#hester rambles

[elaynezireael]

I've seen "I don't know how to play with toys anymore" a few times lately and just wanted to point out-

Playing with toys looks different for everyone, even actual children!

Playing with toys can look like: 🧸🪁🚂

Taking pictures of your toys and writing captions for them

Brushing or grooming soft toys or toys with rooted hair

Ordering or sorting your toys by colour/species etc

Making up stories, poems or comics about your toys

Dressing or accessorising your toys

Imagining your toys talking to you or each other, forming opinions of their own, etc

Drawing your toys

Taking your toys for a walk outside, even in a backpack or pocket if you don't want to carry them openly

Making lists of the toys you have and where you got them etc

Feel free to add your own ideas

[elaynezireael]

If Pokemon were real, you know there'd be one huge Pokemon blogger posting "I just caught my 1025th Pokemon, here's how I did it" and there'd be call-out posts, accusations of animal hoarding, welfare checks involved, people getting cancelled, 'battles are abuse', making fun of low-income people who only have one Pokemon instead of a full team, "are people who train dark and psychic types more likely to be narcissistic abusers?", arguments over whether you should import Pokemon between regions in case they become invasive species, "only the working classes train psyducks" type snobbery, and on and on

[elaynezireael]

I don't want to be treated like a fragile helpless baby, I want to be treated like a little one just learning things for the first time

I want to get the level of praise and encouragement that little kids get that nobody gives you as an adult

"Great job! You did so well with this."

"I know you're scared but I'll be right here with you."

"It's alright, everybody makes mistakes, you can always try again."

"Even if you fail, I'll still love you."

"It's tough learning new things, isn't it? Nobody gets it right first time, don't be discouraged."

"You did your best and I'm so proud of you."

Edit: you know what, I didn't actually think as many of you were going to relate to this, but since this is getting notes:

I'm proud of you. I think you're doing great.

You don't need to compare yourself to others. I like you just the way you are.

I know you feel alienated sometimes, but I promise, you're always welcome here.

Yes, you've made mistakes. I've made them too! I still like you and so does everyone else!

Life is tough, but not all of us are. It's alright to be soft. Stay soft.

You will be just fine. We all will be just fine in the end.

I'm so sorry I had to add this

[elaynezireael]

Can't sleep so I decided at 6.30am that I'm going to make a purposefully crap website like I used to make when I was a little kid

It's gonna be stuff like "books I read in 2025 :)" "my plushies :)"

Edit: see the notes for latest updates!

Gillian's Magic Castle

[elaynezireael]

For anyone who needs to hear it:

Being nice to everyone and being a good friend etc doesn't mean you let everyone do whatever they want.

You can be a nice person and a good friend and still kindly but firmly set and enforce boundaries with others.

If they take issue with you setting boundaries for your own comfort and enjoyment, they are the issue, not you.

[elaynezireael]

I've seen 'I want a cg who will let me cling to them' and that is good and valid but

❤️ I want a cg who will give me space

🧡 I want a cg who understands the issues I have with touch or shutting down

💛 I want a cg who won't take it personally if I don't want to be hugged, if I can't talk, if I just want to be left alone for a while

💚 I want a cg who will meet me on my own terms, and gently help me to meet them on theirs too

💙 I want a cg who is patient and respectful of my boundaries

💜 I want a cg who will adapt how they care for me to take my needs into account

🩷 I want a cg who understands that I still love them even if I need space and alone time

sfw interaction only, thank you 💖

[elaynezireael]

Sometimes I like to look at expensive toys my parents could never have afforded when I was a kid and imagine what it would have been like if we'd been wealthy. Is that weird? anyway it makes the inner child happy

[elaynezireael]

tbh agere is involuntary for me because stress/trauma etc but also I'm not interested in preschool cartoons and stimboards so the general concern that I'm 'doing agere wrong' probably causes me more stress than it relieves