Publisher's Letter: Making Our Families Stronger Than Politics

by Laura Matanah

What makes families strong? Love, values, community participation, or rights? As we approach and analyze the aftermath of this month’s U.S. elections, I’m keeping my eyes on the prize of strengthening our families over the long haul. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to download the PDF we published about how to ensure that your kids feel safe and empowered during and after the election season: Back to School, Back to Politics. This month, though, I want to focus on the bigger picture of strengthening our families so we can weather any political storm. We need to create the conditions that will allow us to sail into a new day where our worth and rights are a given.

Love and values are our foundation. Values move us from a focus on our immediate circle of family and friends to more universal connections. Children need safety and love to be able to learn and act on values. Teaching values, along with practical skills and good habits, is probably our most important job as parents. Interestingly, in the context of an election season where we could lose rights and feel disrespected, remembering and stating our values is a proven way to help us feel a greater sense of control in our lives and be able to perceive the world more accurately. (Read The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer to learn more.) Thanks to my brother, I also recently read a great post on the values one mom would like to transmit: Am I Mom Enough? A Motherhood Wish List.

Community participation is where we act on our love and values, and learn that we are valuable in the larger world. Rainbow Rumpus’s work focuses on creating and sharing stories that show kids and teens that they are valued members of a large community, one full of kids and teens who share their insights and skills with others. We also bring stories about our families into the broader community, so that kids and teens can see their families celebrated in public settings, and so other kids, teens, and families understand that strong and loving families take many forms. I believe it’s this work, the work of building community and having our families recognized and celebrated in public settings, that creates the conditions for our worth and rights to be a given.

This month we’re working to increase awareness of, and investment in, our work from friends and donors in every U.S. state and at least three other English-speaking countries. To see concrete examples of the ways Rainbow Rumpus makes a difference in the lives of kids and teens and learn how you can get involved, please visit our page on Razoo.