Starco vs Parenthood

Consent

Starco vs Parenthood Introduction - These chapters can be read separately but they are all connected. It's always the same Star & Marco, same kids, same world.

This one tries to tackle an important subject, hopefully I didn't mess it up too much. This starts about 13 years after Cleaved but bounces all over the place, buckle up!

Favs, reviews, and constructive feedback are all really helpful. Thanks! (You have my consent to like and/or post a review.)

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Chapter 19 - Consent

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Outside the daycare Marco and his four year old son are in a new pink VW Beetle with 'CLOUDY' license plates.

"Hey big guy. Let me give that seatbelt a tug. Perfect. I'm happy to see that you can buckle all by yourself now."

"I can unbuckle too daddy!"

"Just wait until we get home to show me."

"Daddy, I like mommy's car. Smells like mommy's candy perf-ume."

"Don't get too used to it, my car should be all fixed and ready to pick up by the time we get home. So, did you have a good time at daycare today?"

"Yup! I did the biggest swing jumps ever. Almost touched the sky!"

"Nice. Just don't go so high that you get hurt when you land."

"I wanted to get to the clouds so I could ride one like you and mom used too."

"Yeah...so key to riding clouds, wait for them to come down to you. Or just ride in mom's car and pretend it is a cotton candy cloud, it really does smell like one."

"But I want to ride on my own cloud. Maybe-maybe I'll make friends with clouds!"

"Cloud friends that you can wave at from the ground sound perfect BUT, how about we talk about something else right now. I had a little talk with the teachers today."

"Was...was it about my hugs? After nap, teacher talked to me about hugs."

"Yes, we talked about your hugs."

"But I LIKE hugging my friends and they like my big hugs too!"

"I believe you. However, maybe one or two of your friends don't like them. They might also be too afraid to tell you because they don't want you to stop being friends with them."

"Daddy, are we going to have a portant talk...again?"

"Yes. Today's important drive home talk is about consent."

"But-but-but mom hugs all her friends and I want to hug all my friends too. That's how I show that I love them!"

"I understand and I love it when you hug me but, everyone is different. Some people don't like hugs. You might not feel this way but hugs make some people very uncomfortable. That is why you need consent. Consent means talking to the person you want to hug first and making sure they clearly say that they want it without pressuring them."

"You don't do that before you hug mommy."

"Believe me, your mom and I have had a LOT of long conversations about consent over the years. A whole bunch of them."

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Day Two

It's the second night after the Cleave and our two exhausted teenagers are upstairs in the Diaz home ready for sleep. Star is sitting in Marco's bed rubbing her temples while Marco is scrolling through the latest news on his laptop.