Maybe Days

Posts tagged: parenting

The purpose of having childcare [services available at KinkForAll events] isn’t primarily to address a power/access imbalance between adults and children…. Rather, it’s to address an imbalance in power/access between parents and non-parents.

It’s true that there are things children, especially very young children, need that they can only get from adults. But there’s an idea in our culture that the only adults who can provide for children are their own parents—non-parents supposedly have no responsibility to support the children in our communities unless we are biologically related to them. To which I say: Um, fuck that.

[I]t’s not fair on parents to be expected to do ALL the childcare[,] just because there’s childcare that needs to be done.

KFADEN: Notes from planning meetings by Rebecca Crane via the KinkForAll Mailing List

See also:

Denver Anarchist Black Cross: Nurturing Liberation
Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind: A Handbook for Radical Parenting Allies
Regeneración Childcare NYC: “child-raising as a form of resistance that builds radical communities and relationships”

Source: groups.google.com

Notes: 5 2/15/12 — 1:14am Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Z4w0ayGS5xu6 Filed under: #KinkForAll #KFADEN #childcare #parenting #youth #activism

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Ms. and Mr. Jones had to be Xtra careful. If they kept bouncing it up in the air and saying how strong and active it was, they’d be treating it more like a boy than an X. But if all they did was cuddle it and kiss it and tell it how sweet and dainty it was, they’d be treating it more like a girl than an X.

[…]

They bought a storybook about a brave princess who rescued a handsome prince from his tower, and another one about a sister and brother who grew up to be a baseball star and a ballet star and you had to guess which.

The head scientists of Project Baby X checked all their purchases and told them to keep up the good work. They also reminded the Joneses to see page 4629 of the Manual where it said, “Never make Baby X feel embarrassed or ashamed about what it wants to play with. And if X gets dirty climbing rocks, never say, “nice little Xes don’t get dirty climbing rocks”.

Likewise, it said, “if X falls down and cries, never say, “Brave little Xes don’t cry. Because, of course, nice little Xes do get dirty, and brave little Xes do cry. No matter how dirty X gets or how hard it cries, don’t worry. It’s all part of the Xperiment.

The Story of X, by Lois Gould

(Do yourself a favor and read this. It’s short. It’s also particularly interesting in light of the story of Storm.)

Source: sa.ucsb.edu

Notes: 1 5/24/11 — 5:51am Short URL: http://tmblr.co/Z4w0ay5PgikR Filed under: #gender #parenting #story #trans #transgender #children #youth

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While there’s nothing ambiguous about Storm’s genitalia, they aren’t telling anyone whether their third child is a boy or a girl.

[…]

“What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” says Stocker.

Jazz and Kio have picked out their own clothes in the boys and girls sections of stores since they were 18 months old. Just this week, Jazz unearthed a pink dress at Value Village, which he loves because it “really poofs out at the bottom. It feels so nice.” The boys decide whether to cut their hair or let it grow.

[…]

This past winter, the family took a vacation to Cuba with Witterick’s parents. Since they weren’t fluent in Spanish, they flipped a coin at the airport to decide what to tell people. It landed on heads, so for the next week, everyone who asked was told Storm was a boy. The language changed immediately. “What a big, strong boy,” people said.

[…]

Witterick practices unschooling, an offshoot of home-schooling centred on the belief that learning should be driven by a child’s curiosity. There are no report cards, no textbooks and no tests. For unschoolers, learning is about exploring and asking questions, “not something that happens by rote from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays in a building with a group of same-age people, planned, implemented and assessed by someone else,” says Witterick. The fringe movement is growing.

[…]

Jazz was old enough for school last September, but chose to stay home. “When we would go and visit programs, people — children and adults — would immediately react with Jazz over his gender,” says Witterick, adding the conversation would gravitate to his choice of pink or his hairstyle.

That’s mostly why he doesn’t want to go to school. When asked if it upsets him, he nods, but doesn’t say more.

Instead he grabs a handmade portfolio filled with his drawings and poems. In its pages is a booklet written under his pseudonym, the “Gender Explorer.” In purple and pink lettering, adorned with butterflies, it reads: “Help girls do boy things. Help boys do girl things. Let your kid be whoever they are!”

Parents keep child’s gender secret - Parentcentral.ca

This is an amazing story as it intersects with so many issues. Gender issues, of course, but youth rights, too. I suggest you read it several times to get the full impact.