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

[Andrea Waddell]

I just wanted to throw in my dollar twenty...Extremely well said!  I wish 
more people felt this way (I'm not referring specifically to the SCA, just 
in general if more people acknowledged this kind of personal responsibility 
the world would be a better place to live).
-Maysun
Yup...that's really all I had to say...I left my soapbox at home. :)


>
>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
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>http://lists.gallowglass.org/mailman/listinfo/artemisia

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