Talking to Kids About Labor Rights

Cover of the children's book Click Clack Moo Cows Who Type with a cartoon of three cows and a chicken at a typewriter and the text below "Talking to Kids About Labor Rights"

“And make sure not to get Kelloggs,” I commented to my husband as we were putting together the grocery list.

“Why not Kellogg’s?” my older son said, looking up from his book.

“Well, the people who work for Kelloggs are on strike. That means they aren’t working because they want better work conditions, like better pay. Remember in Click Clack Moo: Cows that Type?” I explained, referencing a hilarious children’s book. In it, the cows and chickens go on strike and refuse to give the farmer eggs and milk until he gives them electric blankets. They use an old typewriter to express their concerns. We’ve read it a bunch of times.

Continue reading

When a Fun Fact is More Than a Fun Fact

Photo of a boy holding his arms up to a silhouette of a bird on a shingled wall; Text: When a Fun Fact Is More than a Fun Fact

“I just wanted to thank you,” said an unfamiliar voice beside me. Looking left, away from the informational plaque I was reading, I saw an older woman standing next to me. “I was behind you and heard you explaining all of the information to your kids and they were so interested. I heard other kids saying that they were bored and I knew your kids weren’t. I even learned a lot!”

“Uh, thanks!” I responded, very flattered. We were at the Whydah Pirate Museum in Cape Cod, a very good historical museum with a wealth of information and artifacts. I had been guiding my kids through by summarizing the informational plaques and connecting the information to concepts my kids were already familiar with. They seemed to be genuinely interested until the very end when my five-year-old understandably began running out of steam. I was too busy carrying on my patter and keeping my kids entertained that I hadn’t even noticed the woman behind us.

Continue reading

Complicating the Good-Bad Narrative with Our Kids

"Complicating the Good-Bad Narrative with Our Kids" with photo of the Dungeons and Dragons Players' Handbook, which has a demon-monster on it

“So Bowser would be chaotic evil, right?” my older son asked as we sat on our front steps, referring to the villain of his favorite Mario Bros video games.

“Hmmm, I think so. He just wants to cause chaos and hurt people rather than follow any laws while doing so. Maybe neutral evil,” I replied, talking in terms of the alignment chart from Dungeons and Dragons.

Continue reading

Seeing the Impacts When You Least Expect It

Seeing the Impacts When You Least Expect It; Photo: Boy in a snow jacket and hat shoveling snow on a sidewalk

“I want to help!” my older son declared, in that way he does when he feels like life has dealt him a terribly unfair hand.

“Oh! Sure,” I said, handing him the snow shovel. We were clearing the sidewalk of snow, in one of the few times a year Washington D.C. gets it.

Both his tone of voice and demand to help surprised me. He’s a kid for whom chores are like pulling teeth. So volunteering for a hard job that meant I did less work? Excellent. I did want to give him a heads-up though. “The snow is pretty tough to shovel, as there’s a layer of ice underneath. From when we had the freezing rain last night. So try to get under the ice, if you can.”

As he managed the big shovel awkwardly, I tried to both hold my tongue and figure out what inspired this burst of enthusiasm.

Continue reading

Learning to Let Others Take Care of Us

Text: Learning to Let Others Take Care of Us; Photo: Young child with a bear hat on his head and white woman with a computer on her lap sitting outside on a box

 

“Just let me take care of you!” I yelled at my four year old as I chased him around our beanbag chairs. I was trying to get him to let me put a cold-pack on his forehead, which was rapidly developing quite the goose egg.

Those words echoed in my head as I argued with my own mom a few days later. A pipe in our basement was clogged. Every time we drained our kitchen sink, water filled with food particles spewed up from a pipe behind the washing machine. Lovely. My mom was worried that if we ran the washing machine, it too would make the flooding worse.

Continue reading