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stormanbates · 1 year

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Donnie's Tantrums

Holy crap, this took forever! I have autism, and so I had to ask my mom what I was like when I went to daycare and babysitters' houses and I copied those stories to fit Donnie, except for the picky eating part. I wasn't that much of a picky eater as a kid, I pretty much ate everything I was told, except for foods that were too smooth, or had a lot of spices, and I was a pretty plain eater. Now that I'm an adult and can cook for myself, I've expanded my tastes. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about my oldest nephew, who is FAMOUS for being our family's pickiest eater. He's got the same tastes that Donnie has in this chapter. Peanut butter sandwiches, oatmeal, chocolate, plain pasta, and fruit is all this kid eats. Enjoy the story!

The Hidden City Daycare prides itself on making sure every toddler that visits their facility is safe, taught the value of friendship, and is taken care of well. Mrs. Calabash, head caretaker of the baby and toddler rooms, took great pride in making sure her room ran like a well oiled machine.

Donnie, even at 26 months, 1 week, 4 days, 7 hours, and 29 minutes old, loved efficiency.

Unless it interferes with his own interests.

The soft shelled turtle was on the spectrum, and had a very specific way of doing things and had to keep his routine on check.

And what happened if that didn't happen?

Donnie was usually a calm turtle, but when pushed, he wouldn't hesitate to bring the water works and throw himself on the floor in a tantrum. And when that happened, Mrs. Calabash would put him in a playpen adjacent to the play area so he could finish his tantrum, mainly to keep the other children from getting hurt from his thrashing body.

Donnie couldn't help it. He needed schedules. Routines kept him sane. And it didn't help that everyday Mrs. Calabash had something new for the kids she took care of.

In the short few months he had been going to daycare, he noticed different activities happening, such as a guest coming in to read a story to the infants, Mr. Kimpchi playing his guitar to soothe the little ones to sleep, or even Miss Yu bringing a new food for the tots to try during snack time.

But Mrs. Calabash would also do things out of order, and THAT would make Donnie lose his mind.

It just felt wrong when what he called "stacking block time" was switched with "music time".

Today was one of those days.

Donnie liked to start his day at daycare with some light reading. His twin, Leo, was more of a free spirit and wanted to play with his closest brother.

"Pway with me, Don!" Leo begged, tugging on his onesie.

Donnie retaliated by shoving his brother away, hating being touched. "No!" He yelled.

Leo pouted a bit, but decided to leave Donnie to do his boring stuff, and went to do something else.

Donnie picked a book on the shelf and began to read it. His brothers don't know it yet, but Donnie can read a little.

Splinter read to them every night and Donnie picked it up fast. He knew his ABCs and some simple words like "Dad", "Book", "Juice", "Bath", "iPad", and simple phrases like "I don't wanna take a nap", "I want the purple one", and most importantly "I don't like being touched!"

Donnie finished his book, and went to pick up the next one: a book about a little rabbit who dreamed of being in the Battle Nexus, when Mrs. Calabash stopped him.

"No, no, Donatello, we're going to read that book at storytime."

Donnie held onto the book that Mrs. Calabash tried to take from him, whining.

"We're about to switch play areas, why don't you play with the stacking blocks?"

That sent Donnie into a fit. The purple masked turtle immediately began to scream and threw himself forward, sobbing as he did.

Mrs. Calabash just rolled her 3 eyes before using a tentacle to pick up Donnie.

"Stop this behavior, or you go into time out. Which one will it be?"

Her choices made Donatello even more angry and he screamed louder.

"Very well." She said as she slithered towards the playpen. The dreaded playpen.

Donnie pouted. He didn't get it; throwing a fit always worked on Dad.

It was true. Splinter was a bit of a softie when it came to his autistic son. When he read up on the condition, he understood that tantrums were a way of children on the spectrum to express their feelings. Splinter couldn't stand his son's crying, so he usually just gave in to whatever Purple wanted.

But not a childcare veteran like Mrs. Calabash. She'd seen kids like Donnie come and go and this was how she ran things. No child, on the spectrum or not, was going to run her daycare.

So, Donnie was plopped into the playpen.

"You stay here until you calm down."

Before they were mutated, Donnie wasn't a good climber. And even after his mutation, he still wasn't good. The top of the playpen seemed as tall as a building compared to Raph's back, which Donnie crawled over often.

No matter how hard he tried, Donnie couldn't reach the top bars and landed on his behind every time.

Thank goodness for diapers being so thick, or else he would've landed on what Leo calls "the Nards". He did once during a tantrum at bathtime, and he never wanted to do that again; it was so painful.

Donnie kicked the bars, which made him cry again. Mrs. Calabash ignored him.

Donnie continued his tantrum until he eventually calmed down, reduced to whimpers.

"Well, Donatello, I think we're feeling a whole lot better now, aren't we?" A pinkish-purple tentacle lifted up the soft shell turtle and placed him onto the floor.

"Now go play."

Donnie obeyed.

He went to his second favorite activity: building.

The area where babies and toddlers gather around to build things with Legos was crowded, but Donnie managed to find a spot and started to pick up pieces.

Another issue with Donnie was that he hated being touched.

And toddlers and babies didn't understand boundaries.

When a 2 year old kitten yokai reached across Donnie's lap to reach for a brightly colored pink Lego piece, he freaked out and said one of his well-known sentences.

"I don't like being touched!"

And the purple masked turtle forgot about the rule about pushing.

Don't push.

The kitten fell on a small pile of legos and began crying, alerting Mrs. Calabash.

Immediately, a frog yokai child old enough to tattle told Mrs. Calabash what happened.

"Donnie pushed Selene!"

"She touching me!" Donnie argued.

"Donatello, we don't push. Tell her you're sorry."

Donnie, still reeling from the time out he received not even 3 minutes ago, obeyed.

"Sowry!" He said, quickly.

"It otay!" Selene said before toddling off.

"Story time! Whoever wants me to read to them, come to the carpet."

Donnie wanted a story, so he sat down with other children that wanted to hear a story. Other children who wanted to keep playing just kept playing, like Raph, who was playing with his teddy, and Leo, who was riding a tricycle around the room.

Mikey crawled towards his older brother and climbed into his lap. Donnie allowed it. Mikey was usually content during storytime.

As Mrs. Calabash read to the children, Donnie listened intently and Mikey suckled his fingers.

"And the Samarai Rabbit beat the Turducken, and cheers filled the Battle Nexus Arena, so the Rabbit felt at peace, knowing he won his first battle. And the Rabbit lived happily ever after. The end."

Mrs. Calabash noticed Donnie raise his hand. Though difficult to deal with at times, she knew he was curious, like a school aged child.

"Yes, Donnie?"

"Dat's not twue. The Rabbit didn't beat up the Turducken, Wou Jitsu did." The turtle said.

Mrs. Calabash sighed. "Donnie, this is a storybook, not a history book. And Lou Jitsu hasn't fought in the Battle Nexus in years, so you shouldn't take things so seriously."

Donnie pouted, then he decided to get up to do something else...

only to make Mikey tumble to the ground, where the orange masked baby turtle started to wail, more in shock than pain.

"Donatello!"

"I wanted him off my lap!" He argued.

Mrs. Calabash scooped up Donnie and Mikey in her tentacles.

"Your daddy will hear about this, young man. Off to the corner."

Mrs. Calabash once again, placed Donnie in the playpen, then left to comfort Mikey.

Donnie felt frustrated. This was the third time he had gotten in trouble and the second time he'd been to time out.

Daddy was not going to be happy.

A sudden uncomfortable feeling took Donnie from his thoughts and he looked down at his lower region. Disgust grew on his face in a grimace and he began to wail.

When Mrs. Calabash noticed he wouldn't stop crying, and that it wasn't his "I'm in time out" cry, but rather a cry that meant he needed something, she went to him.

Before she could ask what was wrong, she saw that he had unpopped the buttons on his onesie; a habit he did when he was wet. And just to be sure, she checked.

"Oh, my! Looks like somebody needs a dry diaper!" She said, feeling sympathy for the crying tot.

Donnie was given a book to flip through while Mrs. Calabash searched the diaper bag Splinter had given her that morning. Finding the appropriate items for cleaning up "Mister Soggy Pants" that was laying on her changing table was easy, and she got started.

Donnie was distracted by the flip book and paid no attention to her as she cleaned him up. He felt it was quite nice to not be cold and wet "down there".

"All done!" She said, closing the baby powder cap with one tentacle and buttoning up his onesie with another.

Donnie was put down and was allowed to play. He just played alone; it was better than getting in trouble for establishing boundaries.

But not long after, Mrs. Calabash placed him at the snack table. Donnie chose saltine crackers, flavorless juice and some fruit gummies for his snack.

"Nom noms?"

Donnie turned and saw Mikey, with his mouth open; a sign he was asking for a bite of his food.

Donnie gave him a fruit snack and Mikey was content.

Donnie's autism doesn't stop at social cues, it also involves food and sleep.

This snack was all Donnie ate at Daycare. At home, he ate only oatmeal in the morning, had his snack and lunch at daycare (where lunch was a packed plain peanut butter sandwich, 7 cheese crackers and a bottle of formula), and only one bite of whatever Splinter cooked for himself and the two older boys, followed by Donnie's usual dinner at home, which was usually plain macaroni or plain cheese pizza.

Mrs. Calabash prides herself on giving the children a variety of foods to eat at snack time, and plenty of picky eaters that are in her care found at least one thing they liked that wasn't part of their normal diet. But Donnie wasn't a normal child; he was a mutant and not a yokai, he was a breed of turtle that mostly ate meat and vegetation, and he was on the spectrum.

So, Donnie ate his crackers and juice and touched nothing else.

In his mind, not only were most of the things on the snack table inedible because of his condition's natural fear of the unknown, but he also believed they were contaminated by other children's germs.

Mrs. Calabash chalked it up to "we all have wins and we all have losses" and brushed it off. Sooner or later this mutant child will grow out of his pickiness.

After he ate his snack, Donnie walked to the napping area of the room and laid down next to Leo. Mikey laid across him and Leo like a turtle blanket and Raph was their pillow.

It took Donnie no time at all to fall asleep. He may have had trouble falling asleep at night, but naptime was breeze. Mrs. Calabash was happy for that.

"Oh, Donatello..." she said as she turned down the lights and allowed the children to sleep.

#rottmnt #rottmnt turtle tots #turtle tots #rise of the tmnt #headcanon #rottmnt donnie #rise donnie #autistic donnie

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