Calling All Parents: Running for Office With a Family
7 min
Table of Contents:
1. Diving in vs “Staying Out of Politics”
2. Making Politics Work For You
3. Parents’ First Political Toolkit
4. Caretakers and Changemakers
Diving in vs “Staying Out of Politics”
If you’re in the throes of squeezing work between school pick-up and drop-off, or simply trying to hold up amid the latest snack demands with young ‘uns underfoot, the idea of running for office or working on a campaign probably elicits a “yeah, right.”
Our reality is that the lives of parents and the demands of political work are often opposed. Between school, sports, and social calendars, just trying to keep it all in the air is a full time job. It’s not hard to understand why your involvement in political or social issues might be on the back burner while you maybe feel like you’re operating in survival mode.
We’ve already discussed that campaigns are not typical 9-5 jobs, and they certainly don’t happen within the confines of those hours. But to build governments that serve us all and serve us well, we have to stop treating parenting and political involvement as mutually exclusive.
Here are a couple of truths we’d like to offer as an antidote to this either/or mindset:
Democracy can’t be built only on those who are free of parenting responsibilities, or those with the resources to drop everything to lead. If our democracy excludes parents, families – caregivers, really – it has gaps far too wide to function.
Being a proactive and protective parent can and must happen in the political sphere. As Tim Walz put it plainly, “Family values means protecting IVF, feeding children, and expanding the Child Tax Credit to give families a fair shot. It means helping your neighbors and investing in kids.”
Whatever your drive for change is, it will likely affect your family’s life now or in the future. Getting involved politically might sound like one more thing on an already full plate, but opting out means others will make decisions that still affect your family, with or without your input.
Would you be surprised to hear that some of the most effective politicians, strategists, and organizers are in fact parents? You shouldn’t be. Not for nothing do they say “if you want to get something done, ask a busy person.” A full plate can force you to get really clear about what you’re working towards. Priorities are set and stuck to. Non-negotiables are communicated. The kids have to eat and be in bed by a sane hour, that health form has to get updated before the start of school, and it all has to get done in the same 24 hours everyone has. Building a better future becomes imperative when leaders have children to leave it to.
Making Politics Work For You
Whether we acknowledge it or not, political involvement is in the parenting grab bag. So let’s set it in the context of most people’s reality.
Remember that defining what political involvement looks like as a parent is up to you. Whether it’s running for office, organizing, protesting, or something else all together, you can scale your activism to your family’s ability and needs. Afterschool Alliance has already mapped out some action items you can take depending on your availability and readiness.
Or you can simply start with making your political values a part of your everyday conversations. Your kids’ daycares, schools, and sports sidelines can all be organizing hubs for better school funding or whatever other need you see. You already have networks of people who care about your children, it’s just about activating them.
Parents’ First Political Toolkit
If you already have a clear vision of where you’re headed but need some support getting there, let’s take a look at what resources are out there.
First things first, we’ll train you at any experience level to run for office or staff a campaign for free. Running a campaign costs money, same as managing a household without going broke on eggs. So getting the campaign off the ground for free is invaluable – and our Explore a Run for Elected Office learning plan is a great place to start.
From there, check out Vote Mama Foundation’s tracker to see if your state authorizes the use of campaign funds for childcare. If running a family is expensive, finding someone else to provide care is astronomical. This is a way to ease that burden if it’s holding you back from leadership.
If your decision to run is a matter of talking about it within your family and setting group ground rules, here’s a straightforward approach to get the conversation started.
Caretakers and Changemakers
Let’s close on the recognition that we’ve only scratched the surface on parents’ barriers to entering politics and resources to fill those gaps. We get it: We haven’t touched on the labor gap between moms and dads, or the barriers of single parents trying to run for office.
Paid parental leave is widely insufficient, and it doesn’t automatically improve when you launch a campaign. Running while pregnant presents unique complications that most campaign handbooks don’t account for.
And on top of all of that, caregiving doesn’t stop with kids. Looking after elderly or disabled family members or holding guardianship come with their own barriers.
There’s much more to dig into, so this shouldn’t be the end of your conversations.
For now, we’ll leave you with this: Caretakers make change. Changemakers take care. If you’ve ever wondered about your place in politics as a parent, know that you already have the deepest well of nurturing care our communities need most.
Ready to run? Make an account on our website – which is always stockpiled with free career and campaign resources.
