Birchwood Isle Family Roleplay

Basic Information

Where do you live? Northern Isle
Are you married? If yes, to whom? Yes, to [tbd]
Do you have any children? If yes, list them. Yes, Scott (17), Bethany (14), and Carol (12)
Is your family open to adopting children or adolescents? possibly in the future (once her husband has been made)

Appearance
Height: 5'4"
Build: slender
Hair Color: medium brown
Eye Color: brown
Distinguishing Features: dimples in both cheeks
Brief Description: Audrey has the kind of smile that lights up the room, and she smiles frequently. Her brown eyes are constantly alight with creativity and mischief. She lights up whenever she sees someone she cares about, and given how caring she is in general, she lights up that way a lot. Her skin is fair but tanned, impeccable for her age, but with laugh lines and smile lines that show the type of life she's had. She has very long medium brown hair that she usually wears down, and prefers to dress casually for the weather. Usually this means jeans or shorts and a t-shirt or sweater with comfortable, well-fitting shoes that allow her to take off on any adventure with the kids.

Personality
Strengths: gentle; compassionate; insightful; warm; loving; affectionate; judicious; careful; excellent planner; open-minded; creative; great cook; steadfast; decisive
Flaws: traditional; stubborn; permissive; flighty; disinterested in adult conversation; disorganized; forgetful; perpetually running late; impatient with adolescents
Likes: drawings children make for her; refrigerators plastered with pride; coloring with kids; talking to kids; being proud of kids; her kids; living on the island; traveling to the beach; long drives from coast to coast; sleeping in with her honey
Dislikes: chasing after the dog; being called too permissive; having to punish; being stuck on the island; the aches and pains of aging; not being the one in control; children who take advantage of her; adults who are too harsh or strict; being told she should toughen up
Vices: coffee
Fears: being in a car accident; snakes; spiders; mice
Personality: Audrey is a soft sweetheart. She loves children, and it shows. In fact, it becomes evident pretty quickly that she prefers children over other age groups, as she chooses to spend most of her time in the village with the school-aged children (even though she is accessible to the other age groups). Her vibe is always warm, she speaks lovingly without raising her voice, and she prefers milder forms of discipline over those that cause painful consequences to those receiving them. Most people instantly think of Audrey as being nice, and that is generally correct, but what they are really noting is that she is gentle and affectionate, a good listener, even if not always the best conversationalist.

Relationships & Discipline

How do you normally get along with other adults? For the most part, Audrey finds other adults pretty boring and she would rather spend time being silly then going to meetings and engaging in conversations with grownups.
How do you normally get along with teenagers? Reasonably well, provided they know how to let their hair down and act silly from time to time.
How do you normally get along with children? Brilliantly. School-aged children are just Audrey's speed. However, breaking the fourth wall here, as the player Storm does not do well with children under age 6.
Link to your discipline sheet: click here ✅

Orphan Village

What is your role at the Orphan Village? Day Staff worker at Oak House
Which house or building do you work for? Oak House
Do you live in the Village or commute? Commute
Do you have any special training, certification, or skills relevant to your role? Audrey is a former elementary school teacher
Do you prefer to work with a particular age group? Which one? school-aged children
Do you struggle with a particular age group? Which one? very young/pre-school aged children

Briefly describe your caregiving or mentoring style. First and foremost, Audrey is great at listening to kids, and she excels at getting really excited about the same things that excite them. If a child draws her a picture, she knows how to make a really big deal out of it, put it up on the refrigerator, and show it off to other adults and adolescents to make a big deal out of it. She can spend hours talking to school-aged children about their interests without making them feel like a burden, and she comes across as genuinely interested in all of the things that genuinely interest them. Furthermore, she asks them to explain things to her as though it's the first time she's hearing it. This works for young adolescents, too, and most of the young people living at Oak House have learned to really trust her because of it.

Describe how you see your role in the village. Audrey sees her role as a job that she excels at. When it's time for her to go home for the day, she leaves, goes home to her own children, and she doesn't look back. This doesn't mean that she isn't attached to the kids at Oak House -- of course she is. They are her kids in a space somewhere between what her students were to her when she was teaching and what her own biological children are to her.

Is there anything else we should know about your role in the Village? She's not always on call, and she won't pick up extra shifts. Audrey tries to have really firm boundaries around her role at the Village.

Background

Education: Master's in Primary Education
Work History: Former 1st Grade Teacher
Current Goals or Challenges: Getting her family settled in on the island when she agrees with the children that this was "not their idea"
Reason for Living on Birchwood Isle: Her husband believed that the island was the right place for them and their kid and she moved at his behest
Brief History: Audrey always knew she wanted to be a mother. From a young age, she played with baby dolls, and her favorite game to play with her sisters or her friends was "house." She had to be the mother, of course! She grew up in a fairly traditional family. Father was in charge of Mother, Mother was in charge of her daughters, and the children were expected to obey both of her parents. Audrey found this arrangement confusing, at times, and she often found that she wound up in trouble for natural curiosity. As she got older, she swore that she wouldn't be like that with her own children, if she was blessed to have them. But one thing her parents did do for her was ensure that she didn't rush off into a bad marriage and have children before she'd had a chance to discover her independence.

She went to college, finished with her master's degree, and then spent two years living on her own before she met her husband through work. She taught first grade and he taught fifth. They had a long courtship, a one-year engagement, and then got married. Both of them wanted children, and Scott came along a year into their marriage, followed three years later by Bethany. Carol came along two years after that.

Motherhood turned out to be a lot more difficult than Audrey had expected. She was hit hard with postpartum depression every time she had a child, and after the third, she and her husband decided that they weren't going to have any more. By the time each of them reached kindergarten age, Audrey always felt better. She's felt for a long time that she has more love to give, but the subject of adoption never came up between her and her husband until they got to Birchwood Isle. Then, it came up because they both saw that there were children -- older children! -- in need of loving families. Now it's a question mark that hangs over them.

In spite of her determination not to become her mother, one thing about Audrey is like her mother: Their family's structure is one of masculine authority over women. Her husband is in charge, she submits to her husband, and she does her best to keep the kids in line. She is, therefore, the first port of call for her children, with her husband available as backup if things become serious. Audrey's hope is always to make sure that things don't become serious.