To he or not to he...

I had never, ever questioned the power of a pronoun until Dandelion transitioned.

After 'she' started dressing and looking like 'he' I would be asked how old he was, what was his name, and invariably, I would blow the cover and 'she' or 'her' would slip into my conversation - most often confusing the stranger.

I easily accepted the haircut, the clothing, the entire demeanor, BUT my language patterns kept giving it all away...

"Come on, ladies"
"My girls are over there" (most often getting a quizzical look from the recipient of the comment as it is obviously a boy and a girl over there)
"I love you, Baby Girl"
"She's 6...oops, I mean HE's 6"

Argh! I hate to admit it but the list goes on!

I have to say that I do try, I try my darndest to respect Dandelion's gender identification, but having called Dandelion she,her,pretty girl, Baby Girl, beautiful, lovely, daughter and all those other female identifying nouns and adjectives for so long that it was a hard habit to break.

When talking about Dandelion to friends and family, I would find myself constantly self-correcting, making conversations much longer and more broken up than they should be.

So, do you know what I did?

I asked Dandelion is he minded that I flubbed up.

Do you know what Dandelion said?

No - as long as you think of me as your son and as a boy.

So, do you know what?

I don't worry about it anymore. Let strangers be confused, the people who really count know and most of all, Dandelion just doesn't care!