[Ansteorra] Childrens Activities

Kaithlen Hamilton kaledain at yahoo.com
Wed May 16 08:39:29 PDT 2007


I have been reading this thread for a while. It seems
the biggest concern is what we are doing to protect
our children as a group and as parents as well as
protecting the group. As a parent and a former MoC
parental involvement is the key to it all. When I see
stories on the news of children being hurt
(irregardless of how) my question is always where was
the parent. The same goes for the SCA. I am involved
in what my child is doing and so is my husband. I
don't want him involved in anything that is not open
to me as well, I can't do my job of guiding and
educating if I am not around. This dose not mean that
he is with me 24/7, both my husband and myself work
and he goes to school. One of us normally accompanies
him on field trips, sports activities and yes to
Children's Activities at events. This has meant that
one of us has had to not do something that we wanted
to do but spending time with our son and getting to
see him achieve has been worth the sacrifice. We have
had to cut back on the number of commitments we make
to work at our groups events. My husband spends a lot
of time working gate and I am the local scribe and we
both try to pitch in as needed in other areas for the
events that our group hosts. As our child is getting
older we no longer have to stay the full time at
children's act ivies but I still fill that it is
important for one us to pitch in help. There are never
enough hands to help especially if there are a large
number of 5 to 7 year olds present or if there are
large gaps in the ages of the children present. The
idea of parents having to give some time in support of
their children in the SCA is no different then parents
having to give time in support of their children in
athletics or scouting. The league that my son plays
soccer in requires that parents help run the
concession stand at the games. This helps to maintain
the fields that he gets to play on. Did I really want
to have to be at the field hours before his game to
help out, no I could have been at home doing some of
the chores that I needed to get done but I did it in
support of my child. We all try to help when our group
is hosting an event so that it those from outside our
own group that are coming can have a good time and
everything gets done. We don't always want to work but
we do it. Children's Activities is no different, if we
want our children involved in what we are doing and
getting excited about the dream then we need to
support them. Helping out at Children's Activities is
not about being responsible for other peoples children
but about helping your child and others gain a science
of the dream. It could be nothing more then helping
children with a craft project that need a little extra
help, if you have ever watched a 5 year old paint you
know what I mean. Seeing the joy in a 10 year olds
eyes because they were able to sew that pouch with a
little bit of help is incredible. Helping with the
children at our events is not being the one teaching
the class or activity but being an extra set of hands
to help our children accomplish what they are being
taught to do. Even if the child you are helping is
yours, it is perfectly fine for a parent that is
helping out to spend most of their time helping the
children they are comfortable with. As parent I would
not want a person who is not comfortable with helping
my son trying to do so, but I always like to see
parents helping their own child. I just feel that if
we are to grow as an organization we have to work to
insure that all of our members have a way to be active
in what we do this includes the young ones that are
counted amongst us.

Thank you for your time,
Kiathleen Hamilton
Bordermarch




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