Cultivating street smarts
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Anonymous
| How do you raise your only child to be street smart when he lives in a wealthy suburb surrounded by other wealthy suburbs and attends a well-off parochial school? Please be specific. |
Anonymous
| What kind of street smarts do you mean? He is unlikely to be dodging street youths on a regular basis! |
Anonymous
| How old is your kid? It is pretty urban where we live so these topics come up naturally, and my kids can connect why we say the things we do. They are in elementary school. I don't think I could teach them these things in the abstract at this age. |
Anonymous
Almost 8. Right, my area is fully suburban and white with a few Jewish people, Asians, hispanics, and no black people. I have him continually signed up to a sport he doesn't love (tennis) because the coach happens to be black and I want him to have a positive role model / leader who is black and because he has no other male teacher and I think that is important too. Am I being ridiculous? |
Anonymous
You’re being many things. And yes ridiculous is one of them. |
Anonymous
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When I have the opportunity, I make sure to tell my kids not to flash cash, keep it folded in their pockets, dont talk out loud about how much they have on them, etc.
Other than that, we arent often in situations where “street smarts” would come up. I guess I could tell them to be wary of the youths they run across while walking to piano lessons or at the community pool… |
Anonymous
White suburban lady here, but arent you kind of perpetuating stereotypes by having a black man teach your kids sports instead of something like math or science? I mean, if you’re going to go all out white liberal guilt here, which you seem to be, take it a level deeper. |
Anonymous
Why are you talking about your son’s exposure to Black people, and Black men in particular, as part of talking about “street smarts?” |
Anonymous
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I’m Black, and I want to be honest that this comes across as pretty off-base and even offensive. It sounds like you're treating your child's tennis coach like a "Black experience box" to check, rather than as a whole person. Representation and diversity matter, but not in a tokenizing way. Being "street smart" isn't about having a Black coach or knowing people of color; it’s about real-life experience, emotional intelligence, and learning how to navigate the world, including being aware of systems of privilege and inequality.
If you want to raise your son to be more grounded, empathetic, and socially aware, try exposing him to different communities through volunteering, reading books by authors of color, watching diverse films, and having honest conversations about race and privilege, starting with examining your own assumptions. Kids pick up on more than we think. But using a Black coach as a stand-in for “the real world” is not the answer. |
Anonymous
| We're in DC, and our kids - tween and teens - bike, walk, and take the Metro and Metrobus around the city. I do worry a tiny bit about them being the victim of harassment, assault, or even a random gunshot; there is a small but nonzero chance of all of those things happening. But my real fear is that they will get hit by a car. That's the real risk. |
Anonymous
^^ Me again. Since you asked to be specific, I'll give you a book and movie recommendation. I'm sure you can research some volunteer opportunities that are a reasonable distance for you. Last Stop on Market Street is a picture book by a Mexican-American author about a Black boy and his grandmother. They take a bus ride through their city, and along the way, the little boy is able to spend time with his grandmother and also discover beauty in places that don't look rich or perfect. It gently touches on race, class, empathy, and community. The main character of the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is Afro-Latino. It's an exciting story that organically touches on themes of identity, resilience, and diversity. |
Anonymous
That is pathetic. There’s nothing positive about being forced into a sport you don’t like. You knew what type of neighborhood you chose and why. He will probably grow up to be an awkward White guy uncomfortable in the big world far from his insulated little world. |
Anonymous
You have wrapped him in bubble wrap. You don’t want him to be street smart. |
Anonymous
| This has got to be a troll. |
Anonymous
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Is this your thread OP? Might get more answers in that forum as it's more visited.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1282667.page |