texts, calls, FaceTimed as often as possible and kept to their plan of visiting each other once a month to keep as close to each other as the distance allowed.

It went on like that for years and Callie eventually fell into a rhythm with it all, but for a while it seemed as though hardship was going to take hold. Stella passed away, losing the battle with the tumors that infiltrated her brain, and shortly after Callie had a miscarriage. One loss after the other absolutely devastated her, but the baby maybe hurt a little more. It was a glimmer of light amidst enduring grey skies that had colored the last few years for her. She felt guilty, as though she’d done something wrong, despite the doctor telling her it was likely due to the amount of stress she’d been under. That her body simply couldn’t handle it all. Furthermore, having to share the loss with Rion was harder than Callie could have anticipated. Her guilt doubled when she looked at him, her pain seemed insurmountable when she realized how much she had failed at everything, but they eventually made it through by doing what they do best: sticking together and supporting one another. The loss is a wound Callie isn’t sure will ever fully heal, it simply got to a point where it’s not constantly bleeding. She found herself able to carry on and once she made peace with her mother’s death and helped her father pack up the family home, Callie looked to returning to what had become her home. Orion in Providence Peak. By then she’d finished her veterinarian school and was licensed, she accepted an offer to work at Healthy Tails and was far too eager to move back in with Orion. Soon after finding herself with a ring on her finger and herself engaged to her first and only love.

written by: christie.

[impossible-rat-babies]

😊💜💤 for pollux?

😊 what can make your oc smile even when they’re feeling down? what cheers them up and makes everything feel better for them? is your oc generally a happy person and do they enjoy making others smile? what about your oc makes others happy?

being a home, making himself a nice cup of coffee or tea. he likes long hot showers or nicely scented baths too. that or just laying in bed or on his couch with nothing to do, or time he spends with his cat. if he doesn’t wanna stay home, he’s got his motorcycle he’ll take out on the back roads to get some air.

he’s not generally a happy person, more on the ehhhhh side of things. not actively sad, but not really...happy, per se. it’s more like generalized depressed apathy. but he does like making people smile--it’s nice to make people happy even if being happy himself is hard.

pollux does have a hard time conceptualizing what about him makes people happy and in a broader sense what about him makes people like him/tolerate him. sure he’s nice enough when required, but beyond that he’s a bit of an awkward jackass. he does’t speak well, uses too much gallows/dry humor; he’s far past the picture of what someone would like and it’s probably just his rock bottom self esteem talking. but it’s always sorta been that way. he doesn’t really know another way to feel other than not great about himself.

💜 music or silence? swords or spells? cities or nature?

neither--he likes the quiet. spells over swords. and honestly, both city and nature. he likes em both for different reasons.

💤 what was your oc like as a baby, a child and as a teen? (if your oc is a teen or a child, what will they be like as an adult?). how have they changed since then? what lessons have they learned and what things about their youth do they miss the most? do they have any general regrets?

pollux was an sickly and incredibly fussy baby. both rebecca and rook had a lot of sleepless nights that first year and it wasn’t like anything was wrong, he was just...a fussy and needy baby. for a while he was a bit like that as a child--needy and volatile. just a mess of a child and he went through several agency nannies because he was just so frustrating to deal with at times. 

but then he just had this huge shift in the fourth grade and became very withdrawn and incredibly quiet. just this huge 180 in behavior and there were people who got concerned about it, but he never talked about what happened, or why he changed. (even as an adult he knows why, he’s just never really told anyone.)

as a teenager, he was still a bit of that same withdrawn, but he would also get into a healthy amount of trouble. hung out with the “wrong” crowd, got bad grades, stayed out way too late, did things he shouldn’t have been doing. he didn’t have much--if any--direction at home. he was a latchkey kid, essentially. rebecca worried about him not doing well in school, but she threw things like tutors and after school programs at him rather than getting to the root of the problem which was a lot of her and not him. 

he’s much more mellowed out and grown up in the way that bad things happening to you tends to do. he’s learned a lot of hard lessons and had to learn them alone which makes it all the worse. he has the worst time in the world hearing about things people had their parent’s help for and he didn’t. That is the part that stings the most, to him.

he does have a few regrets, like wishing he didn’t get into substances and ended up with a hell of a lot of lasting health issues because of it. he wishes he didn’t do some of the things he really shouldn’t have done. (he wishes he didn’t fucking date bobby marks). but it is what it is and there’s no use in crying over it now when he knows better.

--

jumbo ask meme

[marysfoxmask]

the secret garden in the ‘70s?

i’m curious if there could ever be a modernized adaptation of the secret garden. i feel like setting it in anywhere in the ‘90s or sooner might be tricky--it’d be harder to believe that mary has never used a skipping rope before and more difficult to sympathize with archibald neglecting his son to the extent that he does, for instance, given changing attitudes toward parenting, for instance. 

for whatever reason i think the story might be best suited toward the ‘70s; it’s just modern enough that the tone and setting would be entirely different, but not so modern that there would be awkward plot contrivances surrounding the aforementioned skipping rope thing, probably, if it was set up right.

mary would probably still be isolated from her peers/the outside world by her parents and taken care of by a nanny of some kind. maybe still in india? i feel like that would possibly feel outdated, since the british raj ended in the ‘40s, but eh. mr. lennox could still be a military man, mrs. lennox could still be a woman who prefers partying to child-rearing...maybe she could be a pseudo-hippie, having the trappings of being “closer to nature” and such without really committing to that lifestyle (with lilias being the real thing).

i can see misselthwaite manor being more or less the same--maybe less victorian and slightly more modern. but i kind of like the idea of it being a place out of time, without the benefits of modern living.

i can see mary asking mrs. medlock why she can’t watch television at some point--she’s heard of television and watched it at the crawfords’, but her mother and father took pains to not have one in the house because they liked to think of themselves as above that sort of thing, leaving mary often bored...especially since they also didn’t like her going outside too much for fear of getting sick, since she was a sickly child.

dickon is a total latchkey kid; his mother and father work full-time, and he’s left by himself, so he’s become independent. his younger siblings are free to run around wherever they please--when he’s not making sure they’re taken care of, he’s off on the moors, doing his typical dickon things. he’d probably be expected to go to school in thwaite, as would his siblings, but i imagine he probably skips a lot, which he feels guilty about. he just doesn’t like being cooped up so much, and struggles to improve his spelling (remember his note to mary about the missel-thrush?).

colin probably has an old-fashioned television, an old record player, and a state-of-the-art radio in his room. he uses those to keep himself entertained along with his books, but he isn’t interested in any programs, really. mary is jealous for a little bit; they watch tv when they’re together, but mary is quickly bored, and has too much to say about the garden to keep quiet.

they still like listening to the radio together, though, and listening to records on the record player (simon and garfunkel, the beatles, joni mitchell, etc.). mary tries to encourage colin to move his legs and dance a little, but he refuses.

lilias was a total hippie who loved gardens and nature, of course. archie didn’t quite get it but he loved her so much he indulged her lifestyle.

mary probably has seen a skipping rope, but never liked to use one because it made her too tired/she didn’t go outside much.

mr. craven would probably still want to send mary away to school, since the school in thwaite is pretty far away, but she convinces him not to send her until she’s stronger, like in the book...not sure if that would work in the ‘70s like it does in 1911 but maybe mr. craven could be like oh yeah i remember in my schooldays back in the ‘50s a kid died from fever while at school. mrs. medlock probably disapproves but doesn’t say anything.

mostly i just would love to see mary wearing pants for once! i can just see her running around in a pair of overalls!

some clothing ideas for martha:

and for mary:

just some thoughts i’ve been having, idk if it would actually work, but maybe....

[goldkirk]

Some thoughts about Tim and Damian and neglect and failure to thrive

Can I make you. really sad for a hot sec about Tim and Damian with neuroscience and something that Jason hinted at in Blackbird and Latchkey but I didn’t go into

so when kids are deprived of touch and loving interaction?? it’s really fucking bad????? like not just in a bad-for-psychology way

everyone can get touch starved and it SUCKS but when young kids are deprived of ENOUGH loving touch—even if they’re getting SOME physical contact—it not only stunts their healthy psychological development but their physical and neural development as well

and you end up with mild to severe cases of failure to thrive essentially, where a kid is undersized no matter how much you feed them through a feeding tube if it gets desperate, and they struggle to hit milestones, and things like the neural centers for a sense of rhythm get halted and stuck at whatever point they ceased to get enough stimulation and development (because sense of rhythm and coordination come as LEARNED skills from hearing spoken language and things like music and experiencing movement, which is why speaking to and singing nursery rhymes to and dancing with little kids is so important)

so like when you see a one year old who can’t even talk yet holding onto a coffee table while they can’t even stand quite by themselves yet, and they’re wiggling their tiny little diaper butt around to some song that they like the sound of, that’s actually critical neuromuscular development not just a cute thing to make us laugh

and when kids don’t get that it affects them for YEARS until someone works with them in like, neurology physical therapy, to develop it from whatever point their missing. And regardless

In severe cases kids will end up underweight no matter what, even with 24/7 hospital care, if they’re not getting the emotional and physical interaction and love they need. so like

Damian obviously got a ton of physical development bc he’s a lean little fighting ninja machine and they started him early probably with things like kid yoga and dance training and all that

but he’s SMALL AS HELL

I would bet that despite being Bruce’sbiological offspring he’s been on the low end of the charts his whole life

like who else?? TIM

Tim, little neglected Tim, left with nannies Tim, who had his parents home when he was little bitty but they left as soon as he required more interaction. Tim who had nannies rotated out often. Tim, who learned real fast that he didn’t get punished if he was good and quiet and didn’t take up space or attention, didn’t ask for things, didn’t need people’s time more than the bare minimum

Tim wasn’t underweight just because of his eating habits—they might have been weird (cough like mine cough) for a few different reasons but he was getting enough nutrients that he shouldn’t have been THAT underweight if at ALL—at most, maybe a couple mild deficiencies. But he WAS. and You Bet Bruce and Alfred noticed immediately, since they’ve raised two teenagers already from very different circumstances and it’s a matter of life or death whether they’re healthy and strong or not—Jason would have had to pass nutrition AND physical tests at least 3 months in a row before Bruce let him out with him in costume I’m sure

Clearly Tim and Damian never got so severe (or noticed) that they ended up with concerned doctors who were stumped, like, admitting them to a hospital or anything—Damian was raised strictly in-house, and Tim’s parents probably only took him to get shots and that was it at best

And a LOT comes down to genetics and epigenetics, of course—Tim doesn’t have the same genes and structure as Bruce or Jason, and Jason and Dick are Very Different, etc.

And also yes they’re young. They haven’t hit puberty yet, or they’re only starting to, blah blah blah. But they were underweight and below the curve for height too and I’m basing that off a lot of people in the COMICS talking about how ridiculously small Tim is, and how small Damian is written most of the time (although yes, he is younger than Tim was. Let me take my liberties with headcanons)

But at the end of the day, Tim and Damian both come to the manor still essentially living with un-caught failure to thrive, and once they start getting (on purpose, whether they’re comfortable with it or not) enough caring touch, compassion, loving interaction, and continue to be fed the same healthy amounts of food both of them ALREADY previously had access to, suddenly both of them started packing on weight and muscle and height at REALLY fast speeds, because their bodies made up for lost time (remember how Tim mentioned to his mom how many sizes he’d grown in a short time??)

and that’s that on that and I hope you enjoyed my mini ted talk on why the family’s care and attention plus Alfred’s continually dependable cooking was critical in repairing some of the damage done by Tim and Damian’s childhoods and why Bruce hides the book talking about all these concepts from the manor library once Tim moves in because there’s no way he’ll be ready to learn that stuff until way down the road, and he doesn’t want to freak Tim out when he knows Tim is going to be following Jason’s lead and reading most of the library within the first year of moving in

(the moral of this story is I possibly need to read a lot fewer books on viruses, child development, trauma’s neurological effects, and biological development, but at the same time, REALISTIC CHARACTER EXPERIENCES?)

[fordbayhq]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

FULL NAME: Evelyn ‘Evie’ Jackson

DATE OF BIRTH:  October 3, 1989

AGE: 31

BIRTHPLACE: Fordbay, Canada

GENDER: Cis female

PRONOUNS: She/her

OCCUPATION: Software engineer / programmer

PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Faraday Heights

FACE CLAIM: Alicia Vikander

BIOGRAPHY

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Adultery

In Fordbay, Evelyn was brought into the world by Robin and Stella Jackson. Her father was a renowned surgeon and her mother a hospital administrator, raising her alongside two siblings she was smack in the middle of. The siblings were close and the home was always a happy one despite the long hours each parent tended to work. Evie’s mother mostly made a set schedule so that she could be as present as possible in the upbringing of her children, denying her husband’s offer to hire help for her every single time he mentioned it. She didn’t believe in her children being raised by nannies nor did she want her children to become latchkey, which meant that she had to be passed up a few times when it came to promotions given that she needed to stick to a strict nine to five schedule. Stella wanted to be home every night to prepare dinner for her family and check on her children’s homework. The siblings couldn’t be any more different from each other; Evie’s older sister was very much the girly type that was a princess as a child and a popular cheerleader when she reached her teens, whereas her younger brother was adventurous and sporty. She, herself, was the nerdy type. Evie loved to read and had a knack for tech, she either had her nose in a book or was taking something apart and putting it back together often leaving things to run better once she was done messing with them. She was lucky in the fact that she received two great qualities from her parents, her organization from her mother and her precision from her father.

During her school years, Evie wasn’t the popular kid, she was either in the library or the science lab. But her lack of popularity wasn’t ever a problem for her, she was never a busy body like that and she was quite overshadowed by her siblings. Her older sister was very popular and her peers were generally nice to her for that reason, although it only made living in her older sister’s shadow that much more difficult. She was beautiful and had a figure enviable of every single girl in school, she had a charm about her that was effortless which only made her appearance that much more powerful and devastating. Evie would often look at herself in the mirror, stare at her boyish figure and wish to be a little something more, especially since it seemed to be what most people, especially in high school, seemed to put the most value into. Where Evie had no popularity when it came to dating opportunities she made up for when it came to her scholastic achievements. She was the girl that made honor roll every quarter, was in all AP classes as well as some classes she was taking advanced at the local college, and was in programs such as GATE.

Naturally she earned a scholarship to UC Berkeley and entered into the electrical engineering and computer science program. Evie excelled immediately, coding and programming by then were already second nature to her given her tech abilities that had already bloomed in her early teen years. Back in those days, before her life was consumed with coursework and internships at startups and big tech companies that littered Silicon Valley, she made a good living with a side hustle as a computer repair. Evie also did some hacking, for fun, but also for a hefty fee. She did so well that she passed her undergraduate in three years and was already onto her graduate when the job offer came to work for Google. It was a job that Evie simply could not turn down, but it was the first time her schedule really became a challenge. The demands of her new job as a software engineer and programmer were difficult to keep up with when also trying to balance out the remainder of her university education.

Somewhere along the way she’d met a man, one that was funnily enough from her hometown but a few years her senior. He was a bit of an opposite to her; outgoing and charismatic, a laughing humorous kind of man, someone that was no doubt the popular heartthrob type. It was a huge wonder to Evie how she’d caught his attention but they seemed to compliment each other because of that. Before she knew it she was married and they were living in a home he bought, he was a man in the tech industry as well and she supported his start up, even if it meant their talks and plan on having a family had to be put on hold. Evie saw no issue with making that sort of compromise, she figured she was young and had plenty of time. She never would have guessed that someone that had seemed so devoted to her would betray her by cheating on her with another woman. As soon as Evie found out about her husband’s affair, seeing them together one day and watching them for a while in utter shock then taking to do a little snooping around to confirm what her eyes had seen.

Without a single word to her husband, Evelyn packed up all her things and left while he was out and moved back home where she had grown up in Fordbay. She bought a place in Myrtle Rock and spoke to a lawyer for advice on divorce, but she wasn’t quite ready to file just yet. Having left behind a great job at Google in the midst of her devastation, she needed to set herself up with something good and promising. Given that Fordbay was a place her husband had always spoken awful of, she figured it was the last place that he would ever show up. Evie had planned that when she was ready to file, they would come without words as well. If he could carry on with another woman behind her back then she could leave him and file for divorce behind his back. Two wrongs certainly didn’t make a right but she believed he didn’t exactly deserve anything fair for his transgressions and for hurting her so badly. She entered into a new job with DockYard, Inc while also working for a security company in their software and web solutions department.

WRITTEN BY: Christie, 23, She/Her, PST

[magspag]

that's just what it was like growing up in the 80s and early 90s. It was the latchkey kid generation. We were all just feral. Years later, when we watch Stranger Things the one part that seems not believably 80s about the show is the parents are too involved in the shit going on with the kids. It almost seems like an ideal the show creators wished for or thought that should have been there. Tim Drake just grew up like the rest of us grew up at the time, except he had a nanny because of family wealth instead of an empty house where he would scream "Do you? Do you know?" to nobody in particular when the nightly "It's 10 PM, do you know where your children are?" PSA played on the television before the news.

What was Tim’s relationship with his parents like? It seems like they left him alone a lot, based on fanon - is that true?

Tim's relationship with Jack and Janet Drake is...messy. Very messy. There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about how Jack and Janet really were as parents, largely due to headcanons and fanfiction exaggerating their abuse/neglect of Tim. So, we're going to clear all of that up by analyzing how Tim's parents were as evidenced in canon.

From the very beginning of his time in comics, it's clear that Tim's parents are hella neglectful. The writers needed a Robin who would be able to do his crimefighting without the interference of parental figures, so they gave him rich absentee parents to achieve that.

Tim's parents mean well; they do genuinely love and care about Tim, considering that the first glimpse we get of them is the Drake family enjoying a trip to the circus together. At face level, they look like a typical happy family. 

Batman #436

However, Tim's parents have a tendency to take long trips around the world for their job and leave Tim behind with the nanny. They were noted to be gone for long periods of time during Tim's Robin training, only keeping in touch with their son through halfhearted postcards promising to call soon. They also were prone to extending trips or leaving without warning, giving Tim very little input or notice when it came to whether or not he would be able to spend time with his own parents anytime soon. It got to the point where Bruce became suspicious of the Drakes’ neglect of their son.

Detective Comics #618

Robin #1

Robin #11

“I guess that sums them up! Never know where they’re going to be—or when—or even how long!”

Ah, yes, this is the proper way to raise your child. 

So, it is firmly established that Tim’s parents are inattentive and neglectful. They love Tim in their own way, but not enough to be at home often and spend time with him, or to take him across the world with them. Granted, they are incredibly wealthy people with a large company, but…so is Bruce. And Jack and Janet don’t even moonlight as vigilantes, which doesn’t give them much of an excuse. 

(I do think that comics tend to use Bruce’s relationship with Tim as a juxtaposition to show just how harmful Jack and Janet’s parenting is for Tim, such as neglecting his emotional needs, not respecting his privacy, etc. Over time, this leads to even Jack having this silent rivalry with Bruce over Tim’s affection. But I’ll get to that later.)

To contrast, here is Bruce offering to take the night off to stay with Tim and comfort him after his parents have been kidnapped:

Detective Comics #619

And Bruce has a reputation for being a questionable parental figure, which just makes Jack and Janet look even worse in comparison.

Then the Drakes are poisoned by the Obeah Man: Tim’s mother dies and his father falls into a coma. Janet’s term in comics was short, so we don’t know a lot about her personality or how she was as a parent, other than that she was not home often. When she and Jack were kidnapped, Janet seemed to express regret about her choices in life, possibly including not spending time with her son while she could.

Detective Comics #620

Otherwise, that’s about it for Janet. There is a fever dream Tim has when he’s dying of the Clench in which he imagines his parents both alive and knowing that he’s Robin. It’s a happy scene, with Janet preparing a home-cooked meal and being warm and present, which could possibly be Tim’s subconscious wishing that this was how his life could have been, but we don’t know enough about Janet’s actual parenting to do much with that. I personally choose to interpret it as Tim’s longing for the ideal family dynamic he never got to have, with both his parents home and acting like a real family. 

Batman Chronicles #4

Now, Jack and Tim’s relationship is rocky from start to finish. One minute they’re getting along, the next everything is a disaster, over and over until Jack’s death. 

After the Obeah Man incident, Tim is left grieving his mother and worrying about his paralyzed, comatose father. He continues to live with Bruce at Wayne Manor during this time, hoping for Jack to wake up. 

Robin II: Joker’s Wild #4

Tim becomes conflicted over the fact that, with the Waynes, he feels for the first time like he’s part of a real family. Which is...very telling. But we already know how neglectful Janet and Jack were of Tim, so are we really surprised? The closest thing Tim had to a “real” family before Bruce was Mrs. Mac the housekeeper. 

Upon waking from his coma, Jack has this great epiphany that he’s going to be a better father for Tim and right all the wrongs he made in life. 

Batman #480

“I’ll make it up to you—starting tomorrow!”

With his father in a wheelchair and needing all kinds of medical care as he recovers, Tim feels obligated to move back in with Jack and take care of him.

Batman #480

Batman #480

Tim writes his dad a letter venting all of his inner conflicts and harbored resentment, saying that he never felt like he was part of a family before becoming Robin and meeting the Waynes. He wishes he could tell Jack the truth instead of hiding the most important part of his life from him, which causes a rift between Tim and Jack that honestly never fully heals until War Games.

Aptly, the letter is addressed, “To the Father I Never Knew.” 

Batman #480

As it turns out, Jack Drake is deeply insecure when it comes to his place in Tim’s life. Jack has no regrets about neglecting Tim until he learns that Tim has a new father figure in his life, AKA Bruce, the resident Dad Supreme. Jack becomes jealous of Bruce, trying to get back into Tim’s good graces because he knows that, in comparison, he’s looking like a pretty shitty father compared to Brucie Wayne, the irresponsible playboy. Ouch. 

Batman #480

Robin III: Cry of the Huntress #3

This all comes to a head when Jack gets angry with Tim for acting out, cutting school, getting into fights, etc. In turn, Tim gets fed up and confronts Jack about his poor parenting.

Robin III: Cry of the Huntress #4

“Who is the son you know, Dad? You don’t know me. You never bothered.”

By the end of the miniseries, they eventually work things out and apologize to each other. Honestly, the biggest problem Tim and Jack have when it comes to their relationship is miscommunication. They both want to be a real father and son, but there are too many obstacles in their way (Tim’s Robin activities, Jack’s inability to care about his son unless it’s convenient for him, Tim’s bond with Bruce) that keep them from having the close relationship they both clearly want. 

Robin III: Cry of the Huntress #4

Jack really does try to be a better father for Tim over the next few years, but he makes a lot of mistakes along the way. After being kidnapped (again), Jack tells Tim that he’s yet again going to try and be a more attentive father. (As if Tim hasn’t already heard this speech before lmao.)

Robin #7

Jack tries to spend more time with Tim, but his version of spending time together is mostly just springing new plans on Tim and giving Tim little say in any of it. 

Robin #11

Robin #12

(It also shows how little attention Jack pays to Tim, since he doesn’t notice that his son has a literal six-pack and could probably benchpress his own weight by now.)

Jack eventually falls in love with Dana, his physical therapist, and she more or less takes up all of his attention for the time being. Tim once again falls out of the spotlight. Tim is partly relieved about this, since it means that Jack is less likely to catch on to Tim’s Robin outings with Dana as a convenient distraction.

Robin #12

Robin #15

Jack goes to all the trouble of making plans with Tim, only to cancel the moment something shiny and new moves into his line of sight. Great parenting, Jack. A+ work. Tim sees this as less of a problem than it is, thanks to his second identity, but any other child would be severely impacted by this “whenever I feel like it” method of parenting. Regardless, Tim and Jack’s relationship at this point is on its way to leveling out for the time being. They still don’t communicate very well, but they generally get along with each other. 

After Tim runs away from home and causes a whole incident during No Man’s Land, Jack sends Tim away to Brentwood Academy, a boarding school literally in the same city as them, as punishment for being a lil hooligan. Just say you don’t feel like dealing with Tim anymore and move on, Jack. 

Robin #74

When Tim is at Brentwood, Jack informs Tim that he and Dana are engaged through a phone call. Tim is not even an hour away, but Jack figures why waste a day spending time with his own son to tell him the good news when you can accomplish it with a phone call, right?

Robin #78

It isn’t long before Jack Drake goes broke due to his company losing money or however bankruptcy works, and Tim gets to leave Brentwood. Jack chooses this time to once again try to work on his relationship with Tim...

Robin #100

Robin #100

...and then slides right back into ignoring Tim when the loss of his fortune makes Jack too depressed to do much of anything. Not that it’s a huge loss, considering that when Jack does bother to pay attention to Tim, it doesn’t often go well. He has a reputation for getting overly aggressive when Tim acts out, and he has a habit of dragging Tim into obligations he doesn’t want to do for the sake of looking like a present parent, trying to exert control over Tim that he hasn’t quite earned.

(It’s also interesting the way Tim starts to question Jack’s decision, then quickly stops himself and agrees to whatever it is Jack wants, as if Tim has gotten used to being allowed to think and act for himself during his time with Bruce, and now he’s remembering that things are different in the Drake household. He has to go back to Good Obedient Son mode, and if that doesn’t make you sad then I don’t know what will.)

Batman #480

Robin #45

Robin #92

By the time Jack finally gets out of his funk, Tim (of course) forgives him immediately, so they’re back on track again. 

Robin #116

(It’s also worth mentioning that Jack forgot Tim’s birthday. Yeah, he was going through his own depressive spiral at the time, but still. Dick move.)

Robin #116

Honestly, I owe a lot of the good moments in Tim and Jack’s relationship to Dana’s influence. She’s a great stepmother to Tim and she helps rein Jack in when he’s being an asshole. Her parenting style is far more caring and considerate compared to Jack’s, who tries to mold Tim into his idea of a perfect son: obedient, masculine, and quiet (whenever he feels like paying attention, that is). 

Robin #122

Robin #127

Robin #45

Robin III: Cry of the Huntress #1

Robin 80-Page Giant (2000)

Where Dana is understanding and patient, Jack is commanding and rigid. Over time, Dana softens him enough so that Jack is more of a well-meaning dad clumsily trying his best than an abusive asshole, but still. 

Jack acknowledging that he screwed up and is trying to fix his and Tim’s relationship has been a major plot point for years up to this point, and it remains a central part of Tim’s civilian narrative for as long as Jack is alive. Jack tries to fix what’s wrong between them, and Tim is eager to have a closer relationship with his dad, even if it’s difficult to accomplish due to his Robin activities. I repeat: They both want to have a good relationship. It isn’t that Jack simply doesn’t care about Tim (which, it could be argued that he didn’t care about Tim until Janet died). They both really do try to fix what’s broken between them. It’s just that Jack can’t accept that Tim is his own person, and Tim can’t risk compromising his identity. 

Robin #71

For a small while, things are okay between Tim and Jack. 

Robin #124

But pretty soon the inevitable happens: Jack snaps when he catches Tim in a lie about joining the football team to explain a black eye. Instead of confronting Tim about it, Jack decides the best course of action is to ransack Tim’s bedroom for evidence of his delinquency. 

Robin #124 

Jack inevitably finds Tim’s Robin gear in the closet. Instead of asking Tim about it, like a sensible human, Jack’s second genius move of the day is to go all the way to Wayne Manor and point a gun at Bruce’s face, demanding he return Tim to him.

Robin #124

(Personally, I think Jack’s reaction wouldn’t have been so violent if it weren’t for the fact that it’s Bruce, whom Jack was already jealous of for being closer to Tim than Jack ever was.)

Robin #125

With Jack threatening to expose everyone’s identities and ruin their lives, Tim agrees to give up the Robin mantle to keep Jack quiet. 

Robin #125

After that, things between Tim and his dad are relatively okay. Tim is happy to be having a normal life for once, and Jack is appeased now that he has Tim all to himself. 

Teen Titans #14

Then War Games rolls around and Tim once again dons the cape and boots to help in the gang war, and he and Jack finally have an honest conversation about Tim’s Robin activities. This time Tim isn’t just giving in to make his father happy, and he’s not struggling with the question if maybe he’ll be better off as a civilian, because he already tried that and he knows now that this is the life for him. 

And for once, Jack actually listens to Tim. 

Robin #130

They come to an understanding after that. For the first time in Tim’s whole life, he has an honest and loving relationship with his father.

Robin #131

Of course, this is about a week before everything goes to shit and Jack is murdered by Captain Boomerang during Identity Crisis. You win some, you lose some. 

(What makes it even worse for Tim is that Jack asked him to stay in that night, but Tim chose to go out and help, so he wasn’t there when Boomerang came for Jack. Oof.)

Identity Crisis #5

In Jack’s last moments, he tells Tim that he loves him and that being Robin is a good thing and he should never turn his back on being a hero. 

Identity Crisis #5-6

Unsurprisingly, Tim takes the loss extremely hard. It almost rivals Tim’s reaction to Bruce’s death, probably. After all, it’s his dad. Sure, Tim and Jack had their problems, but he was still his father and he loved him. 

I also think a big part of it is that Jack was taken at a time when he and Tim were finally starting to see eye to eye. They finally had the relationship they both always wanted, and then a week later Jack gets murdered. I see it as Tim mourning the relationship he and Jack could have had, rather than the one they did. Tim never got to see what it would have been like to have a perfect relationship with his father because the second everything finally fell into place, Jack was taken away from Tim.

Identity Crisis #7

Robin #167 

“Sometimes it’s for Bruce. Sometimes it’s for Conner. But a lot of times, I do it for you. Because you were brave enough to understand the man I wanted to be.”

DCU Holiday Special (2009)

Teen Titans (2003) #34

(Tim’s guilt and grief becomes all-encompassing to the point where he invents a fake uncle just to avoid being adopted by Bruce, but that’s a story for another day.)

Sooooo yeah, that’s about it. Tim loved his parents and they loved him back in their own ways, but he never had a perfect relationship with either of them by any definition.

[morstan]

i was listening to mfm’s book and karen explained the concept of a latchkey kid from her perspective as the younger sibling, but like, it was so much more lonelier to be an only child AND a latchkey kid. i barely remember what i did as a kid, but i think i was pretty much playing with dolls and watching tv all the time? and sometimes i’d play with the kids from my building so my mom would get home and i’d be nowhere to be found.

so much of my late childhood was spent in front of the tv simply because i didn’t have any company. (my mom didn’t actually leave me alone until i was around 9, iirc. before that i’d get some shady, weird nannies.)

and then i remember my weird obsession with my mom (that if we’re being honest i still struggle with today) and how attached to her i was, to the point where i’d cry whenever she went out at night because ????? idk??? i think i feared she’d die??? or something???? and holyshit that’s some fucked up thing to be thinking about as a 9 year-old

this post isn’t supposed to make any sense but if anything, for the love of god, don’t leave your only child alone at home without as much as a pet for company. it’s so lonely