What if Bruce banned Batman merch in the manor...
...but his children run a black market right under his nose?
There are many reasons why Bruce bans it. It ranges from self depreciating, to embarrassment, to practical 'Batman is supposed to be scary'.
It is unfortunate that he loves his children, and they lives to make his life difficult.At first it was just in the family. Dick has vintage stuff no one else had. Jason has a full-out seamstress that he wouldn't share with the class. Tim has an entire catalog and some ultra rare stuff. Damian straight created his own. Stephanie steals. Barbara deals. Cass trades favors. And Duke stopped attempting to hide after a week.
They could've at least hidden it better, but they don't. They wear suits and sit around the dining table in the fancy dinning room and run it like a Mafia trade.
There were full out wars! For Batman merch! Someone got thrown off the stairs at one point!And Alfred doesn't even try to stop them! He just let it happen!
Bruce wants to disappear under a rock
.He is fine with other hero merch! He even brought them for his children! Heck, he brought the merch of his children! Why do they have to do this to him???
Bruce.exe does not understand.
Anyways, at some point, dealing within the family wasn't enough for them anymore. No, they expanded.
Tim separates a W.E. branch out to make the merch, filed the right paperworks, got them approved, the whole legal administrative shebang.
Dick, Steph, Cass, and Duke made idea lists, and held meetings over designs every week.
Jason takes the textile part of the idea list to his seamstress, and gets her to make mock ups and settle the pattern.
Damian makes an entire collector's edition.
They made an operation so well thought out, and sustainable, that Poison Ivy would approve.
This was getting out of hand. Bruce thought he ought to cut them off before the potential lack of numbers hurts their feelings.
Apparently, Gotham, at least the normal people population, loves Batman. They, for real, believe that giving their child a Batman plushie would protect them from harm. That having a batarang sticker on their door would ward off evil. That having a little Batman keychain hanging on their bags and purses would prevent them from getting robbed.
This entire thing fries Bruce's brain for a good couple of days.
Then, because the universe hates him, his children released Wayne merch.
Those somehow sell even better than Batman merch.
Because Gotham, apparently loves him. Both sides of him. Because 'guy's a disaster, but he tries', 'Wayne Foundation helped my family', 'you can tell someone cares'.
That's when, with a little more help from his children, Bruce finally realizes that people don't care whether or not Batman, or Bruce Wayne, is perfect or not.
Gotham always knew. And the people stayed anyways. Because they can tell.
Bruce shuts himself in his room and cries as emotions process, until he falls asleep from exhaustion.
(it's ok, he wakes up buried under all of his children. And he is exactly where he wants to be.)
(no more self depreciating thoughts, at least for now)
(what he doesn't know is that his babies had a taste of positive reinforcement, and they are planning on expanding, again.)
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