Action Oriented: Part 3
Introducing Parents' Nook
In this series we are asking doomer optimists to give us a little taste of the kinds of actions they are taking in the face of the doom. The idea here is to start to map the breadth of the available activities out there that could get one started on a path toward something optimistic.
Just like our mini-manifestos, we all don’t have to agree about the best activities to pursue, or the ways in which we pursue them. What we agree on is that we should all be taking steps toward action.
It’s a coincidence that doomer optimism shortens to DO, but it could be our mantra, “do!”
Part 1: Small lot urban edible garden by Prasan (dhanuraashi@)
Part 2: How to start a micro-nursery for free by Sim
Finding our elements together as a community: Introducing Parents’ Nook
“You would think that a 350-foot-tall tree would need deep roots, but that’s not the case at all with the Sequoia sempervirens. Redwood tree roots are very shallow, often only five or six feet deep. But they make up for it in width, sometimes extending up to 100 feet from the trunk. They thrive in thick groves, where the roots can intertwine and even fuse together. This gives them tremendous strength against the forces of nature. This way they can withstand high winds and raging floods.”
The very basic fact is redwoods do not survive alone…ever. They form “tribes” or communities. Sometimes they grow so close to each other they merge at the base into one tree. The first thing they provide each other is strength and support: intertwining roots. Not deep, but wide, living in an embrace of others.
EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED. Everything and everyone is interconnected, interdependent and interrelated. We are part of A NATURAL AND SOCIAL WEB OF LIFE that supports and sustains us. We are connected to nature and dependent on it for the things we need to keep us alive.
Remembering John Muir’s words, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
I was lucky to receive community love when I moved to this country with a baby. New friends held my hand and guided me, supporting me through that major transition. When postpartum depression made each day feel like a struggle, my friends made that burden easier to bear. Experienced parents helped me to become the mother I am today. They helped me to survive those early days.
Even though I consider myself extremely lucky to have all these kind souls around me, often we have felt the need of a close-knit community. Sarah Hardy’s thoughts influenced me,
“We began raising our young ones in large groups,co-operating with one another to shoulder the task of vulnerable infants into thriving adults. She draws from wide-ranging sources of evidence from the genetic to the endocrine to the archaeological, to argue that the origins of human sociality and our incredibly sophisticated theory of mind may be tied to the human practice of turning to multiple caregivers for support.”
We found ourselves questioning various ways through which parents, caregivers, educators and thus the local community may participate in the child’s development process, thus creating the much needed safe and communal space for the families. And thus started thinking: What does that community look like?
We realized that the answer lies in the children who are bringing us together as a community, their well being, their growing up phases, as new parents we need people and community to have conversations and discussions around those topics. We all need the support of the community, and these days most first-time parents have little if any community to depend upon. So we decided to start Parents’ Nooks.
Parents’ Nooks are neighborhood micro-communities with parent-care spaces and open-ended childcare spaces where parents can work/socialize while children play open-ended. We're making use of existing spaces like cafes, coworking spaces, museums, and community centers, backyards to achieve this and thus supporting these small businesses, communities, and public infrastructure facilities with our feet and dollars. We believe that kids are an integral part of our day to day life and we can operate in a better way as a society to achieve it. Taking your kids to a meeting, finishing up your project without the need to find alternate childcare should be all easier and within your community. Our goal is also to support parents and make high-quality, open-ended play a reality in more nooks throughout our society.
Nook started as a self care need for a group of parents. We wanted a different kind of opportunity for self-care, child-care, and community.
Two groups in one space:
Parents’ work/relax space: building and supporting our community, getting some work done, focus on reading or stretching, etc.
Children’s play space: Children play with open ended materials supervised by a play facilitator. We create a “yes” space where children are respected and feel safe to explore. We divide the space in two groups according with developmental age:
Babies and Toddlers: approx. 6 months to 2 years old
Kids: approx. 2 to 6 years old
Duration: 2/3/4 hours/ (demand-based ) We will be able to support a maximum of 4 hrs.
It never was a one person effort.
(The spaces were designed in guidance with Christina Assirati and Elisa who are early childhood educators and researchers having more than 20+ experience in the field. Samantha Infeld has been regularly mentoring and guiding me on community, collaboration and product development. I am not doing justice to the project only mentioning these names too, it's been an intentional effort of many parents, play facilitators and space collaborators.)
Open ended play is an important communal aspect of Nooks. Woody Guthrie sings, “I played around our yard some and talked to the fence posts, sung songs and made the weeds sing.”
Quoting from one of our earliest newsletters about our thoughts on Open ended play:
“A little child does not need many things to play with. Playing with open-ended materials which have multiple uses and limitless possibilities like sand, clay, blocks, sticks etc., can keep them satisfied for hours. And that’s what we want; we want our child to have her own imagination fuel her play. It’s quite similar to what we do when we experiment with science projects, albeit more complex. Yes, you heard it right! A child’s play initiated by the child herself is quite complex, and it has become an area of research. Prominent playwork theorist Bob Hughes defined different play types.
A child learns through PLAY. It’s our responsibility as parents to give them an environment where they feel comfortable enough to initiate PLAY themselves. Believe me, it is said that a PLAY demonstrated by an adult does not provide children the amount of satisfaction they get from their own PLAY . And feeling comfortable in their play space is the top-most priority while initiating PLAY. So, at Parents’ Nook we have had open-ended play spaces both, indoors and outdoors. The personality of each child, their likes/dislikes, their favorite playthings etc., are all taken into consideration when we build the play space. Few children might want to observe before initiating play, others might want to paint, dig the earth or play on the monkey bars. It all depends on the child’s personality and we take all these into consideration.”
We imagine a world where new parents are finding the community they may need and the children grow up in an environment which is curiosity invoking, created with love, care and presence of the caregiver. We imagine a world where parental bonding with children is encouraged, where a parent still gets their ME time even after caring for their child/ren through community collaboration and feels encouraged to continue working on their passion. We call that society a healthy society.
How can you host/participate in a Nook?
Since the pandemic started we have not been doing Nooks, we are planning to start doing Nooks starting at the end of February/March 2022.
So if you are someone interested in hosting a Nook, we would love to support you and here is how you may host a Nook.
https://parents-nook.ghost.io/hosting-a-nook-of-your-own/
We would request you to fill out the provided form and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
If you are someone interested in knowing more about us, here is a link to our website:
https://parents-nook.ghost.io/
Here is our twitter link:
https://twitter.com/Parents_Nook
DM’s on twitter and emailing me tanaya@parents-nook.com is the best way to reach out to us.
Resources:
https://parents-nook.ghost.io/
https://parents-nook.ghost.io/newsletters-from-the-past/
https://parents-nook.ghost.io/parents-nook-our-mission-our-philosophy-and-faq/
.
You may wish to connect to the evolved nest at: https://evolvednest.org