Children Protesting

Does anyone else have a problem when they see small children participating in public protests? Just curious to see if I'm alone on this.

-P

protest I think is healthy for children.

Anymore than I think most would not have a problem with a kid wearing a t-shirt to school that protests something.

What would my childhood have been without my parents dragging us to Sears to shop for appliances and back-to-school clothes? (besides happier)

I have sent my kids to school wearing "Yes, We Did!" t-shirts, so I thought I didn't have a problem with it. My 10 year old son loves Obama, and we drove past a Tea Party protest on April 15 and he saw one of his best 9 year old friends there (with her parents) and all the color left his face. He was shocked and horrified. However, that probably will be the running narrative of most kids during this time in history.

take the opportunity to tell him that people are not always what they seem?

I'm sure it's part of my own bias but I don't have a problem with a kid at a protest for say ... libraries ... carrying a sign that says "save our reading program" or some such.
I *do* get irked when I see that people have their kids carrying signs at a protest for gun rights.

If it's a well organized protest they choose to be at, then I have no problem with it at all. It worked in Birmingham.

I knew, kind of, what I was doing. I at least knew he was one of the good guys.

I do have problems with children being dragged to protests they don't understand and being used as props by their parents.

Before that they had attended peace rallies as long as they remember. I could care less if some find this inappropriate.

I don't like it when I see them protesting in the teabagger party but I fully understand that they've already learned the racism at home. But in a strange way the protests give them an education in our basic civil rights. Some of them will grow up understanding that and questioning their teachers, just like many question the religions they were raised in.

I loved it when I saw white haired baby boomers with their grandchildren during the anti-war marches before the Iraq war. I didn't expect to say either group, but when I did it made complete sense.

from marches and protests in the 60s; I was in single digits. She did tell me about them, and she did take me to hear Angela Davis speak when I was 11.

I don't have any problem with children attending peaceful demonstrations with their parents.

To answer some of the questions....

How young? Well, I was mostly speaking of any child under the age of let's say 8 year old.
What kind of protest? I like the person that said that there is really no problem especially when it comes to "libraries" and reading programs...you know things that would directly pertain to that child's experience. A good one would be the protesting of a playground closure. That kind of thing.

I suppose that my objection stemmed from seeing children at an anti-choice rally where the discussions were getting heated and they were carrying pictures of aborted fetuses.

Please understand that I fully appreciate the educational opportunity it provides for children at any age.

I just try to imagine what the "age of reason" is. Is it 9 years old...12, 5??? I don't know.

It is easy to be against having children at protests when you don't support the protest. But it would be intellectually dishonest not to apply the same standard to protests you agree with.

Other than the obvious educational benefits, I still would refrain from bringing a young child to a protest. It would be like when children are raised in a certain religion and hold to that religion when they become adults. Can we really say that this child has determined on their own if they want that particular religion? Wouldn't the same reasoning be true when it comes to protests.

When I see a child at a protest holding a sign with words that they cannot even spell much less fully understand...well, I know its a minor point.

-P

I've been going to college for years and I still don't fully understand the implications of complex policy issues.

Children are just following what Mommy and Daddy told them, or in the case of teenagers rebelling against what Mommy and Daddy told them.

They are also the people most likely to protest. They are the people most likely to indoctrinate their children into their ideology with protesting.

Right-wing or Left.

The issues reflect the parent's beliefs. I do understand parents who want to share our country's heritage of peaceful protest with their children. However, it's unsettling to see small children in the midst of teabaggers with racist signs or anti-choice protestors with bloody fetus images. The children are there as pawns. They're accessories. I don't like people who bring their children to adult parties. The conversations are adult. The activities, smoking and drinking, are adult. Protests are similar. Most of the conversation is adult. Why have the children there?

To act as props and emotional-pulls to people passing by.

Almost every time some public lecture or other such event was there, she'd show up to either disrupt it or try to use the Q&A period to haul some tangentially-related talking point in, often based on fairly dramatically misrepresenting the point of the talk that evening.

She didn't have any kids, but she would borrow others' infants so that she could have Our Future in her hands while she harangued people in the hopes of being taken more seriously.

I'm thinking more crazy than stupid in that one.

the support. I'm one of those people who wants to call DFACS every time I see a preview for "Toddlers and Tiaras". I wish parents would quit seeing their children as possessions and realize that they are human beings who deserve to be treated as individuals. I'm not recommending giving up parental authority. Parents need to parent. I just am endorsing not using children as props, accessories, and ego gratification dolls. And that includes politics.

And you have the children there because children learn best long before they turn 18. Ymmv.

I marched on Lake Shore Drive to protest the beginning of the 2003 Iraq War which was an act of civil disobediance - we did not have permission to do so and they weren't prepared for it. Toward the end the police blocked everybody in this one area and made them wait a long time and started arresting people I watched some footage later where a woman got on the megaphone while the police were blocking them and she told the police that they should let everybody go because some of them have small children; I thought that was such a stupid thing to do, to bring children into a situation where they could get tear-gassed or trampled during a confrontation with the police. And really, this could happen at pretty much every protest because you never know when the opposing side will come up and start attacking you and the police will come. It's just altogether unwise.

Mainly because I think it can be dangerous. I've had things thrown at me and we had a guy drive up over a curb at us one time. My friend went to a minuteman rally and saw a little girl get in the middle of a spat and she was pushed into the street and nearly hit by a car.

So no, I don't think children belong at protests.

I know I'm less politically active than I was before I had kids. I have thought about bringing my kids to protests, but have not done so, because I think my wife would flip.

I do think that people have the right to try to transmit their values to their children. Political participation can be empowering. I also know that conservatives are indoctrinating their kids to think we are evil, and I have seen them use their own kids as props at any number of events, even in 100 degree heat. What's learned earliest is learned best, and I'd like to see my kids grow up with the idea that they can bring about change, but I also think that, at their current ages, 5 and 2, they are a little young to go to a protest or canvass door to door with me.

Assuming it's a nonviolent one, I have no objection to it.

I'm a big fan of exposing children to different things instead of sheltering them too much. Getting them out of the house, away from the tv, all of that gets them exposed to new things, which makes them better critical thinkers in the long run. It's good for children to see that part of democracy is people speaking out against things they disagree with. That's true even if they end up holding views that their parents oppose.

When my daughter was younger I wasn't protesting for a number of reasons, but if I was going to protests I would have brought her. I didn't have money to spend on a babysitter for her, and I am opposed to poor people being expected to have less of a voice and being expected to shut up and stay home if they can't afford a babysitter. I wouldn't have taken her to one I thought would endanger her - but as a parent I also wouldn't have gone to one on my own if I thought it was dangerous. I changed my own habits once I was a parent. (No more jumping out of airplanes once I had someone depending on me.)

I'd be more concerned about parents sitting their infants down in front of disney videos day after day and taking them to Mcdonalds - I think that does a lot more damage to them than attending a protest.

AlienSpawn (my eldest), at age two, went on TV to explain that he was opposing Fred Phelps because Phelps "thinks boys shouldn't be allowed to wear makeup." That was his two-year-old, makeup-n-high-heels, Barbie-loving understanding of the issue.

Now, at 12 and 14, they both organize and attend protests, mainly on environmental issues.

Tucker

teaching a child to be involved in their democracy

also. its a privilege issue. not everyone can afford to have babysitters while they protest

would i let them come along?

sure.

id ask if they wanted to come, wouldnt force them unless i had no other options as far as someone being able to watch them while i was gone..

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http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=qvc15pv1i1t2

:)

We haven't had any problems.

I doubt at that point they have the ability to form opionions that aren't directly based on their parents opinions. As many have said, the type of protest and what's being protested has a large part to play in whether I'd think it was appropriate or not. Last year I can remember the anti-abortion folk being all over D.C. and having a shitstorm of kids with them. One little girl tried to give me a anti-choice pamphlet on the subway and I politely said no. Her mom shot me withering looks the rest of the ride to my stop. This was on a cold day in October or November I think.

On the other hand, I've seen plenty of kids dragged all over the mall for peace rallied in the dead-ass middle of summer, getting baked all afternoon so their parents can participate.

I guess my rule of thumb would be that if the kid isn't old enough to likey have formed and independent opinion on the subject, leave them at home.

If you ask, kids have an opinion about everything. lol

involved is a good lesson