Taking our kids to the NO KINGS protests.
In the United States many of us who oppose the administration attend widespread protests called No Kings every few months. I was very pregnant for the first one, so I stayed home with my kid(s) while my husband went, but I’ve made sure to get out there every time since and take whatever family will come with me.
Online there’s a lot of debate online about whether or not it’s appropriate to take your children to a protest but on the ground at this particular gathering it’s not really controversial. The environment is very kid-friendly, which really is just a byproduct of the pains taken to make it everybody-friendly. That itself generates a new argument: how effective can protests be if they’re largely a good time?
As a mother of two young children I just — straight up — cannot attend a more radical protest. It's not a matter of childcare or responsibilities, though that's definitely a factor because not gonna lie I am very busy, but even if we had that covered my kids are too dependent on me. I'm still breastfeeding the youngest, even getting held up somewhere unexpectedly for more than probably two hours is a hardship for the both of us.
My daughter loves the protests. She's four and likes to shout at the absolute top of her lungs, and nobody stops her here! When she found out early this week that on Saturday she was going to "NO KINGS!" (she always screams it) she wouldn't stop talking about it. She was so psyched she can read one word on her sign (the word is "NO").
You have to hope she's learning the right lessons here, obviously the rise of fascism is not a party, but what I don't want her to learn is that she should be afraid, and she definitely isn't.
There was a ton more organizing from local political organizations on the ground at No Kings yesterday. My husband and I were finally convinced to do something we've talked about for a while: become voting, associate members of our local Democratic party. It's going to be hard to make the monthly meetings, because we have two young kids and we are very busy! But I hope the kids actually do notice us struggling to get this done next to everything else we need to get done, too. It's important.
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