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from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras · 5 months

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Tolkien Family Week, Day 1: Parent-Child (aka, Éomer becomes a father)

Hey, welcome to my trip through Rohan for @tolkienfamilyweek! For this prompt, of course my mind went right to my #1 guy, Éomer Éadig, and how he would feel when becoming a father for the first time, particularly in light of all the loss he’s endured, including both of his own parents.

While I wrote this for TFW, I still wanted it to be consistent with my personal head canon for Rohan. So, as a reminder, in my world Éomer got married after the war to his childhood best friend, Mereliss, who is a daughter of Elfhelm (I’ve just always wanted to see him with a Rohirrim even though that’s not canon!). There’s also a brief mention of Bryttalif, who is Háma’s wife in my HC, but she’s here because she’s the midwife in Edoras.

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Another muffled cry of pain escaped from the room next door, followed by the quieter sound of whimpering. Éomer’s leg, which had been jogging up and down with nervous energy all evening, now hammered with such force that the cups on the table before him started to shake. Elfhelm put one steadying hand on his ale mug, which was slowly vibrating its way toward his lap, and the other on his son-in-law’s shoulder.

“Try to stay calm. I know this is hard, but it’s going to be alright. I promise.”

Éomer grunted in response and his knee stilled, but the anxious energy merely transferred to his hands instead. He began to chew a fingernail, stopping only to turn every so often and look at the closed door at the far end of the room, staring intensely as though he could will it to open if he simply watched it closely enough.

“It is not unusual for these things to take many hours,” Elfhelm said, reading the thought behind Éomer’s repeated looks. “You just have to be patient and try not to think too hard about what may be happening in there right now. Put that part out of your mind and focus your thoughts instead on how happy you will be when this is over.”

Just at that moment, another wail rang out, starting as a sharp, loud cry and fading into a desperate, guttural sob. All color drained from Éomer’s face.

“I don’t know how you expect me to ignore that!” He sputtered out the last word, flinging a hand in the direction of the cries. “Surely something is going horribly wrong, and instead of helping I’m just sitting here, utterly useless. It is intolerable.”

He stood to rush from the room, but Elfhelm rose with him and blocked his path with a firm palm on his chest.

“I understand how you’re feeling. Believe me, I do. I’ve been through this before, you know. But as distressing as it is, what you’re hearing is normal. This is a painful business. And the people who are already in that room know far more than you do about how to handle it. Bryttalif is an expert. She will let you know if and when you need to be in there.”

Éomer sank back down into his chair, elbows on his knees with his eyes to the ground and his fingers laced through his hair behind his head. He took several deep breaths, blowing out each exhalation through gritted teeth. “It does not seem fair,” he murmured. “Maybe I should be glad to have the easy part, but I would take her pain from her in an instant if I could.”

Elfhelm gripped his shoulder. “I know you would.”

They sat in silence for a time, each lost in his own thoughts, until the sound of a turning doorknob was finally heard and both men rocketed to their feet. With his heart in his throat, Éomer watched Bryttalif step into the room, wearing a blood-stained apron and wiping her hands with a dampened towel. She dropped into a brief curtsy before raising her eyes to speak, and Éomer felt as though he lived several lifetimes in those final few seconds of waiting.

“Éomer King, it is my honor to tell you that you have a beautiful baby girl.” She smiled broadly. “The queen is recovering, and she and your daughter are waiting to see you now.”

“A daughter?” Éomer’s face transformed in an instant, glowing with happiness, relief, and a thousand other feelings he could not have articulated. “I have a daughter!” He turned to Elfhelm and threw himself into the older man’s arms, burying his face in Elfhelm’s shoulder to hide his tears. They stood quietly together for several long moments before Éomer broke away and bounded joyfully over to Bryttalif, lifting her up and spinning her around as she laughed and blushed.

Elfhelm watched Éomer’s elation with bemused pride before once again putting a hand on his shoulder to calm him. “Don’t waste your time out here with us, my boy. Get in there and see your wife and child! And tell Mereliss I love her and will be waiting here if she needs me.”

Éomer nodded and hurried off behind Bryttalif, back on her feet and headed into the bedchamber next door. After showing him in, the midwife and her assistant quietly excused themselves to allow the new family a moment of privacy.

From the doorway, Éomer observed his wife, her hair gathered in a sloppy bun and a slight sheen of sweat still on her forehead but radiant with exhausted triumph. In her arms was the baby she had carried and delivered for him, swaddled already in a warm blanket against the drafty coolness of the chamber. He felt overwhelmed by love–for Mereliss, for their baby, for Elfhelm and Bryttalif, for anyone and everything in the world that had brought him to this moment of pure happiness.

He came to Mereliss’s side and gently tucked some loose tresses behind her ear. She looked up at the touch and leaned her cheek into his palm with a smile.

“I named her Sigewyn. I hope you approve.”

Sigewyn. Joyful victory. He could not have imagined a better choice.

“It is perfect, just as you are perfect and she is perfect and my life right now is perfect.”

Mereliss patted the bed next to her. “Would you like to hold your daughter?”

He slowly lowered himself to the bed, feeling abruptly nervous, almost bashful. When he

had carefully lifted Sigewyn from Mereliss’s chest and laid her awkwardly in the crook of his arm, he looked back at his wife. “I…is this…am I doing this right?”

She beamed at him. “You look wonderful together.”

With Sigewyn in his arms, he was immediately more aware of his own body. His imposing strength and size presented a stark contrast to the impossibly tiny, delicate infant that was now nestled against his chest, whose head fit easily into the palm of his rough hand. And though he had a natural and graceful agility in his ordinary life, while brandishing a sword or swinging in and out of a saddle, he felt suddenly clumsy and tentative as though the simplest movement on his part could hurt or disturb this most precious of fragile things. He kept motionless, even slowing his breathing to a slow, shallow pace, but his eyes actively soaked in every detail, and he was instantly besotted with all that he saw, from her rounded little cheeks to the dusting of golden hair on her head and her large hazel eyes that matched his own. Contented tears slipped from his chin and onto the blanket that protected his newest, greatest treasure.

Mereliss reached up to brush a tear from his cheek, and he laughed a little at himself as he sniffled. “Look at me, head over heels already. She’s just like her mother—it took less than an instant for her to fully own my heart.”

Mereliss smiled. “I am happy to share it with her.”

He thought quietly for a moment before inhaling a long, shaky breath and blowing it out again slowly, trying to master his feelings. “I wish that my parents could see her.” It came out almost as a whisper.

“Me too.” She leaned over to kiss his shoulder. “But a part of them lives on in her now. She will carry on their legacy.”

He nodded and looked back down at Sigewyn. She would, in fact, grow up to have Éomund’s indomitable courage and Théodwyn’s infectious laugh, just as she would be tenacious like Éowyn and quick-witted like Mereliss. She would have Éomer’s own easy ability to make friends, and Elfhelm’s unflagging optimism. She would become a strong and capable woman, the first to inherit the throne of Rohan and rule as queen in her own right. But none of that mattered now, not to him. There was nothing she needed to do, no way that she had to look or think or act, in order to earn his love.

She had it, now and forever, simply by being his.

#tolkien family week #parent-child #eomer #super hot guys holding babies #parenting in middle earth #lord of the rings #rohan #lotr fanfic #forth eorlingas

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jomiddlemarch · 9 months

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They do become more real

“Your mother loved you,” Joel said.

He’d said it before, but not to this child. The words felt familiar even as everything else around him felt different. And that was before he considered Grace sitting on the couch, very demonstrably going over an inventory for the clinic, a second pen thrust through the bun at the back of her head and forgotten as she checked-off and struck-through and generally made it clear she was Not Listening.

She had a mind like a steel trap, the fiercely hinged jaws of which he now appreciated viscerally and would be able to go over every word of the imminent exchange while they lay together in bed later tonight, the bun taken down, his fingers stroking through her silky hair. The pen would sit in a mason jar in lieu of dried flowers, the only bouquet available in Jackson after the frost.

Right now, though, there was Ellie to attend to.

“You don’t have to like, butter me up about it. It’s fine, I’m fine,” Ellie said, shrugging for good measure so he would Get It. Joel wasn’t exactly sure when the women in his life had started requiring capitalized verbs in his relatively laconic internal monologue, but he wasn’t about to argue with it.

“Anyone says that’s lyin’,” he replied. It was risky, talking about lies with Ellie, given what he’d told her about what happened in Salt Lake, but he’d started to figure she didn’t always tell him the truth and the world they were in wasn’t one where the truth was critical to survival. Loyalty, kindness, a sure hand on a trigger or holding a knife would all beat out honesty and he wouldn’t find anyone who’d disagree, not even Ted at his most sentimental.

Ellie gave him a look equal parts dismissal and skepticism. Her face had filled out some since they got to Jackson, but she’d leaned into being a kid, more so after they’d moved in with Grace and had the rough shape of a family, Tommy and Maria coming over for Sunday dinner, Joel playing the guitar in front of the fire on the wet, miserable nights of late fall. She’d never had anything like it, back in the Boston QZ, growing up at the FEDRA boarding school, but he had. As Ted would likely say, this wasn’t Joel’s first rodeo.

“I used to talk to Sarah about her mother,” Joel said.

As expected, that got Ellie’s attention but unlike his older daughter, Ellie aimed for a cool slyness where Sarah had liked to pounce and then grill him for all she was worth. Grace glanced at him, a flicker in her dark eyes asking this a good idea? before she went back to the legal pad on her lap, the furrow in her brow a confirmation that they were running low on something critical that would be difficult if not impossible for them to gin up a replace for in Jackson.

“Yeah?” Ellie said. It was all she was willing to offer but he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t let go. Tenacious, that was the word for her, she took hold and she hung on for dear life, even if she didn’t always hold her own life dear enough to his liking.

“Yeah, she was curious, even if she didn’t want to admit it. Too proud,” he said.

“Or maybe she didn’t want to bug you. Maybe she thought it’d upset you if she asked,” Ellie said. Grace smiled and then quickly frowned, as if he wouldn’t have noticed either expression. As if he hadn’t stayed alive all these years noticing everything, even if he wished he could just shut his goddamn eyes.

“Maybe,” he said. He hadn’t let himself think about it like that, not directly, but Ellie had that way about her, making him consider something like it was new or like it wouldn’t hurt unbearably. In that long ago time, when he’d worried about shitbum sub-contractors showing up for a job, sung along with his pick-up’s radio, thrown out another couple of bananas that had rotted in the fruit bowl, Sarah had made demands she knew he could meet and few others— tacos (always carnitas) on Tuesday, overly expensive sneakers, a kiss at bedtime.

“Why’d she have to ask?” Ellie said.

“Because her mother was gone,” Joel said.

“She left?”

“We lost her,” Joel said. After all this time, it was still hard to talk about, which was the most unexpected consolation, his grief impervious to the world ending and ending. “She died when Sarah was about six months old.”

“But that was Before,” Ellie said. She’d unconsciously picked up on Grace’s framing, because she would never have allowed herself to copy Grace that way, the awareness making it an affectation and her temperament and adolescence making it impossible for her to put Grace into the role of a parent, even if they all knew that’s what she’d become.

“People still died Before. There were lots of things doctors couldn’t cure or fix,” Joel said.

Ellie looked at him and then down, staring at her hands or maybe her feet in their giddily striped wool socks, he wasn’t quite sure, except that she was giving them both time. Grace too, Ellie might expect her to weigh in on what it had been like to be a doctor Before, when there were pharmacists and endless lengths of suture, pills spilling out of a bottle and down the drain an annoying inconvenience and not a death sentence. Joel knew Grace wouldn’t speak, not about hospitals and med techs and old pneumatic tube systems that were sometimes more reliable than an electronic order entered at the nurse’s station, freight elevators and vending machines filled with the sweetest, saltiest snacks, bags of saline gleaming like moonstones. She wanted to hear about Sarah and her mother and she wanted to hear Joel’s voice as he talked about them. She wanted to know Sarah’s mother’s name and what he had called her, whether they were the same.

“What did you tell Sarah about her mom?” Ellie asked, almost politely.

“How excited she was to be a mom, to be Sarah’s mom. How good she was at her job, how smart she was. Strong. How she made the best sweet potato pie I ever ate, and that’s not something to mention to Ted, he’d take it as a fuckin’ dare and he’d stop making that dried apple strudel Grace likes,” Joel said. “How she was cooler than me.”

“Cooler than you? Impossible,” Ellie replied, full of piss and vinegar as his great-aunt Rubina used to say. Face like a hatchet and a tongue to match, she’d always been that relative his parents and their siblings gave a wide berth, but she kept the cookie jar full and she saved the funnies from the newspapers for Tommy and him to read, lying on their bellies, while the grown-ups talked on the porch on hot nights.

“Sarah’s mom was impossible. Impossibly bright. Beautiful. Fucking scary when she wanted to be. When she wasn’t even trying to be,” Joel said. “She loved that girl with all her heart and I did my best, but I could never tell Sarah how much that was. How it was a goddamn travesty that she lost her mom—”

“You think it should’ve been you,” Ellie said.

He shrugged a little. There was no use arguing sometimes.

“You think she would’ve been better off with her mom, happier or safer or maybe even alive right now,” Ellie said. It hurt, but not as much as it could have, because she was looking at him as serious as death and she’d saved his life more than once. It should only ever have been his job to look after her but he’d been there after she killed the cult leader and he’d gotten her out of Salt Lake. “You’re wrong, even if she didn’t make it. You couldn’t ever be not as good at keeping someone alive.”

It was the clumsiest way he’d ever been told someone loved him, but he’d take it.

“Your mom loved you as much as Sarah’s loved her,” he said.

“You don’t know that,” she said. They’d have to talk about how they felt this way, these indirect comments, these pointless arguments, Grace a witness, a referee, the control rod in the nuclear reactor; how they cared for each other was too big for the little words there were. As long as he lived, he’d be sleeping on his deaf ear, listening for Ellie in the night.

“Yeah, I think I do,” he said.

Ellie ducked her chin down and looked up at him, her eyes bright, her expression skeptical. She wanted to be sure, of her mother and of him, because he’d pushed her away at the beginning, told her to shut up, sit down, stay put. Grace had left her the larger slice of cake or pie or the last cookie, ate the heel of the loaf when Ellie wrinkled her nose at it, shoved over whenever Ellie crowded her on the couch, told Ellie about every disgusting object she’d ever fished out of someone’s ass to Ellie’s obvious, ghoulish delight; she was sure of Grace.

“You can’t prove it,” she said. If she hadn’t been sitting down, she would have put her hands on her hips, as if he needed the emphasis.

“There’s plenty I know without being able to prove,” Joel said.

“Yeah?” Ellie said. He’d almost won her over. It would just take a little more, except he had to get it all right. The tone of his voice and his expression, how he held his hands, the length of the pause before he responded.

“Yeah.”

“That was an impressively succinct closing argument you made, counselor,” Grace remarked once he’d blown out the lamp on the bedside table. There was still enough moonlight to see by, though she was cast in silver now instead of gold and she was propped up on her side, the pose provocative, her ancient sweatshirt layered over a flannel nightgown more intimate than lingerie and far warmer.

“I never wanted to be a lawyer,” he said.

“Seems like there’s a lot you never wanted to be. You still get the job done, whatever it takes,” she said. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, thinking of the way Ellie had smiled when he reminded her about needing to wake up early for her work mucking out the stalls at the stable. The way she’d managed to bump into him as she walked to her bedroom, shuffling along in her sock-feet. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

#the last of us #tlou #fanfiction #tlou x ted lasso au #joel/ofc #joel & ellie #joel & sarah #sarah's mother #tessa-quayle #hope this dovetails #grief #parent-child #tw: death of a parent #father/daughter relationship #title from mark jarman poem #family feels

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beaft · 6 months

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a small child came into the café today and asked to buy a chocolate truffle. he tapped a credit card on the reader and it did not go through, mainly because it was not a credit card but in fact a junior cinema pass. i gently explained he couldn't use that to buy things in shops and he looked so gutted that i was like "...but just this once you can have it for free, don't tell my boss though" he said thank you and walked out with his truffle and as he went i heard him chuckling to himself and saying "yes..... yes!!!!!" like the sickos comic

#slightly dotty child or world's most precocious scam artist? you decide.#i asked where his parents were and apparently they were queuing for a table at the restaurant across the street #he even pointed them out to me #so don't worry this was not an unsupervised bébé #be shh now #containment breach

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marisatomay · 5 months

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Parents get sooooooo mad when anyone even remotely implies that if we know it negatively impacts adults then it’s probably quite detrimental to the health and development of a young mind to stick an iPad in front of a child any time they show signs of Behaviors. “Are you calling me a bad parent?” Yeah. I am.

#‘if you don’t have kids then you don’t get to have parenting opinions!!’#well—as a former child of parents—

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thatrandomblogsays · 4 months

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Annabeth: I, a child, had to earn Thalia’s love, that’s how the world works! I have to earn my moms love. Love is transactional, you gotta be worthy of it first silly :)

Percy, listening to this on the train

#STOP TRAUMATIZING THIS CHILD PLEASE #this is what it’s like when you were raised in a loving home and you find out your friend wasn’t #but they don’t know they weren’t #so you’re like um hey that’s fucked up and sometimes a crime?#you tell them parents are supposed to love you as is without earning it and they don’t believe you #you can hear the therapy bill racking up #annabeth chase #Percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #pjo series #pjo tv show #mine #adding on to my tags because some people are debating if that’s how love works #love is meant to be a mutual exchange and something that grows over time between two people as their bond grows #whereas how Annabeth says it #in my opinion at least #she had to do XY and Z to be worthy of thalias love before receiving it #like with her mother #she has to be amazing before Athena is proud of her #vs Athena being proud of her just for being her daughter #that being said I’m not hating on a traumatized child having potentially negative and toxic patterns #more pointing out the comedy of the scene from Percy’s perspective who has a good grasp on healthy vs unhealthy relationships

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artkaninchenbau · 3 months

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Crocodile finds a strange stray cat an 11-year old Nico Robin (AU where they met 13 years earlier. Robin's been on the run from the World Government for 3 years. Crocodile's 27 and has not set up base in Alabasta yet)

It seems like I have become possessed. By some sort of demon.

Bonus:

#My art #One Piece #Nico Robin #Sir Crocodile #Y'all the OP brainrot is BAD #According to an SBS Crocodile would absolutely spoil his child rotten if he had one. *We all know how Robin's childhood went*#Scary mofo who does not know how to parent a child but boy does he have the spirit + Child who has never had proper parent in her life #They'd make. An absolute disaster of a duo. This AU concept is so fucking funny to me okay #But also sad because I would fucking die for baby Robin she deserves the fucking world #This poor girl has never been spoiled in her entire life AND NOW PAPADILE IS HERE TO SPOIL HER #You know it's funny. I know 11 yo Robin should LOOK older than 8 year old Robin. But Crocodile is a fucking giant so she's still baby sized #Also I just had too much fun drawing Robin looking as pathetic as humanly possible lmao #She's a like a wet kitten in the rain 😭

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cemeterything · 4 months

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are we still doing this because i have a late submission

#🐉#this is less about fan content and more about that awful lazy one size fits all #'10 years later theyre happily married with a cute little nuclear family' trope #because ive read some genuinely incredible fics about characters who would Not fucking have kids #ending up with accidental pregnancy scares or child acquisitions that get treated with all the nuance #and thoughtful handling they deserve #but also. i reread one of my favourite fics yesterday and when one character jokingly brought up the idea of children #and the other reacted with genuine visceral disgust and said what hideously awful parents theyd be #i lit up like a fucking christmas tree

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refersmss · 10 days

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Nurturing Your Child’s Mental Health: Recognizing Signs and Offering Support

In the journey of parenting, there’s perhaps no responsibility more paramount than safeguarding the mental well-being of our children. Just as we tend to their physical health, nurturing their emotional and psychological welfare is essential for their overall development and happiness.

While children may not always articulate their feelings or struggles in a straightforward manner, there are subtle signs that, when recognized early, can serve as invaluable cues for intervention and support. Here, we delve into these signs and explore proactive ways to foster a nurturing environment for our children's mental health.

Understanding the Signs

1. Changes in Behavior:

Withdrawal: Your child might start to withdraw from social interactions or activities they once enjoyed.

Irritability: Noticeable changes in mood or increased irritability can indicate internal struggles.

Changes in Appetite or Sleep Patterns: Significant shifts in eating or sleeping habits may signal underlying stress or anxiety.

2. Physical Symptoms:

Frequent Aches and Pains: Complaints of stomachaches or headaches, especially without a clear medical cause, could be stress-related.

Fatigue: Persistent tiredness or lack of energy might be linked to emotional distress.

3. Emotional Cues:

Excessive Worry: Persistent or exaggerated worries about various aspects of life, including school, relationships, or the future.

Low Self-Esteem: Negative self-talk or a diminished sense of self-worth can be indicators of underlying mental health concerns.

Mood Swings: Noticeable fluctuations in mood or emotional stability may suggest internal turmoil.

Supporting Your Child’s Mental Health

1. Foster Open Communication:

Create a safe and non-judgmental space where your child feels comfortable expressing their thoughts and emotions.

Listen actively and empathetically, validating their feelings and concerns without dismissing them.

2. Educate Yourself:

Equip yourself with knowledge about common mental health issues in children and adolescents.

Understand developmental stages and age-appropriate behaviors to contextualize your child’s experiences.

3. Encourage Healthy Habits:

Prioritize regular physical activity, adequate sleep, and a balanced diet, as these factors play crucial roles in mental well-being.

Limit screen time and encourage activities that promote relaxation and creativity.

4. Seek Professional Guidance:

If you notice persistent or concerning signs, consider consulting with a mental health professional.

Therapy can provide valuable tools and coping strategies for children to navigate their emotions effectively.

5. Lead by Example:

Model healthy coping mechanisms and problem-solving skills in your own behavior.

Demonstrate resilience in the face of challenges, showcasing the importance of self-care and seeking support when needed.

Conclusion

Prioritizing your child’s mental health is an ongoing journey that requires patience, understanding, and unwavering support. By recognizing the signs of distress early on and taking proactive steps to address them, you can empower your child to navigate life’s challenges with resilience and confidence. Together, let’s create a nurturing environment where every child feels valued, heard, and supported in their journey towards emotional well-being. If you want to read more these type of articles so visit here Refersms

#parenting #parenting tips #teenagers #health #Mentalhealth #Support #Therapy #Emotional #Physicalsymptoms #Emotionalsupport #Healthyhabbit #Parent-Child

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