[Artemisia] Identifying/protecting our kids one way or another

[Ysabel de Lille]

I have two kids...one VERY active almost 4-year old boy (as so many of you know...) and a very recently VERY mobile 1 year old girl.  At every event where there is identification to be worn, I make sure they are wearing it...Katriel on her ankle, generally, and David on his belt, since he never takes that off.  I'm planning on making heraldic clothes and identifiers for them, also, mostly just because I think it'll look pretty cool, and add to the atmosphere, and make them easier for ME to spot them as I'm chasing them down. ;)

Here's the thing though.  I'm the one chasing them around.  Or my husband is.  Or we both are.  And that's because we want to make sure they're ok.  We're their parents, after all.  I, too, though I was single at the time and without kids, remember those lovely days when kids ran rampant through camps and everyone smiled at them and dodged so we wouldn't be trampled.  Sadly, things in our mundane world have changed significantly.  We are not as innocent or naive as we used to be.  Chivalry still stands in the SCA, thank the heavens, but there is also a darker side, as in every group, sadly.

The fact is, the only people who can truly make sure their kids are safe are the parents (or guardians!).  We need to be vigilant.  We need to take the time to make sure we know where are kids are, who they're with (if they're with friends, sitter, other family, boffer tourney...), and what they're doing.  As quite a few of us with active toddlers know all too well, literally blink, and your kid's fallen down the stairs, run off into a nearby merchant's booth and hidden behind a table, or decided to play hide and seek underneath a full Elizabethan dress with the wearer of said dress still oblivious.  (Yes, this has all happened at events with very watchful parents, and only one of these scenarios was my kid!).  

It's fantastic that SCA kids have tons of "uncles" and "aunts" and "cousins" to watch out for them.  I'm a firm believer in the phrase "It takes a village to raise a child".  HOWEVER...it takes a parent to make sure that the village is safe. :)  To all those out there who say "What, you don't trust us to watch your kids?"  I say "Thank you for watching them!  I appreciate it!  But the more eyes, the better."  It is no slight on your watchful extra eyes, by any means, but kids being kids are very talented at getting themselves into interesting predicaments in a nanosecond.

Beyond just dangers that seem, at least to me, to rarely present themselves in the scope of the SCA, there are other things that kids get into that require a parent's (or guardian's) attention.  My son still gets into trouble for whacking people with his boffer who aren't similarly armed, and doesn't understand when other kids don't want to play with him because he's not falling down 'dead' or putting his now 'hacked-off' arm behind his back.  My daughter has a tendency to be a bit of a clepto when it comes to jewellry (no worries, she's still just 13 months!).  It's necessary for me or my lord to be there to correct them and help them and explain to them that what they did wasn't right.

And hey, let's face it, accidents happen, too.  Sometimes with help, and sometimes without.  

So by all means, henna tatoo your kids, put markers on them, make them wear glow-in-the-dark cotehardies (not really, please!!!) and decorate them stylishly with heraldry, but also be a nosy parent.  Be aware of your kids, know what they're doing and where and with whom.  Independence and freedom and helping them gain all that aside, our kids need to know there are boundaries, and that they must respect them, and that we love them enough to put those boundaries there for them.

YIS,
~*~Lady Ysabel la Serena de Lille~*~

Abeunt studia in mores