[Ansteorra] Children in the Sca

[Richard Threlkeld]

I believe the rule for children at Ansteorran events is the children must be
within sight and sound of the parent or guardian. Guardians must have the
proper paperwork. That means if you run to the nearby store, take your
children or have a properly executed guardian form for someone at the site
already done and give them the children. When my children were that young,
we had a couple of such forms done and notarized "just in case".

The people at the event, including the autocrat and the Seneschal, must
enforce the rules. When I was Seneschal of our Barony, we had a mom who had
worked with the kids all day, so she gave a little girl (perhaps 4 years
old) to the dad to mind. He put her in a pavilion on the list field and went
out to fight. Whenever he left the pavilion, she would wander away to find
mom. After the second time we intervened (she had wandered onto the edge of
the field), we told him that either he or mom needed to watch her or we
would have to ask them to leave. The dad (a Knight) was very cross with us,
but decided to stop fighting rather than incur the wrath of his wife by
asking her to take over (the right and honorable decision in my humble
opinion). This was not mindless rule enforcement. It was keeping the child
safe. And it was asking the people who should care the most to assume their
legitimate responsibility.

In Service,
Caelin on Andrede

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ansteorra-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org [mailto:ansteorra-
> bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Bree Flowers
> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 3:36 PM
> To: Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc.
> Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Children in the Sca
> 
> Fair enough, but can we ban the parents who didn't really want to have
> children and refuse to watch them? As a parent myself I'm getting
> really tired of having people foist their children off on my husband
> and I because we actually watch our little bundles and bring all the
> requisite supplies to entertain, feed and clothe them. I spent almost
> the entire last event I attended with some stranger's kid tormenting
> my family. We had to keep him from stepping on our sleeping newborn,
> sitting in our picnic dinner, throwing game pieces at us, and stealing
> my daughter's toy. And when I say "some stranger" I don't mean someone
> I never met before dumped their kid with us, I mean I NEVER saw who
> this child's parent was. I assume they were still in the hall, but
> they might not have been for all I know. I've decided to stop
> attending local events for a while because of this. I don't pay site
> fee to come and watch other people's children when I could stay home
> and just watch my own. And I'm not saying this is a local problem,
> I've seen it all over the known world. Bad parents don't just give the
> rest of us a bad name, they also drive us away because having kids
> makes us a magnet for all the lost little ones out there and we're
> tired of giving up events to play child minder to "the village".
> 
> I don't share the "it takes a village" philosophy. I believe my
> husband and I should be watching our children AT ALL TIMES. If I
> didn't feel like I had 100% of my time to devote to them I wouldn't
> have had them. If you want us to watch your children and you ASK FIRST
> I might say "yes" but you'll probably never have to reciprocate, lucky
> you. That said, whoever left their kid with my husband and I really
> did leave their kid with a total stranger, I mean we hardly come out
> to anything and I can guarantee they wouldn't have even been able to
> tell you my husband's name, much less decide if he was trustworthy or
> not. In this day and age, with all the bad stuff we hear in the news
> it boggles me that someone would turn their back on their child in
> public for even a second. And if they were watching their tiny terror
> "entertain" us and simply decided I had it under control... duuuuuude,
> not cool!
> 
> ~Eve
>