[Artemisia] Question for everyone re: youth activities

[Georgia Foster]

My children are mostly grown (the youngest is 13, the oldest, 25 YE GADS ... I am old).  They did participate as often as I could make arrangements for it to be so ... though there were occasions when an event was mom's chance to escape for a little while.  Mostly there was not enough money to pay the basic household bills, so extracurricular activities were not going to happen.  That is still true but to a lesser extent now that it was then.
 
Mine were pretty much the only children in downtown Otherhill for a long time.  Viscount Thomas the Diminutive and Viscountess Adria of the Crosswinds have a large family as well, but they lived on the outskirts of Otherhill and I suspect were subject to the same financial constraints as many who have large families ... that being a site fee-feast fee for one for an event is 15-20 per, which is reasonable enough for one ... but when you multiply that by 5 (four children and myself) there goes the power bill for the month.
 
NOTE ... I am not griping here.  I would not trade my motherhood experience for anything in the world.  I am only attempting to explain the economics of raising a large brood when combined with the expense that is the SCA.
 
When I do bring the children, I stay with the children.  Most of the activities that they participate in REQUIRE it.  (the youngest is fond of Archery ... and there is NO way I am going to just 'drop him off and disappear' at an activity that involves sharp pointy things).  Sadly ... at Uprising last, while I was standing at the tree line trying VERY hard to be invisible so that he could have the illusion that mom was not hovering, I witnessed two very young girls (several years younger than my son) who were at the Archery point without parents, for more than an hour (so it wasn’t like the parents were just behind them).  Master Braden was very kind, but also had to be very firm with them ... no archery without a parent present on the field.   The girls eventually gave up and went away but I was very sad for them.   Target shooting requires that a direct relation (parent or legal guardian) be present ON THE FIELD.  It is a good rule.
 
Sadly, I have seen groups of children at events and no parent in view.  Parents are under the impression that children are safe at events, and usually, this is a valid assumption.  Being at an event does not, however, absolve the parent of parental responsibility.  Again, at the recent Uprising, a young man was accosted outside a privy and beaten up by a group of other young men.  While I do not know full circumstances surrounding the incident (only hearing one half of the story), WHERE WERE THE BOYS’ PARENTS?  All the boys involved were roving the site unsupervised.  They were, I understand, a little older.  Such behavior saddens me on so many levels.

Jo (Georgia L.) Foster Never knock on Death's door.Ring the doorbell and run ... he hates that. I don't want to set the world on fire, I'm just trying to light a candle.