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Strollerderby
Raising a Child While Being a Revolutionary
If debates about whether to take your child to a political protest seem laughable to you (of course they’re going!), then you might want to head over to Michelle Foy’s interview with several left activists about their experiences raising children and staying active in various labor/political/justice struggles.
In many ways the issues being discussed are no different than what most parents face—how to communicate your values without pushing too hard, how to adapt to the different demands of parenthood without losing your former self and former commitments. But it’s true that an activist life is a tiring, demanding one, and not always the most kid-friendly, especially if you happen to be working mostly with non-parents. Plenty of us do drop out for a while, for better or worse.
I’d love to see this interview followed up with some exploration of activist organizations/movements that are not focused on parenting issues per se but still manage to be welcoming—and more importantly, understanding—of the parents who see raising children and raising hell as two parts of the same commitment to a better world.
Photo CC elisfanclub.
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1 Comment
Sarah commented on Jun 27 09 at 11:00 amMy husband and I have found a number of activist organizations to be very accepting of our kids’ presence; making space for them at meetings, etc. But we are just about always the ONLY parents of small children involved in these groups- other active participants are either child-free or have grown kids. So even though we’re welcomed into groups, we’re the odd ones out, with different needs and in a different life-stage than everyone else. It IS hard to find the time and emotional energy for activism as a parent, but it’s even harder when it feels like no other parents are even trying.
(I have always wondered what would happen if one of us got arrested when with the kids. We’re always careful to avoid situations where arrests seem at all likely, but you never know when they’ll decide to take in everyone present. Would they get to stay with us? Would Child Welfare be called in? grr.)
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