This year. It's only June and I feel like I've lived, learned, and experienced at least three years worth of life. Many Macaroni Kid publishers do a "Note From the Publisher" weekly. I tend to stick to sending you all the best events, ideas, and local hot spots for family fun, but this week is different. It's different now and we all know why.
Macaroni Kid is all about Finding Your Family Fun. I want to take this opportunity to use this platform to commit it is a place for everyone to Find Their Family Fun. We welcome everyone of every race with open arms and hearts. We stand against hate and racism in all forms and we stand with our black neighbors because Black Lives Matter.
I know many people may be wondering where to even start, how to help, how to make a change, how best to support your families? I don't have all those answers, but here are a few ideas:
1). Small changes with a big impact. Check out your child's book collection and make a conscious effort to diversify it. My daughter's current favorite is Ada Twist, Scientist it's a quick read for bedtime, great cadence, black family, and stars a girl scientist!
2). Start the conversation with your kids. I was shocked to know babies as young as 6 months begin to show a racial preference (they, understandably, tend to react more to those who resemble their parents/caregivers). I found this website embracechange.org. It's packed with resources from age-appropriate conversation starters, podcasts for kids, and reading lists- it's pretty awesome.
3). Support local black owned businesses. Right now there is even a local contest- you could win $1,000 in prizes!
4). Do more listening than talking. Take in the experiences of others, hear what they say, and reflect.
As a white woman, I have learned to do more listening and reflecting. As a result, I want to commit to you all to make even more of an effort to be as inclusive as possible, to add as many cultural events to our daily calendar as I can find (more to come post Covid), to include articles representing more backgrounds, and provide resources for parents who are looking to raise more culturally aware kids. This isn't new, but I intend to be more purposeful with content; I'm sure I will stumble along the way, please bear with me. Have an idea? I'm listening, really melissastruchen@macaronikid.com
I hope your families are healthy, I hope they are happy, I hope they are enjoying the sunshine. I hope your kids are loving the end of virtual school, I hope you've found something to smile about today, and I hope quarantine life quickly becomes a distant memory. Mostly, I hope for a brighter tomorrow- a world of peace and equality for all our kids; I hope you do too. Until then, my friends, we carry on.
