Commitment Issues

Behold, Slugcat Specbio Genes

This stuff made me Delirious™ in a voice call with my partners (included in the sheet are punnet squares, I have one done for Hunter and Artificer, and I plan on making one that explains Arti having green and blue pups). A lot of this is headcanon and meant to be mostly oc friendly

I spent like. 5 hours or something on this, I'm exhausted

“Do you want to try this off of my plate?”

“It’s made of [ingredients], I think you’d like [x part]”

“If you want to see if you like [x food], this is pretty good representation of it”

“You won’t like this, it tastes like [description]. Do you want to try it for fun?”

“Do you remember trying/have you ever tried [x food]? This is like that, but [differences]”

“I think you’d like the taste of this, but the texture is iffy. It’s [description]”

Make sure there’s other food they can eat if they don’t like the new one

And most importantly, build trust with that person by listening to them, showing that you take their concerns into account, and being cool if the answer is no. No is always an option. This isn’t something you do once, it’s a pattern you have to stick to if you want to establish that you are a safe person when it comes to food stuff

Friend, I have excellent news for you: small people are big people with no filter and less practice in modulating their voices. It is usually very easy to sort out what they like/dislike and then just do the things they like. So my basic advice is as follows:

1. Treat them like drunk adults. A. Talk to them like they're adults--ask them questions about their interests/toys etc. and seriously respond to their answers. None of that baby talk shit. B. Give them autonomy--ask if it's ok before picking them up or hugging them or helping them put on shoes (unless they're going to hurt themselves and you need to intervene of course). C. Don't be demeaning. Try not to laugh if they say or do something embarrassing. If they're hurt, validate that they're hurt and scared, and don't try to tell them they're fine. You have a whole lot of context they do not. Try to meet them where they are. 2. Find a thing they like and do it. Over and over again. Until they get bored/tell you to stop. A good way to start this process is to ask them to give you a tour of their room or ask them to show you their favorite toys. Example from last week: 3 yr old immediately showed me his car collection and laughed uproariously when I drove a toy car up his back, over his head, and then booped his nose with it (while making the appropriate sounds). After the first time he said "AGAIN" so I did this...probably 50 times over the next 10 minutes (and mixed it up by occasionally saying it was my turn--we gotta encourage sharing, you feel--and having him drive the car on me) (We also go to work on using gentle hands for nose boops. The first few were a bit rough, lol). But the point is, he laughed SO HARD every time. And then decided I was good people and took things from there, telling me he wanted to play "fix the plane" in which a plane needs fixing, I bring it into him, and then he fixes it. This lasted another 20 minutes. Small kids are very much about the thing they're about. If they're having fun doing a thing, just keep doing it, until they indicate they're done. A lot of adults will try to hurry kids along when the adult gets bored. Give the kid the space to set the time limits on things they enjoy for once and they'll adore you for it. 3. Thank them for their time. Like adults, kids love being appreciated and getting good feedback. I say "thanks for letting me play with X toy, I really like it." I say "thanks for showing me how X thing works, that's really cool." I say, "thanks for holding my hand while we walked through X place, that made me feel safe." And always at the end of the day/night I say "thanks so much for playing with me, I had a lot of fun spending time with you." Kids eat that shit up.

Also PS. Don't do that bend over with your hands on your knees thing. I don't know a single kid who likes that. To get on their level, kneel, crouch, sit or lay down. Don't loom.

Try to come up with a remotely plausible excuse for your laughter that doesn't involve laughing AT the child - the more absurd the better. The goal is to have the kid laughing with you at your silly idea instead of any laughter at their mistake.

Some funny little rules about the clown curse our hero is under:

-he can’t talk, only laugh

-he’s stuck smiling no matter how hard he tries

This isn’t having a short attention span (or well maybe thats part of it), but probably something called “Optimal Arousal.”(This is psychology, not anatomy, please keep your mind out of the gutter Xp)

Optimal Arousal goes like this: When effort is low, more stimulus is better. When effort is high, less stimulus is better.

I’ll elaborate. Whenever you do something easy (like maybe some homework as an example), unless something else is happening (like music or a show) you tend to get drawn away or doze off. In this homework scenario, the effort is low, so in order to keep at it and do well on working on it, you need a higher amount of stimulus, like a movie.

If something is hard, like for instance a test, you probably will try to avoid noise, going so far as to hush others so you can concentrate. The effort is high so you want less stimulus.