parenting

If so, how is it going wrt covid and everything else? Nonparents feel free to answer if you know any kids going to school and what their situation is like. Teachers also please chime in.

My kid came to me this morning to ask about a video they found on YouTube. It offered FREE ROBUX!!!! in exchange for:

• Installing Microsoft Edge.
• Only using Bing! for searches.
• Signing up for a Microsoft Rewards account.
• Continue using this setup for five consecutive days.
• Only available by signing up via this YouTuber's referral link.
• None of which children under 13 can legally do on their own.

Cool exploitation, bro.

So I explained: even if this is a legitimate offer, that's five days of work for only $1.25! The people you're doing this work for will make a lot more than that! Those Robux aren't free—you're paying for them by working, and paying way more than they're worth! You should keep what you earn!

I had them clean up the bottles and cans in their and their sibling's room, and told them they can keep the full recycle value. I figure they'll probably pull in about 400 Robux for 10 to 15 minutes of work.

I don't have to clean, they learned a lesson. EZ mode Dadding on a Saturday morning. :sleepi:

My beagle named Autumn

Because once you have kids and they become mobile, it will be years before you get to take a private, undisturbed poop at home again.

With my kids, we tend to stick to more gender-neutral toys, wood blocks, that sort of thing. Get a lot of toys from Hapé, that sort of thing.

Went to a kid's birthday party today. Family has 2 boys. Played with the toys in the basement. And jfc, damn near every toys was heavily masc-coded. i swear to god, there was a toy fire engine that had literal muscles on it. Every vehicle had big chunky wheels and seemed to be designed with a certain masculine aesthetic. There was this cop car designed like a tank that shot out discs. Every toy just seemed overly aggressive and bought specifically to signal MY SON IS NOT GAAAAYYY!

Like, I was raised with "boy toys" like Tonka trucks. But those just seemed more like realistic representations of real thing. Even something silly like Transformers, their vehicle forms were like boring-ass sedans and shit. So many toys today seem like they have to crank up the gender coding to 11 (boys and girls); while at the same time there are a ton of toys that aren't problematic at all.

I feel like this says a lot about the social reproduction of gender and capitalism.

Maybe an odd question, so I'll unpack it a bit. Back during the time of the Michael Brown shooting, I remember hearing about how black parents often have "the talk" with their kids about the pigs. About how they aren't there to help, about how to stay safe around them, etc.

I'm white, my kids are white, and I realized I need to have my own ACAB talk with them eventually. This weekend, my older toddler said to me "the police keep us safe". I'm guessing she picked it up from day care teachers because I don't let her watch any TV that glorifies pigs and I live in a kinda reactionary area.

When she asked, I kinda fumbled and just said "not really, the police don't keep people safe". I knew that wasn't a great answer but she's little so she just sorta heard it and then moved on to her next unrelated topic. I've been thinking about it. I have some time, but at some point I need to talk to her and tell her the truth about cops.

Do you all have any advice about how to explain the reality of policing in America to white kids? I'm making that "white" qualifier for a reason. In white spaces and communities, the copanganda kids face is intense. The cops are portrayed as these kind, benevolent peacemakers who are only there to help. And frankly, the cops themselves do a great job propagandizing white kids. They make sure to have all these positive interactions with them when they're young. That's what I have to fight against. I know because that was my experience as a white kid growing up. I never really had negative interactions with cops myself. Shitting on cops was very much socially forbidden among my Mayo-American social circle. And the last mental domino to fall in me becoming a leftist was realizing how absolutely shitty cops are and their real role in the system. I really want my kids to be able to see the cops for who they are, even though I know how much of an uphill battle that's going to be for me.

I came across this resource by happenstance and figured I may as well share it. I'm not a parent myself, but I skimmed through the toolkit and I think it would be really useful for broaching these topics with kids, especially with all the copaganda present in children's media.

you can download the toolkit directly here

or browse the creator's website if you'd like!

keep up the good work raising your little ones! always wishing y'all the best :Care-Comrade:

Hey everybody,

Here comes some rambling bullshit!

TLDR; what do we do as leftist to be intentional in raising our kids in line with our values?

Something I’ve struggled with as a dad is what it means to be a parent and a leftist. There are clear parenting “tracks” for other systems of beliefs (raising a Christian/Jewish/Muslim kid; arguably ones for raising a conservative - though I’m not sure in the American context how separate that is from raising a religious kid, raising an upper-class kid definitely has its own track, etc), but I don’t know of any that are specific to the left.

I’ve started reading HumanKind (this probably means I’m a lib), which got me thinking that what my political beliefs are based in probably boils down to a sort of hope for and belief in others. If we assume that other people are, like ourselves, generally good with some flaws, it follows that others deserve to have the same sorts of basic protections and rights that we want for ourselves.

This runs counter to the cynicism that HumanKind got me thinking about and (in my humble and uninformed opinion) runs rampant because those at the top of hierarchies need it to maintain control and justify their own cruelties.

But, without that hope for and belief in others, what are our politics grounded in?

The other element of this is probably direct action. It’s nice to “want good things” for other people, but there’s also the element of going out and fucking fighting for them. Some of this is, again, tied to the belief that people know what’s best for them and should be empowered to go out and get it, rather than having a technocrat come up for a means-tested solution for them (:volcel-kamala:). But, advocating for yourself as part of fighting for the common good, that seems like part of it, too.

This goes to questioning assumptions, being raised so you’re empowered to speak up, ask questions, call out bullshit. That’s probably its own thread.

Again to prove my lib credentials: Bernie’s 2020 slogan still resonates with me: “Fight for someone you don’t know.” I think that’s the right way, and it’s based in an recognition of and appreciation for our shared needs.

So anyway, what do you do to be a leftist parent?

EDIT: the scribbled down note that inspired this was:

“Left” parenting is grounded in HOPE and OPTIMISM that are based on evidence that we naturally care for each other.

I’d add to that that we don’t fucking NEED to excuse our compassion and curiosity and optimism away. As our kids show us, it’s our natural state!

OT: Since having kids, seeing unhomed people has become that much more heartbreaking; each person sleeping in a doorway or screaming at a tree was once a perfect, loving, open baby, just like mine or yours. A phrase Cornell West uses resonates with me more and more: “precious lives”. His worldview is rooted in a religious faith I don’t share, but I appreciate the revolutionary potential and the deep compassion behind that phrase. During covid I thought about it a lot. Yeah, there was something schadenfreude-y about seeing the chuds die of COVID but at the same time, those lives are not any less precious even though they may have been acting selfishly and thoughtlessly.

Synthesis: just get stoned at work lol

Anyone else real conflicted about Bluey?

Most episodes navigate a common experience for kids, and basically all the ones I've seen are funnier than I'd like to admit. Both of these things rock

But then, there's the Bean Dad episode where help is offered to the 6yo with riding a bike, but then denied to the 4yo trying to drink water. Then there's the episode with the moral: If your ADHD makes it hard to fit in, the Army may be your destiny. Then there are all the fun references to "island beats" and "ooga booga"

Am I just doing anxious dad shit? I'm zapping episodes out of my kid's rotation just in case

pee-pee

For real, it's taken me nearly a year to finish Capital vol. 1. It's a large book but not that large. I used to read so much more. But now that I have kids, it seems like that reading time has really shrunk. There are some unique factors that work against me (kids that sleep less than the low number of the range for their ages and a partner who sees reading as kinda antisocial) but still, I bet a lot of parents are in the same boat. If you have kids and you're actually able to get reading in, how do you do it.

Edit: actually, I'm reading David Harvey's companion book along with it, so that's like two books in a year. Still way, way below the amount of reading I'd like to do.

I'm mainly looking for stuff like what to expect, how to raise a child, etc., but I'm open to other suggestions too. It doesn't have to be explicitly communist/leftist (although that would be nice lol), but at least stuff that is aligned with similar values.

I've seen Unconditional Parenting by Alfie Kohn, and The Will to Change by bell hooks recommended on leftist parts of :reddit-logo:, and I've heard that Pedagogy of the Oppressed has some useful ideas in it too

Linked above, but here are the instructions:

The Archive is a series of special collections of (primarily) video material, representing an attempt to archive cultural history that, in many cases, may not otherwise be sufficiently archived for the public good and reasonable education and societal usage.

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PLEASE READ THE DOCUMENTATION SITE CAREFULLY as frequent questions may not be answered or delayed due to resources -- maintaining the Archive is a full-time job. Also anyone thinking to post the actual addresses or similar will be reported and there's a good chance the whole Archive will be taken down. Think before you post.

Bluey is in the family section under "B"