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Mother’s Day

I don’t mean the Mother’s Day where kids buy trash and your family lets you take the day off of from unpaid labor. I mean the non-commercial observance as Anna Jarvis originally intended – to draw awareness to the second shift demanded of working mothers and the disempowerment of work-at-home mothers within industries, communities, and their own families.

The fight for women’s rights, wealth equality, racial equality, and decolonizing is intertwined with the experiences of mothers and how we support them.

When is it?

• Every year on the second Sunday in May

#FreeBlackMamas

“Sixty percent of people in local women’s jails have not even been convicted of a crime and are awaiting trial—and 80 percent of them are parents. These Black women, femmes, and gender-nonconforming folks—Black Mamas and caregivers—are often without support or a safety net when they are condemned to a cage: there is no one to come for them.”
…read more from National Bail Out.

Read: Milo Imagines The World.

Discuss:

• What assumptions does Milo make about the people he sees?
• What assumptions do you think people make about Milo? Milo’s family?

Action:

• Make a donation or volunteer to reunite mothers with their children.

Show Up For Single Mothers

Triumphant Kids Stories Honoring Single Mothers

Revolutionary Humans membership or purchases required – proceeds support Revolutionary Humans, a Black-& single-mama-led collective.

Read

• Choose a book to read together from our Triumphant Kids Stories Honoring Single Mothers collection.
• If you’ve already read all those, you can find more single-parent family constellation stories here.

Adults: Visit Single Parenting in a Post-Apocalyptic Hellscape

• Learn how (and how not) to show up for single parents in your community.
• Single parents: Get resources to get clear on what support looks like so community parents can show up for you.

Discuss with kids:

• What does our family constellation look like?
• What privileges and challenges do we navigate because of how many parents and caregivers we have?
• How does the gender of the caregivers in our family affect our ability to find and receive support when we need it?

Bonus Activities to dig deeper

• This is Unsustainable eBook, featuring articles for your own edification, plus kid-friendly activities.

Acknowledge Invisible Labor

Read

• How Mamas Love Their Babies
• The Metal Load collection (ages 8+), the specific comic we’re looking for is You Should Have Asked, also available online. But the whole book is great! And it’s got drawings of boobs!
• The Giving Tree (for problematic analysis)

Discuss:

• Make a list of the invisible work and emotional labor is required to maintain our family’s daily routine.
• Who is in charge of which tasks?
• Who is taking on the invisible tasks?
• Did our family talk about taking these tasks, or did they just fall to specific people?
  • Why?
• What messages does The Giving Tree glorify about what we ‘should’ do to be nice?
  • What does this book teach children about what they should expect from women?
  • Do you agree?

Take Action

• Revisit each activity – what new or different invisible task could each family member take responsibility for?

More Resources to Dig Deeper:

• Single Parent Family Constellations