The email comes in: can anyone attend a community meeting?
The topic is of special interest to me, as I am a parent on the Hill, and the meeting happens to be about food in the District’s public schools. But really, it doesn’t matter– here is another interesting community meeting; but for many parents and guardians in our neighborhood it just means another meeting that you can’t attend– or another Faustian babysitting deal if you really, really would like to make it.
I realize this is a topic that many cannot relate to; but since it just happened to me, I thought it would be interesting to address it: should a neighborhood like Capitol Hill, that prides itself in being family-friendly and family-oriented encourage its community members to attend meetings by providing some sort of childcare? For that matter, should community meetings also even potentially offer dog-walking services if the meetings are going to take as long as they usually do? Even more radically: should meetings hosted by outfits that cater to children specifically, such as the District of Columbia Public Schools, include babysitting as a de facto option so that community members can attend these meetings without having to worry about arranging for child care and/or bargaining their souls?
Around the schools, it’s a no-brainer: there is usually some sort of donation-encouraged child care provided by the schools’ PTAs. School and PTA meetings are therefore attended by the people who are served best by these kinds of meetings: parents, whose interests, children, and futures are invested in these meetings. But clearly, government meetings do not offer such considerations, in part because I am willing to bet no one has ever thought of it or perhaps it’s not a very popular opinion to voice.
Any opinions or thoughts, readership?
Bring your kids and crayons. If the baby is really small, tuck them in a sling and be prepared to walk the back of the room.
Yes, you’ll miss some meetings when the kids are really small. It gets easier as they get bigger.
A fair number of DCPS events advertise babysitting, and seem to just ask that you call or email ahead.
I’d like my gas paid for, given that I’d use a car and gas is a cost I’d have to incur. And I have an adult dependent I’d like someone to arrange care for while I attend.
Of course, I’m not serious, but, really, what’s the criteria we should use regarding the cost life choices that the government should subsidize for community meetings? Our civic obligations include incurring some costs on our own in the broader interest of the community.
Clearly Subsidizer has not paid $15 an hour to have someone watch his or her kid.
I have brought my daughter to meetings in the past, though I felt it was easier when she didn’t walk or talk, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t mind the option of her playing in a room on the side with other kids, free to be a kid her self. I’d also be willing to pay a reasonable fee. I don’t expect it to be free or paid for by the government, but a small donation is acceptable.
I also think simulcasting meetings on a public access channel or streaming on the internet is a great idea as well.
It might be nice to get volunteers to watch the kids in another room? Take turns at meetings? Seeing as we should be a tight knit community, this should not be a problem.
@Subsidizer, I’d be with you (as a childless-and-staying-that-way person), but…
At DCPS meetings (not PTA) it’s downright nonsensical for them not to provide a childcare option as a matter of course – no email or call necessary. The people interested in such things are parents with children.
And, as for ANC mtgs… well, that’s less of a no-brainer, but in our neighborhood where so very many people have kids and so very many people gripe about the “old guard” running things despite being somewhat/moderately/entirely out of touch with the new and changing face of the neighborhood – without a childcare option for the younger people on the Hill, there’s no way for newer residents (those w/ kids anyway) to get involved, even in the most cursory of ways.
Like I said – I neither have nor want children, but anything that encourages new blood and new ideas to get in the mix, I’m going to support. People shouldn’t have to wait until they’re empty-nesters and/or simply not have kids to get involved.
There are many, mmany signle parents, caregivers of smal lchildren, in the Ward 6 community, as well as single-income families, a well as dual-income families for that matter, in some instances, who cannot afford steep babysitting fees night after night for meetings. Babysitting charges here on the Hill rack up–once or twice or four times a month is something some people budget for, but not twice a week, to cover meetings, PTA full meetings and committee meetings, community events, etc.. Moreover, there are just not enough babysitters per family available. I couldn’t get one half the times I have tried. Meetings are in the evening. If a traveling, overseas or working-late work spouse or partner is not available to take the kids, or if there is no partner, meetings will be missed. A lot of important community information is shared at meetings, people get involved in discussions and actions, and help shape agendas, so women–or men–closest to the issues don’t even get a seat at the table. And they should. It is also their table–and their kids’ future. Some balance must be struck, and many neighborhoods have created babysitting co-ops and other community-driven solutions where there can may be an option to pay a small fee for childcare in a group setting, thus driving down costs. When I helped set up community meeting with a strong parental interest, I and others recruited volunteers to watch those that had to bring their kids.