Last Saturday, 1000s of people flocked together for the one year anniversary of the women's march.
It was a large, supportive gathering to support women of all kinds, no matter race, religion, sexuality, or cisgenderedness/transgenderedness.
I went to the local one in Lexington, Ky and it was a blast but something bothered me: the children there.
Now, there are two types of children that I think are okay to bring to protests (being of course, that they're not violent): babies who are just tagging along with their mom/dad in a stroller or wrap, and kids ages ten or older who have personally decided that these issues matter to them and they want to attend.
The kind of children I believe don't belong at these protests are the ones from about ages three to nine who don't know about nor understand politics and are just going because their parents decided to bring them, there are lots of reasons why.
1. Safety concerns
Big crowds are always a safety concern, especially when it's not a kid-friendly environment. Besides that, there's always a handful of unpredictable people with radical views and counter-protestors.
Things can become dangerous, fights can break out, even attacks can happen.
2. Exposing your children to adult language and topics
Nothing gets me angrier than people bringing their children to protests/rallies related to the topic of abortion, on both sides.
Abortion is a very heavy subject that links to many other adult issues such as birth control, rape, incest, and teen pregnancy.
Kids should be worrying about being kids, not an issue as adult, complex, and controversial as abortion.
On top of that, if you have ever been to a protest on either side of the political spectrum, you know the language and imagery can get a bit dicey.
One other specific example (I know some of my fellow liberals may disagree with me on this) is pussy hats on children.
Yes, its cat ears, that's cute, whatever, uniting women etc. But those hats are a spin-off of a quote from our president (I'm sure none of you know what it is) that objectifies women and brags about essentially groping and sexual assault.
Yes, they are emblematic of strength in feminity, but also of vaginas. You are putting a vagina hat on your child, and for all they know its just kitty ears and has nothing to do with vaginas or sexual assault or the objectification of women.
Imagine, for a moment, if during men's health month, kids ran around wearing chicken hats because a slang word for "penis" is the same as a word for a male chicken. It would be insane.
3. Using your children as political tools
A lot of these parents will create cute signs for their kids to hold in order to advance their own political agenda. It's the same kind of concept as those guys on tinder that put puppies in their profile pictures.
People love children, it's especially funny if they're involved in something we don't expect them to be (like a protest) so kids in protests get a lot of attention and buzzfeed articles about them.
It seems as if the parents are bringing their children in order to get more attention for their own cause. They are a child, not a pawn. They are not something for you to use.
4. Teaching your kids "us vs them"
I personally was raised very Republican. I remember in first grade rubbing it in a classmates face when George Bush got re-elected against John Carey.
I was six years old. I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I just knew Carey = bad and bush = good.
This ideology made me see my classmates who were democrats as, at least to some degree, bad and wrong because they didn't have the same political views my family did.
But then again, we didn't have any political views, we were six. Politics was dividing the kids in my first-grade classroom during the 2004 election when we could barely tie our shoes.
Bringing your kid to a protest further enforces this "us vs them" mentality and sets them up for making enemies at a very young age.
So, what now?
I know I can't speak from the view of a parent, but I can speak from the view of a kid that was tossed into a sea of politics at a very young age, it's best to avoid exposing your children to politics.
This doesn't mean you censor their world, this just means you don't force your world down their throats.
Teach them to be kind and fair, then give them the facts and let them come to their own conclusions. Encourage your children to be inquisitive and thoughtful.
Trust me, in the future they'll thank you.
