The fear of judgement
Nancy asked for a oneshot of Emma feeling like Snow is judging her parenting style because they're different types of parents. She acts irrationally and stops Eira and Dewey from seeing Snowing. When confronted, Emma admits that she doesn't know if she's doing it right and Snow's the perfect mom. Emma doesn't feel like she can match up.
I'll make my way through my list ASAP, but I have my last EVER uni exam on Friday (wish me luck!) so that's taking a lot of my time ATM. I just had to get something out today after that episode though. The feels! After that though, I'm totally free! Thus why I'm waiting till May to do my oneshot every day ;). Please keep these requests coming guys, I'm gonna need them!
Snow just didn't understand. She knew that because Emma had grown up without a family, she wanted her children surrounded by as much of theirs as possible. So naturally, she and Charming saw their grandkids on a near daily basis. Well, that was until recently, when Emma seemed to suddenly be "too busy" to bring the kids around at all. Snow had tried going round there, calling them, catching Emma after work. Nothing was working. She seemed to be keeping herself, and the kids, away from Snow and Charming. Well, now they'd had enough. They wanted an explanation. Snow had sneakily spoken to Eira (who was in kindergarten) during recess, and knew for a fact that Emma would be in that evening. So she and Charming made an surprise visit, making sure to bring their key to Emma's house with them. They weren't being caught out by anything.
"Just as!" Charming called as they came through the door. "We were at the park with Neal and thought we'd stop by!"
"Papa!" Came an excited little voice. Three year old Dewey came tottering into the hall and collided into his papa.
"Hey champ!" Charming greeted him enthusiastically, picking him up. "I missed you."
"I missed you too." Dewey responded, hugging him. Eira soon followed her brother, then Henry. He seemed to look a little awkward. Snow and Charming suspected he knew why his mom was avoiding them, but didn't want to put him under any pressure.
"How's college, honey?" Snow asked him. Henry smiled. He was home for spring break.
"It's good." He told her. "I'm learning lots. Although the creative writing module isn't as good as being in class with you." Snow smiled, caressing his cheek.
"You take after your grandfather." She teased him. Just then, Emma came out into the hall.
"Oh." She said, rather unenthusiastically. "Hi."
"Hey Em." Charming greeted her. "Your brother was missing you. So were we."
"Uh, hey Neal." Emma greeted her brother, ruffling his hair. "Dewey and Eira were playing catch with Henry and their dad outside. He's still out there. Why don't you join them for a while, huh? I can drop him off at your house later this evening…"
"I think Neal would love to play with his niece and nephews. We'll stay inside with you." Snow interrupted her daughter. She wasn't getting away that easily. Emma frowned, but nodded. She supposed this was bound to happen eventually.
The kids all went out with Henry, leaving an awkward silence between Emma and her parents.
"We want to know what's going on, Emma." Charming asked her. "Please don't insult us by lying and saying nothing. You've clearly been avoiding us. What's worse, you've been keeping the kids from us too. Even Henry hasn't been round since he got home." Emma sat down, nodding. He was right. She had been doing all those things.
"It's hard, you guys watching me mess this all up. I just needed a break from it for a while." Emma admitted quietly. Snow and Charming were confused.
"Mess what up?" Charming asked her as he and Snow sat either side of her.
"Being a parent." Emma admitted. "Don't act all surprised. I know there have been times when you must have winced at some of the decisions I've made. We're such different parents. Mom and I are such different mothers. You were more into all that attachment parenting. I'm more of an independence encouraging parent. Not that you don't encourage Neal to be independent, we just go about things so differently. What I'm really trying to say is, it's hard trying to measure up when you're mother is the perfect Snow White." Emma grumbled. Snow was a bit taken aback by that.
"You think I'm the perfect mother?" Snow asked her. Emma didn't respond, but she didn't reject the claim, either. "Well, I'm flattered, but Emma, you couldn't be further from the truth." Snow told her. "I've made more than my fair share of mistakes with Neal alone. With you, sweetheart, I could write a book on the mistakes I made as a mother to you." Snow said, reaching out and cupping Emma's cheek. "I think encouraging independence goes a bit too far when you place your baby through a magical wardrobe to another realm."
"You were just giving me my best chance, I get that." Emma told her. Snow smiled warmly at her.
"That didn't make it easier for us." Charming said, knowing what Snow was thinking. He began to rub soothing circles on Emma's back. "You always do the best for your kids as well. Emma, we can honestly say we have never once judged you for any of your parenting decisions. You've always done your best, just like we have. Sure, it hasn't always worked out, but that's part of being a parent. Why would you ever think we would be judging you?" Charming asked, hurt. Emma shrugged.
"Why wouldn't you?" She asked in return. "It feels like I'm pretty bad at it." Snow took Emma into her arms.
"You listen to me, Emma Swan." Snow told her. "I promise you, that one day, Eira will tell you that she thinks you were the perfect mother and that she can't ever be as good as you. Here is what you tell her. You are a brilliant mother. Yes, maybe you aren't perfect, but neither was I. I always did my best for you. I'm glad that you can look back and see that. That means I done my job right." Snow then kissed Emma's forehead. "Think you can stop avoiding us now? We miss our grandkids, and we miss our baby girl." Emma went pink, she still wasn't used to the pet names.
"I guess I was being a bit stupid, huh?" Emma admitted. Charming kissed the top of her head.
"Maybe a little bit silly, but not stupid. We can all do silly things though. I'm just glad we got it all straightened out." Emma rested her head against his shoulder.
"Me too, dad." She sighed. She really had missed them.
