What If We Gave Seats of Power to Kids in Low-Income Daycares?
By: Danika Bloom
Tags: Basic Income, Family, Parenting, Life Lessons, Ideas

“James, wake up. Someone broke into the garage last night. It’s a mess.”

So began our day. Neither James nor I were particularly mad. We were frustrated, annoyed at the hassle of having to deal with an insurance company and wait around for someone to replace the damaged door and fix the door frame. Liam, our 4-year-old, was firm, “If I see those bad guys, I’m gonna smack their butts.”

James looked around. All of his power tools and his three tool boxes were gone.

“Why?” I wondered out loud. Then I answered my own question. Tools are easy to sell.

We live in East Vancouver, the poorest neighbourhood in one of the world’s most expensive cities in the world. We’ve had our house broken into with all the usual items stolen, our car windows smashed once (apparently just for fun), car broken into twice, stolen once, and both Liam’s tricycle and stroller taken from our back deck.

But we continue to live here. In fact, we even bought a house — well, a half-duplex to be precise. My dad, who lives in a nice town where things like this don’t happen, wonders why. It’s hard to articulate, except to say that I feel at home here, despite the occasional inconveniences created by “bad guys.”

Back to the most recent bad guys. Liam was distraught by the idea that someone had stolen our stuff — his dad’s tools of all things. Dad loves his tools!

In an effort to distract Liam from what had just happened, I asked him how we could make sure we weren’t robbed again. I proposed that we get a dog and put him in the garage so that if someone tried to break in again the barking would scare them away. Liam was quiet and then proposed another solution,

“We should get lots of bricks. Really strong bricks. And we should build a house for the bad guys. Then we should go to the grocery store and be really, really nice so that they give us food for the bad guys. Then, we should give the bad guys their own tools so they won’t have to steal other people’s.”

I was moved by both his naïve, but accurate analysis of the problem and that his solution was to be kind to the people who had just been decidedly unkind to his dad.

I dropped him off at his daycare and told his care-provider what he had said. Sheila, the senior staff person smiled and wasn’t at all surprised by his idea.

“We tell the children at lunchtime that there are many children who are hungry and that their mommies and daddies don’t have enough money to buy them good food. Liam is a smart boy.”

Next time my dad asks, “Why do you live in East Vancouver?” I’ll have an easy answer because, blemishes and all, this is the neighbourhood that has nurtured my child and that reinforces the values I hold dear —

that good people who find themselves in bad situations do not necessarily need to be punished. They need access to resources that will help them act as good people again.

We teach these values in our home. Liam hears them at his daycare. He used to ask why the people sitting on the street, asking for money are so poor. Now he points them out and asks if he can give them money so they can eat or pay for a shelter bed.

Would Liam receive these extra lessons, see the reality of the situations of real people who live in Vancouver, if we lived in a community where only the crème-de-la-crème live? I doubt it.

Would we do better at tackling some of the problems of inner cities if we all could envision solutions with the naïve wisdom and a 4-year-old’s understanding of loving kindness?

I’d bet our $500 deductible on it.