We all come up with strange ways to calm our children when they are scared or anxious; my husband was no different in that way. The story of the purple turtle came about while in a therapy session. We needed to be able to catch Nick's escalating anxiousness, fright, or uneasiness before it became rage and anger. There was mention of using a code word that could mean anything from "babe hold my hand tighter I'm scared" or "may day may day I need to get the hell out of here asap".

Nick borrowed the term purple turtle from his neighbor Stacey because she used to use it with her daughter while her father was deployed. Purple turtle became more than just a phrase after awhile, sure the words were still used but the facial and body posture that may have gone along with it became more telling then the words themselves.