Kinda sad story: me and my dad haven’t been close since I was a kid. My parents didn’t know how to raise an undiagnosed autistic kid, but he was the worse of the two. We would often have screaming matches where he wouldn’t let me leave until he shouted me into submission. It really damaged our relationship. To this day, I get very anxious and upset when he raises his voice or acts terse, and we always end up arguing over stupid shit because neither of us knows how to act around the other without setting off triggers.
When I was little, before my brother was born (when I was three), I was my dad’s world. He adored me. These days, we hardly even speak despite living in the same house. But when I was little, his nickname for me was Dolly. I loved that nickname, and I still do. But apparently, that wasn’t just a me nickname like I’d thought it to be. He’ll call my little girl cousins Dolly and it rips my heart out to see him love them more than he loves me, even though we see them maybe once or twice a year if we’re lucky.
I made my family in Tomodachi Life a while after it came out. My dad’s Mii asked me to tell him a nickname that only he would use for me and only me. Of course, I picked Dolly. It chokes me up seeing this Mii of him caring for me more than he does irl. But it’s also healing, in a weird way. His Mii is kind of a snapshot of what things could’ve been if I wasn’t autistic. He’d still adore me and care about me and talk to me and love me.
Irl, my dad favors my brother over me massively. They’re best buddies. They do so many things together all the time, while the last time I spent any one-on-one time with him was well over a year ago, and only because my mom begged him to. But in Tomadachi Life, I’m still his Dolly. And he’s still the dad who would give the world for me.
