Honk! the saxophone squawked as I held it just inches from my face. I winced. My five year old blew into the mouthpiece again, but thankfully didn’t produce any sound this time around.
“You made a noise! That’s great!” I cheered.
I flashed back to when I first started playing the saxophone in fifth grade. I was much older than my kids are now, but I’m pretty sure my initial efforts weren’t any better. My mom talked me out of taking up trombone – I understand why now.
“I want daddy,” my older son (nicknamed Sprout) responded when asked who he wanted to read bedtime stories with. In the past, I would have been choking back tears. These days, I feel differently.
“Mama, [kid’s classmate] told me he was stronger than me,” said my five year old, nicknamed Sprout. “But I’m faster than him.”
“Well, you can tell him that you’re faster than him,” I responded, then immediately regretted it. “Actually, no. That wouldn’t be a good thing to say.” One, I had no idea if my kid was actually faster than the other kid. Two and more importantly, starting a comparison war was going to lead to nowhere good very quickly.
“I don’t mind if my kid doesn’t read in kindergarten,” I thought to myself when I heard about schools raising standards of what they expect kids to know. “That’s so early anyway.”
But my lack of expectations didn’t keep a smile from spreading over my face as we sat with my five-year-old on the couch. Book in hand, I was listening to him recognize short sight words and painfully sound out longer ones. “My kid is reading!!” my mind and heart screamed, like a fan girl at a teenybopper concert. Instead, my mouth said, “You’re doing awesome, honey! I can tell how hard you’re working on reading.”
“I know there’s no guarantees, but this is the group that probably won’t get arrested, right?” I asked our leader as we stood outside of Union Station in Washington DC.
“Yes, that group already left,” he said, smiling. I breathed a sigh of relief. If I was going to get arrested for protesting climate change, I needed to make more accommodations than just getting a half-day off from work.
As someone who has been passionate about climate change for more than a decade, I’ve participated in my share of protests and political actions. Since becoming a mom, I’ve adjusted my participation accordingly. Here’s what I’ve learned about being an activist parent:
“The Myth of Quality Time: How We’re Cheating Our Kids” accused the headline to Newsweek magazine in zillion point font. Kids and parents lined up like hands on a clock. But it differed from most of the parenting articles I read in a key way – it was more than 20 years old.
“I’m going to tweet that!” I proclaimed after my older son did something so very kid-funny.
“No. Don’t tweet that,” my five year old son replied, frowning.
“Oh,” I hesitated. “I guess I won’t then.”
“Mommy would never post anything you don’t want her to,” my husband chimed in.
I almost said, “Well, I didn’t say that.” Instead, I nodded.
“Noooooo!” my older son yells at the screen as a giant seal almost swallows the penguin protagonist of Happy Feet.
“I know it’s scary!” I affirm. “But do you really think they’ll kill off the main character in this type of movie?”
“No,” he admits.
“Trust me. Trust the characters that they’ll get out okay,” I assure him. He sits back down to watch the movie.
I get his fear because I’ve experienced it myself. Like him, I get deeply immersed in fictional worlds, caring about the characters as if they’re people I know.
Beyond stories, I also know that fear of not being able to trust that everything will be okay. How often have I had his “noooo!” in my head, albeit internally? How often have I not trusted the people who surround me to pull off some form of a happy ending for everyone?
36 isn’t what I expected it would be.
When I was 10, I knew I’d have a book published before I was 20. In fact, I expected to be a famous author in the winter and a marine biologist in the summer. I would be so famous that I’d use my maiden name for my writing so I wouldn’t get mobbed when I traveled.
“I’m not going to be here for dinner tomorrow,” I told my kids. “I’m going to tell the people in charge of the city that I support our neighbors from other countries.” I was going to speak at our city council meeting about a proposed Sanctuary Cities policy. They nodded, then went back to eating dinner. While their interest in local government is pretty low at two and five years old, I hope that I can help get them more involved as they get older.
That’s because local government at the heart of a lot of policies that underlie unjust systems. It’s also a place you can see personal impact. While calling your Congressperson or national representative is important, you can rarely see the same level of individual response and even change that you can on the local level. From climate change to racist policing, getting involved in local government is one of the biggest ways you can teach kids to make a difference.
Here are some ways you can get your kids involved: