How Kid-Friendly should I expect the DC protest on April 5 to be?
How Kid-Friendly should I expect the DC protest on April 5 to be?
I live ~30 minutes outside DC and am planning on attending the protest on April 5. I have a 3yo and 5yo and would like to bring them, but I'm a bit nervous that might be a bad idea.
Anyone here involved in planning or know more details that can give me some advice on how kid-friendly the event might be?
For context, I've been attending political protests since my first in 2003 (against the invasion of Iraq....man do I feel old). I've been to some huge, heavily marketed events like the Women's March in 2017 or the various Marches for Science which I felt would be perfectly kid-friendly. I've also been to some heavily marketed events (a lot in 2020) which I absolutely would NOT want to bring a small child to.
Obviously, if I bring my kids I'm not going to be getting into much more than holding a sign and sticking to the less rowdy parts of the crowd. If things look like it's heating up a bit, my family and I will be out right away. But if this event seems like it might not have a great vibe for kids, I might think about taking them to a smaller event in Frederick or Annapolis instead.
Great question. Having protests be accessible to families, the elderly, and the disabled is really important to getting more people to show up.
I think kids should not be there because bad things could happen, especially if somehow they get lost, and they don't understand what's going on. Bringing teenagers is more understandable.
I'm not worried about them getting lost. I know how to keep track of my kids in a large crowd pretty well. And my wife will be there, too. We'll have child carrying harnesses so the kids can ride strapped onto our back if they don't want to walk anymore. My concern is about the intended atmosphere of the event.
Also, as someone who never saw my parents engage in politics beyond voting, and barely even ever heard them speak about politics, I think it's important for kids to see their parents engaging in politics, even if they don't really understand what's going on. It shows them that it's not only OK, but encouraged to form and act on their own political ideas. It opens them up to discussing political issues when they get old enough to, and shows them that politics isn't just something for the ruling elite.
I'm gonna urge you to reconsider. I think bringing them along to DC is a really bad idea. I'm not so much worried about the protesters, but rather what Trump et al will do. There's real fear about how far they will be willing to go (consider what Trump was willing to do just for a photo op in his first term).
I know you mentioned that you would get out of dodge quick if things turned south, but you won't be the only one with this instinct. The crowd will likely be massive enough to the point that little ol' DC's transportation infrastructure won't be able to handle a sudden mass exodus (Edit: Depending on the time of day I suppose. I understand that DC has a large commuter pop). To the point that just trying to leave could become dangerous (for reasons like crowd crush, auto accidents, that kind of thing). Granted, that's basically the worst case scenario and under the assumption that there will be at least somewhere on the order of thousands of protesters (it might be much smaller, who can say at this point).
I really respect wanting to raise them to be politically conscious, but perhaps doing it from afar would be a better idea this time around.
If nobody is there to watch them as you go to a protest, then I guess you might have to bring them along. But you have to do this with a group, so there is someone watching your kids.
The goal is to create a massive crowd. That could be a nightmare if you accidentally get separated.