Overcompensating

SillySuperMan asked for a oneshot of an opposite chapter. Snowing overcompensating for missing Emma's childhood by giving Neal anything and letting him away with everything. This makes Emma feel worse about her upbringing. Snowing realise they have to accept that overcompensating for Neal won't bring back Emma's childhood.

It was getting too much for Emma. She couldn't stand to be in her parents' home much anymore. She knew Neal was in the terrible twos, but that wasn't any excuse, in Emma's eyes, for giving into him every time. Whatever Neal wanted, he got. Sometimes it felt like they were rubbing it in her face that she didn't get anything from them.

It took Snow and Charming less than a week to notice Emma's absence. Of course they noticed, she was their daughter, they had missed so much of her life that they hated it when so much as a day went by that they didn't see her. Five days was too much, and let the parents know something was wrong. Especially the lame excuses she was coming up with. Eventually, they convinced Emma to come round for a few hours to see if they could work out what was wrong. Whilst they were trying to talk to her, Neal started acting up.

"I want candy!" He began to demand with tears. Neither parent liked seeing him cry, so he was quickly handed a Kinder Bueno Bar. Emma rolled her eyes and fought the urge to just walk out. Unfortunately for her, her dad spotted it.

"What was that about?" Charming asked her. Emma clamped down.

"Nothing." She muttered. Snow and Charming looked at each other.

"Neal, come on. Mama's going to set your colouring book up in your room. Can you colour us in a nice picture?" Neal nodded, happily going off with his mom and his chocolate in his fist.

Snow came back down a couple of minutes later.

"Ok, don't shrug us off. What's going on?" Snow asked Emma.

"You give him everything that he wants." Emma said bitterly. "Whenever he wants it. It feels like you're flaunting that you kept him, sometimes." Emma admitted. Snow and Charming found that quite hard hitting. They knew they spoiled Neal sometimes, but they'd never really looked at it from Emma's perspective. They'd just missed so much with her, they were determined to make sure Neal never missed out. But maybe they'd gone too far.

"Ok, maybe we've been overcompensating a little." Charming admitted. "We lost so much with you, we've just been enjoying to raise a child from the beginning. But you're right, it's not the best path to take, for anyone. Including Neal. But please don't ever think we're rubbing it in your face that we didn't get to raise you. It will always be one of the biggest hurts in our life. Maybe it's time we stopped. Just, next time you're stressed with us, tell us? We missed you." Emma nodded. Maybe she should have just got it out and told them, but it wasn't an easy subject to address for them. Maybe that was a lesson for Emma too, she had to learn to be more vocal about her feelings to her parents. She just had to learn how to address her own feelings first.