We learned that Festivoix is banning strollers from the festival. This reminds me that the City of Saint-Jérôme did the same thing two years ago for a free Cowboys Fringants concert (seats and umbrellas were banned for safety reasons… like strollers!). Anecdotal, you might say, while others might tell me that children have no place at festivals.
On this point, I will already multiply the examples of parents who, with their little ones, shells on their ears, participate in the joy of music, dance with their children: what is the problem? Have we forgotten that the acrobat show in the center of the villages was the place of gathering and maintaining the social fabric?
We allege eternal security. Again and again. We invite security professionals to give their point of view on the health of our children in these places deemed diabolical for their ears, among other dangers, and we cheerfully comment on parental unconsciousness. We are used to this eternal refrain about parents being responsible for everything, even, oh my God, wanting to spend time with their children.
But that’s not what concerns me. The real question would rather be: does the child still have his place in society? We are seeing “no children allowed” places flourishing all over the world, whether restaurants, hotels, cultural places like museums, festivals, etc.
Development
Martha Nussbaum, political philosopher, demonstrates that being deprived more and more of what she calls the humanities (literature, arts, philosophy, among others) and their teaching to children would contribute to a loss among them of socio-emotional capacities which are essential to their development and their learning to live well together.
We continue to lock them up in places dedicated to them (and paying), where we can be on our smartphone while they jump and twirl on indoor trampolines, and consume candy and popcorn cleverly offered in these ultra-safe petting zoos…
Same thing at home: playing inside rather than outside so that their “cries” do not disturb the neighborhood and disrupt their comfortable little life, while the adults are busy taking their shoot of dopamine in the middle of their trinkets (the telephone, the TV, the little glass of wine around the pool…). Anything but being interrupted in the pleasure circuit by a little brat playing. Play, OK, but in silence please, you, the child king. So we prefer to park them at home, there too with all the most intelligent neoliberalism does to prevent them from getting bored (and then we are surprised that they are addicted to it, not understanding that it is pretty much the only place where they can still explore, play, etc., but virtually).
Is the outdoors welcoming to children? In some cities, permits are required to play in the street and bans are raining down in some parks… The growing urban development is absolutely not designed for children, razing green spaces to the ground in favor of concrete.
Infantism
There is something deeply nauseating about the bans in force in certain places which target young people because of their childish characteristics (enthusiasm, movement, explosiveness and over-the-top nature): doesn’t that ring any bells in the world? history vis-à-vis other discriminated groups?
Child psychiatrist Laelia Benoit talks to us about the phenomenon of infantism, which is discrimination against children based on the belief that they belong to adults and therefore must be controlled both in their behavior and the way they grow up, but also in the way they think and feel their emotions. What could be better, then, than to control all these places where they become persona non grata?
Respecting everyone’s peace and quiet is certainly part of the rules of decency, but has the question of tolerance and respect for the rights of the child been removed from the equation to this extent? The right to play is, I remind you, a right enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 31. Your right to tranquility?
Can we say that we are in a good life together here? The adult-centric society is quick to point the finger at the little rebel, while forgetting that it has a duty and a responsibility to transmit humanist values. This involves sharing moments of life, joy, enthusiasm and wonder, of which listening to music and dancing are part.