#gratuitous use of mandoa

[clipperandhisadike]

On Helping Your Children with Self-Actualization (or, Clipper learns about choosing pronouns)

Clipper is reading a holobook - on child rearing, because he is definitely man enough to admit he has no idea what he's doing, even if his oldest menace is now almost seven - when one of his children bursts through the door, screeching in utter misery and sobbing. The crap on his desk starts rattling and Clipper drops the holo immediately to gather Yuula into a hug, humming against her hood.

"I'M A BOY!" Yuula screeches into his neck, and then breaks down sobbing again. Clipper freezes for a bare moment, then resumes cuddling his....son. His son. Whom he has been calling the wrong thing for the last seven years. Shit. All the parenting books have said he's supposed to be supportive of his ade's choices when they don't involve things that could cause them physical harm. They have said nothing about being wrong about his poor kid's gender, but....choices. Pronouns are a choice for natborn, right?

"K'uuir, k'uuir," Clipper hushes, rocking Yuula gently as Leeti and Hero tumble into the room after their big brother. "Have I been calling you the wrong thing, cyar'ika?"

Yuula hiccups against his neck and nods frantically. "I'm a boy!"

"Okay," Clipper hums. "I'll  get your chain code edited, cyar'ika. Dry your eyes, there's a good boy." Yuula sniffles wetly and lifts his mask up to wipe his eyes until they're dry. "Do you need a new mask, little one?" Yuula's mask is pink and has flowers, and it had seemed like a good idea at the time.... Yuula nods again and takes his mask off, and then - uncharacteristically for his big, brave boy, starts sucking his thumb. He hasn't done that since he was three and decided he was too old for that. (Not the plush tooka, though. That's still in his pack and has caused more than one fight.)

He looks at Leeti and Hero, who are currently clinging to his knees and staring at their big brother with wide eyes. Clipper sighs, feeling a headache - a normal one, this time, thank the Ka'ra - coming on.

 "Am I calling you two the wrong things as well, adike?" he asks softly, rocking them. Leeti looks at him, then at Yuula, and after a few seconds, nods shyly.

"'m not a boy or a girl," Leeti says, with all the confidence a five year old can muster. "I'm a menace! ....just not a boy or a girl."

Clipper laughs and ruffles Leeti's hair after they pull their mask and hood off, drawing a disgusted noise from his middle ad.

Hero stares up at him with huge eyes, still not saying anything. Even at four, the little Twi'lek is quiet. All the Twi'lek Clipper's met in his admittedly short life have been absolute chatterboxes. Maybe it's his fault Hero is so quiet...

"'m a boy," Hero lisps finally. Well. At least that's one kid he got right on the first try. Clipper bends down, still cuddling Yuula, and kisses Hero between his stubby little lekku. "Okay, cyar'ika," Clipper says. "You're my brave boy, and I'm glad you told me what to call you." He looks at Yuula and Leeti, and pulls all three of his ade into a hug. "We'll get your chain codes corrected, and then we'll go get something nice for latemeal, alright?" That gets him a ragged cheer from his little Jedi, and Clipper decides that he hasn't messed up too badly. The parenting books got that right, at least.

[distractionpie]

In which several fics I lost interest in after a few chapters keep cropping up in rec discussions and so my brain is at war between 'read them again and work out what you missed' and 'everyone else must just have different tastes and that's valid'