Anti-kids practices

When I was a new parent, I wondered how and why our society became so heavily stacked against parents (and by extension, kids), especially parents who weren’t in a typical 1950’s style “nuclear family” situation. It’s only in the past five years or so that part of the answer has come into focus.

It’s because parents are busy being parents and have limited time to engage. The early pandemic was fantastic for me in that respect. All of a sudden, public meetings took place on Zoom, and I could attend them with kids running around everywhere, or listen as I cleaned up after dinner and got them ready for bed. (This makes me sound like I’m a single parent. I’ve done that before, but for the last decade, my “solo parenting” situations arise mostly because my wife frequently works evenings.)

But now we’re back. What’s drawn my ire today was this announcement in the Times Union. This seems like a fantastic event. But the people with the most at stake from bad environmental policy are excluded. It’s at 9:00am on a Wednesday. Most of us have work. Kids have school. I guarantee you there are any number of high school activists who would be interested in something like this.

Why not have an event like this in the early evening? 5:30-8:30 instead of 9am to noon? If the answer is because some people are old and need to get home, I’d answer that maybe they can take a nap earlier in the day, or they could watch a recording.

Events like this should be made accessible to the people with the most at stake in the future of our country. Young people, parents, and those who work with them (teachers come to mind) should not be excluded from public fora because we’re raising the next generation.