date: any day (preferably soon) time: anytime (again, as soon as possible) place: anywhere rsvp: not even necessary! just show up whenever & wherever i am and start swinging
Yesterday my mom, my 5 year old nephew and i were hanging out, and my mom kept constantly using female pronouns and calling me by my birth-name.
finally my nephew interrupted her to say,
“He wants to be called Ben. He’s a boy now. You can’t call him a girl if he’s a boy.”
and right after that, she started using my pronouns and name correctly. i guess it kind of hits you hard when a 5 year old child calls you out, cause anytime i’d try to correct her she’d keep making the excuse, “It’s hard, I’m trying.”
i am so proud of my nephew, i shit you not.
YES! on the fourth of July, my 8 year old cousin followed me around and everytime someone called me by my birth name, she whispered “Ben” behind me.
When I went home for my birthday this past week, my parents were using the right name/calling me Ben but using the wrong pronouns. When I gently reminded them of my pronouns, my step dad was incredibly defensive and yelled at me and said not to bring it up. The next day, (my actual birthday), I was alone with my 14 year old brother. I told him I was bummed, told him the story and asked if he wouldn’t mind trying to use the correct pronouns around our family to lead by example/encourage them. He was like yeah no problem dude! Layer that night, my mom used the wrong pronouns and my brother responded with “yeah, I think he would like that.” And looked at me and smiled and my mom responded using the correct pronouns.
This trickle down education bullshit clearly does not work. Younger kids are so eager to understand and accept things, and it makes so much more sense for kids to be taught and go on to educate their parents.
Okay but your little cousin following you to correct people when they say the wrong name is freaking adorable.
cave johnson here. the lab boys told me i’m lactose intolerant. and i’ve not got a clue what that means. something about lacking toes, but i’ve got all ten of em. cave johnson, we’re done here.
