TMNT: Papa Splinter

A small peak into Splinter's past

Splinter sighs as he returned from another long day of scavenging. His bones ached. Honestly, when did he get so old? He winced as he thought about how he is halfway to 40 but shook it off. After all, now was not the time for a midlife crisis. He still had four sons to take care of. But that just made it worse.

Splinter thought the hardest years of raising his sons was when they were infants. How he barely slept a wink because his sons would cry on and on through the night, it just seemed like every time he got one of them to sleep, another one would soon wake up, and the thousands of diapers he would have to change and wash in a day. By the time Splinter finally got them potty-trained and they slowly started to be more independent, he naively thought that things would get easy.

They hadn't.

Things only became harder. What he did not expect on and honestly, he should have, with independence, comes disobedience. His sons are almost seven now and they have been growing more and more rebellious as the years went on. When they started talking, it used to be cute, Splinter was so happy because part of him worried if they would have the capability since they are turtles.

However, it soon became un-cute by the time his sons turned three and started getting very opinionated. Especially Donatello. Donatello was his brightness son, he learned to crawl, talk, and walk long before any of his brothers could. By the time he was one, he could almost speak in full sentences. Why, his genius brought the father great pride, it could get on his nerves.

Because of his genius, Donatello grew to be very cocky with his brothers when it came to their intellect. Splinter understood why he did it, though he has not said, Splinter knows his sons well. His poor second youngest son feels like such an outcast, and he is very insecure when it came to his training, for he was not the strongest in that area, so it only made sense that he would gloat at the one thing he has always been good at. Still, Splinter will not allow such behavior, he always has to scold him and remind him that just because he is more advanced than his brothers, does not mean that he is always right or that his brothers were not intelligent, they very much were, just not as advanced as him.

Lately, Donatello was no longer being that way with just his brothers anymore but to him as well. Donatello always seems to try to challenge Splinter and look for some kind of debate when he is trying to get him to do something. Every time Splinter wants him to do something he does not want to do or gets in trouble, he tries to smart his way out of it, thinking that he was smarter than his own father and thinking he could easily get out of it if he came up with an good argument, to figure out some kind of loophole.

However, just because his son was smart, does not mean he was wise, and Splinter has long experiences with how to win over an argument. If he even wants to muse his son but most times, Splinter ends up cutting him off, and threatening to take his books away if he back-talked him one more time.

Yes, Donatello was a handful, but he was not Splinter's number one hand full. Oh no. That honor went to his second eldest son, Raphael. Splinter always knew, since his son was a baby, that he was going to be the most trouble. Out of all his sons, Raphael cried the most from infancy, and as he grew older, his rage of crying went to furious screams. Since he was a toddler, it seemed like he was always throwing a temper tantrum, over something, screaming, hitting and kicking, and when he learned how to speak, it only became worse.

Raphael is always back-talking, arguing or picking a fight with his brothers. Splinter can't count the times he had to rip Raphael off his brothers and drag him to his room until he calmed down. Raphael was a true troublemaker for sure, who drove Splinter up a wall, and sometimes, Splinter wants to strangle his little neck but...that is only because out of all his sons, Raphael was the most like him. Splinter used to be that way too when he was a child, and his father would whip him silly every time but that did nothing to help his temper.