ES - Kids and SCA

[Vicki Marsh]

Greetings, Elfsea!!
Baroness Xene here.

My son's first event was when he was five days old.  He is now 9 1/2.

I did not call him anything but Anthony or Anthony Michael (when he was 
really in trouble) until he chose his persona.  We were on the way back from 
Gulf War almost two years ago and he got this far off look in his eyes and 
said "Mama, I want to be a Viking!"

Considering that I am Byzantine, and his step-father, Llywelyn is a Welsh 
Elizabethan, we looked at each other and said "A Viking?  Oh, no, what have 
we done wrong?!"  Then we collected our wits and talked about it.  We got 
children's books on the topic and talked to some area SCA Norse experts and 
discussed names.  Last year at Defender, when Llywelyn was made a White 
Scarf and I received the Laurel, we also had a private naming ceremony in 
the Norse encampment.  He was named Arnbjorn Ulfsson, and was given his own 
drinking horn.

My persona history includes being the granddaughter and the daughter of 
Varangian Guards in Miklegard, so it really isn't so outlandish for our 
personas to coincide.

Actually, this topic for this SpringFaire is based on his persona as well.  
We had a Byzantine SpringFaire, and an Elizabethan SpringFaire, so now we 
are doing the Norse theme.

As far as parenting in the SCA, always bring more clothes and shoes for them 
than you think you will need.  They will get wet, they will get dirty, they 
will forget to go to the bathroom, they will get messy.  Have and extra 
clean set in the car for when you leave - especially underwear.  Have a 
blanket in the car for them to wrap up in.

When they are old enough to get their own food when they are hungry, they 
need their own small ice chest and food box.  That way they can graze all 
day and not ruin your food.  I have found that Lunchables, individually 
wrapped string cheese, small bags of grapes, hard-boiled eggs and juice 
boxes are wonderful things for the ice chest.  For dry foods, beef jerky, 
raisins, granola bars, favorite cereals in small ziplock bags, and nuts of 
some kind make good kid food.

In other words, hungry and cold children are miserable and will make your 
life miserable, too.

As far as tenting, I had a large tent, and got Anthony his own little dome 
tent when he was about 4 years old.  I started putting his little tent up 
inside my big tent.  It was warmer and more cozy for him, and gave me a 
small measure of privacy.

This last year, he got to pick his own tent out.  He is responsible for 
setting it up (usually with my help) and taking it down.

Good Luck with your son!!

In Service,

Baroness Xene, OL




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