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ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Hairpins," "Blended," "Am I Not," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Querencia," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," "Green Eggs and Hulk," and "kintsukuroi."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Nick Fury
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Minor character death. Bullying. Fighting. Suicide attempt (minor character).
Summary: This is the story of how a little boy named Flip grows up to save the world a lot.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. Accidents. Emotional whump. Disability. Sibling relationship. Nonsexual love. Parentification. Manipulation. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Protection. Caregiving. Competence. Toys and games. Comic books. Fixing things. Martial arts. Gentleness. Trust. Role models. Military. BAMF Phil Coulson.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Skip to Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10.
"Little and Broken, but Still Good" Part 5
Flip doesn't have a lot of toys. Some kids have a whole room full of them. His family can't afford to buy everything he wants, or to replace everything that needs it, but that's okay. Flip likes keeping his room tidy. All his toys have a place to live, boxes and shelves neatly organized. Flip likes fixing things that get broken and finding things that get lost. He learns how to make simple repairs and how to search carefully. It helps him feel safe in a world that is scarier than it used to be.
Captain America makes him feel safer too. Flip loves the comic books with their bold colors and exciting stories. More than that, though, he loves how Captain America always does what's right, no matter how hard it is. Captain America never acts like a bully even though he is big and strong. He uses his strength to protect people. Flip likes having someone to look up to, especially with his father gone.
Flip also enjoys reusing things that somebody else isn't using. Alexa doesn't play with her dolls as much as she used to. It's hard for her to remember where things go, too. Flip helps Alexa sort out her stuff. He leaves her the few dolls that she still likes, and takes some of the others to his own rooms.
Flip likes to cuddle the baby dolls. He loves the dress-up dolls, too. Sometimes he puts them in beautiful ball gowns and imagines taking them to a dance in the city. Other times he puts them in G.I. Joe uniforms and has them storm the Kremlin. He doesn't have enough soldiers, so the troops need all the support they can get. He has to be careful, though, because if his toys go "missing in action" around the house, Mom holds them hostage until he cleans up the room better.
Not everyone takes care of their things as well as Flip does. Sometimes he finds toys, or worse, parts of toys that other kids have lost or thrown away. It makes him feel sad to see fun things forgotten like that. So Flip picks them up and takes them home. The plastic heroes are missing arms or legs, and one of them has no head. Once in a while Flip manages to put together a whole toy from pieces he has found. That makes him feel warm and happy inside. Then he puts it on the shelf with his other good toys. The rest of the "rescue" toys stay in their box under his bed.
One cold day, a glint of colorful metal catches Flip's eye. He crouches over the frozen puddle behind his grade school. There under the ice lies a Captain America action figure. Flip can just make out the fact that the tin soldier is missing its right arm and shield. He doesn't care. He is not about to leave Captain America trapped in the ice.
Flip has watched television shows about digging up dinosaur bones, so he knows that he needs to work slowly and carefully. He finds a rock with a good point. Then he chips away the ice around the battered toy until he can lift it free. Finally Flip tugs off his gloves and uses his warm hands to melt the remaining ice.
Captain America lies in the palm of Flip's hand. The tin is scratched in places, silver-gray metal showing through the red and blue paint. The shoulder socket is bent a little where the right arm has torn away. But the determined look on Cap's face is unchanged. Gently Flip rubs away the grit and cleans the toy as best he can. He'll need to go over it again with a nail brush and some toothpicks to get all the mud out of the grooves. Flip puts Cap in his pocket and stands up.
He is so late getting home that he misses supper. His mother scolds him. Flip shows her the tin soldier and explains all about rescuing Captain America. Mom's face softens then. "Oh, Flip," she says, hugging him close. "I understand, I really do. You can't stay out so late, though. You really scared me."
"I'm sorry for scaring you, Mom," he says. Flip volunteers for extra chores, and Mom doesn't take him to the park that Saturday. But Captain America sleeps safe under Flip's bed in a nest of fabric scraps, just in case Flip ever finds an arm and a shield for him, so it's worth it.
* * *
Notes:
Organizing things can make people feel more in control when other parts of their lives are in chaos. It also helps people with traumatic brain injury, because they usually don't remember things as well as they used to. There are tips and images for how to organize children's rooms, along with steps for getting organized in general.
Know how to clean and repair toys. There are individual instructions for such things as fixing plastic toys or repairing vehicles. Searching for lost items is another useful skill.
Children need role models and heroes. Know how to talk with your children about heroes, or choose your own role models.
Baby dolls and fashion dolls are just two examples of toys used in doll play. This teaches many skills to both boys and girls. Despite the belief that "boys don't like dolls," at least one study shows that baby boys do. Gendering toys is a disservice to all children.
Toy soldiers may include various subtypes such as tin soldiers and action figures. Although some parents abhor "war toys" they can teach useful skills such as cooperation, planning, and imagination. This is especially true for children who do a little research, and this is exactly how Flip plays with toy soldiers.
Digging for fossils requires a lot of patience and precision. Toys may be frozen in ice for children to remove as a science experiment or superhero game.
Positive discipline includes such things as logical consequences, which are different from punishments. Missing a fun trip is a logical consequence for coming home late. Making amends is more than just a verbal apology; it includes concrete action to make up for the offense. This helps in small and large issues. In particular, offering some kind of recompense rather than waiting for an imposed punishment is a good way of showing genuine remorse. Understand how to apologize and how to regain parental trust after a mistake. Everyone goofs sometimes; good people own up to it and fix it as best they can.
[To be continued in Part 6 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, Nick Fury
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: Minor character death. Bullying. Fighting. Suicide attempt (minor character).
Summary: This is the story of how a little boy named Flip grows up to save the world a lot.
Notes: Hurt/comfort. Family. Fluff and angst. Accidents. Emotional whump. Disability. Sibling relationship. Nonsexual love. Parentification. Manipulation. Coping skills. Asking for help and getting it. Hope. Protection. Caregiving. Competence. Toys and games. Comic books. Fixing things. Martial arts. Gentleness. Trust. Role models. Military. BAMF Phil Coulson.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4. Skip to Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10.
"Little and Broken, but Still Good" Part 5
Flip doesn't have a lot of toys. Some kids have a whole room full of them. His family can't afford to buy everything he wants, or to replace everything that needs it, but that's okay. Flip likes keeping his room tidy. All his toys have a place to live, boxes and shelves neatly organized. Flip likes fixing things that get broken and finding things that get lost. He learns how to make simple repairs and how to search carefully. It helps him feel safe in a world that is scarier than it used to be.
Captain America makes him feel safer too. Flip loves the comic books with their bold colors and exciting stories. More than that, though, he loves how Captain America always does what's right, no matter how hard it is. Captain America never acts like a bully even though he is big and strong. He uses his strength to protect people. Flip likes having someone to look up to, especially with his father gone.
Flip also enjoys reusing things that somebody else isn't using. Alexa doesn't play with her dolls as much as she used to. It's hard for her to remember where things go, too. Flip helps Alexa sort out her stuff. He leaves her the few dolls that she still likes, and takes some of the others to his own rooms.
Flip likes to cuddle the baby dolls. He loves the dress-up dolls, too. Sometimes he puts them in beautiful ball gowns and imagines taking them to a dance in the city. Other times he puts them in G.I. Joe uniforms and has them storm the Kremlin. He doesn't have enough soldiers, so the troops need all the support they can get. He has to be careful, though, because if his toys go "missing in action" around the house, Mom holds them hostage until he cleans up the room better.
Not everyone takes care of their things as well as Flip does. Sometimes he finds toys, or worse, parts of toys that other kids have lost or thrown away. It makes him feel sad to see fun things forgotten like that. So Flip picks them up and takes them home. The plastic heroes are missing arms or legs, and one of them has no head. Once in a while Flip manages to put together a whole toy from pieces he has found. That makes him feel warm and happy inside. Then he puts it on the shelf with his other good toys. The rest of the "rescue" toys stay in their box under his bed.
One cold day, a glint of colorful metal catches Flip's eye. He crouches over the frozen puddle behind his grade school. There under the ice lies a Captain America action figure. Flip can just make out the fact that the tin soldier is missing its right arm and shield. He doesn't care. He is not about to leave Captain America trapped in the ice.
Flip has watched television shows about digging up dinosaur bones, so he knows that he needs to work slowly and carefully. He finds a rock with a good point. Then he chips away the ice around the battered toy until he can lift it free. Finally Flip tugs off his gloves and uses his warm hands to melt the remaining ice.
Captain America lies in the palm of Flip's hand. The tin is scratched in places, silver-gray metal showing through the red and blue paint. The shoulder socket is bent a little where the right arm has torn away. But the determined look on Cap's face is unchanged. Gently Flip rubs away the grit and cleans the toy as best he can. He'll need to go over it again with a nail brush and some toothpicks to get all the mud out of the grooves. Flip puts Cap in his pocket and stands up.
He is so late getting home that he misses supper. His mother scolds him. Flip shows her the tin soldier and explains all about rescuing Captain America. Mom's face softens then. "Oh, Flip," she says, hugging him close. "I understand, I really do. You can't stay out so late, though. You really scared me."
"I'm sorry for scaring you, Mom," he says. Flip volunteers for extra chores, and Mom doesn't take him to the park that Saturday. But Captain America sleeps safe under Flip's bed in a nest of fabric scraps, just in case Flip ever finds an arm and a shield for him, so it's worth it.
* * *
Notes:
Organizing things can make people feel more in control when other parts of their lives are in chaos. It also helps people with traumatic brain injury, because they usually don't remember things as well as they used to. There are tips and images for how to organize children's rooms, along with steps for getting organized in general.
Know how to clean and repair toys. There are individual instructions for such things as fixing plastic toys or repairing vehicles. Searching for lost items is another useful skill.
Children need role models and heroes. Know how to talk with your children about heroes, or choose your own role models.
Baby dolls and fashion dolls are just two examples of toys used in doll play. This teaches many skills to both boys and girls. Despite the belief that "boys don't like dolls," at least one study shows that baby boys do. Gendering toys is a disservice to all children.
Toy soldiers may include various subtypes such as tin soldiers and action figures. Although some parents abhor "war toys" they can teach useful skills such as cooperation, planning, and imagination. This is especially true for children who do a little research, and this is exactly how Flip plays with toy soldiers.
Digging for fossils requires a lot of patience and precision. Toys may be frozen in ice for children to remove as a science experiment or superhero game.
Positive discipline includes such things as logical consequences, which are different from punishments. Missing a fun trip is a logical consequence for coming home late. Making amends is more than just a verbal apology; it includes concrete action to make up for the offense. This helps in small and large issues. In particular, offering some kind of recompense rather than waiting for an imposed punishment is a good way of showing genuine remorse. Understand how to apologize and how to regain parental trust after a mistake. Everyone goofs sometimes; good people own up to it and fix it as best they can.
[To be continued in Part 6 ...]
Thank you!
Date: 2014-08-05 01:29 am (UTC)I'm glad to hear that.
>> Also feeling all the FEEELS about Cap in the ice. You are mean to our feels in all the best ways. =) <<
Well, I tipped that bit of personal history in a previous story, so I really wanted to include it here. That was a very important moment for Flip, that continues to influence Phil.