Does America Even Like Kids?
Because it sure doesn’t feel like it.
“Alabama lunchroom worker fired after accepting donations to feed students.”
What a headline.
After seeing this article appear on my timeline, I read it, assuming I had to be missing something, right? Maybe they accepted donations and used them for themselves?
“According to a statement from the Alabama Education Association, Dunn accepted donations and placed them into an account designated for school meals. She did not misuse donations.”
Damn.
So the Shelby County School Board voted to fire a lunchroom worker for… feeding children. Sure, she accepted donations, which was against school policy, but she did so because children who are required by law to be at a Shelby County School for a few hours a day are hungry and can’t afford to pay for school lunch. Is this what constitutes poor performance?
We are so unserious.
I remember last summer learning about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, specifically his initiative to provide free lunch for every child in the state of Minnesota. At the time, there was a viral photo of Governor Walz joyously laughing with kids as he signed this bill into law.
After signing the bill, Walz said, “I’m honored and I do think this is one piece of that puzzle in reducing both childhood poverty and hunger insecurity.”
Great news! Reducing childhood poverty and hunger insecurity seems like an idea everyone can get on board with, or so I thought.
Unfortunately, there are more people than you’d think who don’t feel kids deserve free school lunches.
Project 2025 stated a GOP President must “reject efforts to create universal free school meals.” I know a lot of people didn’t read Project 2025, but lucky for us, we’ll all get to feel its effects for the rest of our lives.
Last year the United States Surgeon General claimed that parenting in America is a significant public health crisis. I’ve written about it. I’ve done a podcast about it. Between social media, social structures, rising childcare costs and lack of parental leave options, parents are depressed, sad, lonely, and stuck.
In Why America hates its children, author Lydia Kiesling speaks to the struggles of parenting in America, touching on child care, social programs, gun safety, and her experience parenting in Greece vs. what she’s seen in America.
Every country has its share of adults who pose a threat to children. But the difference in how America treats its kids goes far beyond the "it takes a village" attitude that prevails in countries like Greece. Virtually every other industrialized nation provides more government aid for their children than America does. Of the 38 countries that belong to the leading Western trade alliance, the US ranks No. 32 in spending on early childhood. In Sweden, which offers single parents a staggering 480 days of paid parental leave, preschool costs no more than 3% of a family's gross income. America, by contrast, has no mandated paid parental leave. It has no universal childcare. Only one-third of American families can afford childcare, which consumes 27% of their income on average. Parents are being forced to leave big cities because they can't absorb the costs of childcare, while those in rural areas often can't find care at all.
As parents, we can feel it.
It’s bad enough that our government talks out of both sides of their mouth, telling Americans that raising a family is the most important job in the world, and on the other hand providing zero federal dollars toward supporting new parents. But the more surprising struggle lies in taking your kids in public.
The looks we get when boarding a plane, or God forbid when our seat neighbor needs to move so our child can use the restroom.
The eye rolls when we sit down for dinner next to a couple enjoying a night out, like ma’am, chill, we’re at Chili’s.
The insane in-office five-day-a-week mandates causing families to spend an exorbitant amount of money on before and after school programs, some of which are not run well at all. But at least our boss can see us looking at our screen, while determining which employees are going to survive the next employee purge.
Does America even like kids? The answer is no, not at all.
Former babies have become decision makers who’ve done everything in their power to ring America’s towel dry of efficiency, synergy, and productivity. Meanwhile, often they have a partner at home whose done all the unpaid work tied to raising kids, allowing them to feel innovative yet grossly out of touch.
I don’t want kids everywhere. I enjoy a nice meal from time to time without the neighboring table’s kids spilling soy sauce on my new jeans (very specific and true story, lol). But the entitlement Americans feel surrounding kids, wanting people to have them but also wanting them to stay completely out of sight is both unrealistic and honestly sad.
Kids bring joy to our world. I love coaching kids, seeing the way they view the game helps remind me why we play sports to begin with.
I love seeing kids play games, watching their brains create intricate scenarios on the playground that would break my brain to think of.
Somehow we’ve built a society that punishes moms, belittles dads, and treats kids as a nuisance rather than giving them the foundation they need to be the successful, emotionally healthy, future adults we need them to be.
Look around.
Do you feel good right now? Do you feel supported? Appreciated? Does the future look bright for you?
Chances are, the answer to those four questions is no, no, no, and no, all of which can be tied to a breakdown in American priorities.
People are the lifeblood of our purpose, and kids are the foundation of our world. To gain some semblance of normalcy, a phrase I’ve heard many parents use, America is going to need to equitably invest in childcare, education, and social programs so they can hope to fix the society we’ve broken.
