aetherspoon's Tumblr

Parents really post stuff like this online and wonder why their kids don't trust them

The purpose of child hero stories is not "this universe is abusive toward children and no one has child age labor laws" it is that they are stories written for children so that they can see themselves overcoming challenges and defeating monsters.

You're right and you should say it

stories like these have probably helped countless kids out there

Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.

C.S. Lewis

“Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already. Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.”

G.K. Chesterton

I experienced homelessness as a child and spent a lot of time in public libraries with my family, because it was one of the few public indoor spaces that didn’t cost any money and was good for us. I read these types of stories constantly.

Because of these child hero stories, I never lost hope when I was young. I eventually became the first doctor in my family and now spend my career providing free healthcare to disadvantaged people like me.

Writers never doubt that your work is vital and that it saves lives. Authors told me that I could slay dragons and I never questioned it.

This, this, this this, this is so important

There was a blog I used to follow (and recently blocked because I was fed up with them) where they would frequently make points that went like "well this trope would be problematic in real life so this work of fiction in a fictional not realistic world should either depict the trope as problematic or do away with it altogether"

Particularly with stories involving child protagonists

Child heroes are, first and foremost, fighting a battle against malice, indifference and greed. They defeat all of them through compassion, caring, courage, trust and selflessness. These enemies might appear in the story as an evil wizard, a gluttonous cat, a terrible dragon or an ancient god, it doesn't matter. The message is, no matter what form they take, they can all be defeated through compassion, caring, courage, trust and selflessness. If you erase the child hero, you tell our children, "you need to be big, you need to be strong, so you can punch that thing in the face, there is no other way to deal with stuff."

And that would be our undoing.

Hi, this was me.

I can now not "perform pain correctly" - THat is, I can't get other people to realize I am in pain because of practice against letting it EVER show- Often I can't even identify it, because through the well meaning ignorance of my loving parents I was raised to internalize and ignore any and all discomfort. If I said it hurt, no it didn't, and if it hurt badly no it wasn't that bad, and I should be quiet and sit stil to be hurt like a good girl for hair brushing, curling irons and all sorts of other mundane pain. That was good and praiseworthy, to swallow your own pain like poison until you didn't notice the taste. Until you *couldn't* identify the taste anymore.

Now i have a hard time even identifying if I am aching somewhere because I am so used to my pain needing to be hidden and ignored as totally as possible, and not mattering to anyone but me and I shouldn't care either...

So yeah now I'm in therapy for a lot of that.

*stares into the near distance*

you'll never be punk yr clothes are from shein and yr makeup is from tiktok

it's dawned on me that no one can stop me from my childhood dream of having a bed tent

i could at last fulfill my deep-rooted need to be Enclosed

this barbie contracts dysentery on the oregon trail

These appeal to my need for creature comforts

I am a Creature and I want to crawl into a little Cave and Snooze or perhaps Hibernate

Box beds used to be a thing! We need to bring them back.

Like IKEA wouldn't be so ready to flatpack this shit.

One of my friends in HS had something very much like this, except it was built into the wall of his bedroom and had shelves all along the inside. It had cute little pocket doors. I was obsessed with it. He was always toasty warm even after the wood stove burned down.

(Most of the ppl I knew in HS heated their homes at least part time with wood stoves bc the electric goes out in the mountains and sometimes you can't get oil delivery for weeks in the winter.)

My face is having uncontrollable spasms. Great. It hurts really, really, really bad.

I think part of why I have trouble explaining pain to the doctor is when they ask about the pain scale I always think “Well, if someone threw me down a flight of stairs right now or punched me a few times, it would definitely hurt a lot more” so I end up saying a low number. I was reading an article that said that “10” is the most commonly reported number and that is baffling to me. When I woke up from surgery with an 8" incision in my body and I could hardly even speak, I was in the most horrific pain of my life but I said “6” because I thought “Well, if you hit me in the stomach, it would be worse.”

I searched and searched for the post this graphic was from, and the OP deactivated, but I kept the graphic, because my BFF does the same thing, uses her imagination to come up with the worst pain she can imagine and pegs her “10″ there, and so is like, well, I’m conscious, so this must be a 5, and then the doctors don’t take her seriously. (And she then does things like driving herself to the hospital while in the process of giving birth. Probably should have called an ambulance for that one!)

So I found this and sent it to her. Because this is what they want to know: how badly is this pain affecting you? Not on a scale of “nothing” to “how I’d imagine it’d feel if bears were eating my still-living guts while I was on fire”. 

I hate reposting stuff, but I’ll never find that post again and OP is deactivated, so, here’s a repost. I can delete this later, i just wanted to get it to you and I can’t embed images in a chat or an ask. 

This is possibly why it took several weeks to diagnose my fractured spine.

Pain Scale transcription:

10 - I am in bed and I can’t move due to my pain. I need someone to take me to the emergency room because of my pain.

9 - My pain is all that I can think about. I can barely move or talk because of my pain.

8 - My pain is so severe that it is difficult to think of anything else. Talking and listening are difficult.

7 - I am in pain all the time. It keeps me from doing most activities.

6 - I think about my pain all of the time. I give up many activities because of my pain.

5 - I think about my pain most of the time. I cannot do some of the activities I need to do each day because of the pain.

4 - I am constantly aware of my pain but can continue most activities.

3 - My pain bothers me but I can ignore it most of the time.

2 - I have a low level of pain. I am aware of my pain only when I pay attention to it.

1 - My pain is hardly noticeable.

0 - I have no pain.

It’s also really important to get this kind of scale to people who have chronic pain, because chronic pain drastically lowers your perception of how “bad” any kind of pain actually is, and yet something like this pain scale is extremely user friendly. 

For example, if someone asked me how much pain I’m in at any given time, I’d say hardly any, and yet I’m apparently at a chronic 2.5, and it only goes up from there depending on the day. 

There’s also a similarly useful “Fatigue Scale”

I haven’t been below a 5 on this scale for 4 years 

Here’s the fatigue scale

Fatigue scale image desc:

10: can barely move; can’t talk

9: can barely move; can talk

8: can move, but can’t do much more than watch TV

7: can watch TV and play a game on my phone simultaneously

6: can do work on my computer lying in bed

5: can get around the house, but definitely couldn’t go out

4: can run a light errand

3: can get in my 10,000 steps, making my fitbit happy

2: can do three or more activities in a single day

1: going clubbing!

See also the Mental Health Pain Scale by Graceful Patient:

Mental Health Pain Scale transcription:

MILD

1 - Everything is a-okay! There is absolutely nothing wrong. You’re probably cuddling a fluffy kitten right now. Enjoy!

2 - You’re a bit frustrated or disappointed, but you’re easily distracted and cheered up with a little effort.

3 - Things are bothering you, but you’re coping. You might be overtired or hungry. The emotional equivalent of a headache.

MODERATE

4 - Today is a bad day (or a few bad days). You still have the skills to get through it, but be gentle with yourself. Use self-care strategies.

5 - Your mental health is starting to impact on your everyday life. Easy things are becoming difficult. You should talk to your doctor.

6 - You can’t do things the way you usually do them due to your mental health. Impulsive and compulsive thoughts may be hard to cope with.

SEVERE

7 - You’re avoiding things that make you more distressed, but that will make it worse. You should definitely seek help. This is serious.

8 - You can’t hide your struggles any more. You may have issues sleeping, eating, having fun, socialising, and work/study. Your mental health is affecting almost all parts of your life.

9 - You’re at a critical point. You aren’t functioning any more. You need urgent help. You may be a risk to yourself or others if left untreated.

10 - The worst mental and emotional distress possible. You can no longer care for yourself. You can’t imagine things getting any worse. Contact a crisis line immediately.

These are so important! SO SO IMPORTANT SHARE THIS AND SAVE IT TO SHOW YOUR DOCTORS!

This is the first time I’ve seen the fatigue scale, and HOLY MOLY that’s a revelation!!! These should be on all hospital and doctor office walls.

I’ve never seen the mental health one! or the fatigue one! I printed out the pain one and gave it to my GP. 

smartphone storage plateauing in favor of just storing everything in the cloud is such dogshit. i should be able to have like a fucking terabyte of data on my phone at this point. i hate the fucking cloud

this is gonna make me sound very Old Man Yells At Cloud but i just hate how many things in my life assume i will always have access to a quick, reliable internet connection and almost cease to function without it. Obviously certain things Have To Have An Internet Connection, but i want to be able to listen to music if my service is bad. i want to still watch movies if Netflix is down. i want to have a working map when i can’t get a cell signal. nearly every tech product these days bears the fingerprint of the extremely internet-rich places they are developed, high rent offices in Seattle, San Francisco, etc.. I think often the idea of the internet not being available is so remote to them it doesn’t even factor in to development. i remember when the Xbox One was debuted and Microsoft was almost mockingly like “if you don’t have reliable fast internet, then don’t bother buying this”, and there was such backlash they completely went back on so much of that. But now that attitude is just the tech norm.

No you're right and you should say it

My wife (a Professional IT Nerd) constantly tells people There Is No Cloud, It's Just Someone Else's Computer. The idea that you're just putting something on another computer and not in a Magical Cloud doesn't seem to occur to a lot of people.

SHE THINKS HER LAUGH IS A SONG SO SHE SINGS BACK

They probably haven’t eaten in a whole 3 seconds

US state borders but they are based off rivers and mountains

@blinded-by-love

I think we should do this but leave Colorado alone so there’s just an extremely jarring rectangle in one part of this

I like how you think.

enough. to the Box with you

We’re all goin here right

Imagine if play was something encouraged in adults, places to run and jump and climb because it's fun

I never know what the machines do at the gym, but i will clamber to the top of the tower to slide into a ball pit

I am 100% certain I would be in better physical condition if adults were allowed to play in ways that focus on fun and aren't competitive.

You were the caretaker for the mythical beasts of the royal family. Yesterday they decided to replace you with some incompetent noble, before kicking you out of the castle. You then spent the night in a nearby forest. However today you were awakened by the beasts who chose to follow you.

I’m not good with people.

I never have been. I’ve tried, but I’ve never been good with people. I’m always saying the wrong thing, and usually I don’t know what the wrong thing was until a lot later, until I’m thinking about what I said. In the town I grew up in, I was known for being simple.

I don’t think I am, but I understand why they think that- I’m not good at making the words in my head match the words I say.

But I am good with animals. Always have been. Lots of people are, I’m not special, or anything. Mam taught me.

Animals speak their own language, and it’s a lot simpler to figure out. They’re not people, they don’t understand us. A lot of people who are bad at animals expect that. They think an animal should understand them perfectly. They think animals have human impulses, human urges, a human understanding of the world.

And they don’t.

all the new god portraits (so far) in hades 2 !!!