Goodnight Mom

It’s the holiday season. I’m talking, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Years... So, I spend time thinking about how I want my kids to experience this time, and what I want them to learn from it.  Today, in the US, it's Thanksgiving, so I'm focusing my thoughts there. Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is not a holiday that means much to me as someone who grew up in the UK. As an adult living here in the States, I’ve learned about the pilgrims, colonization and the continued violence against and disenfranchisement of indigenous peoples. It makes it easy to question why Thanksgiving is still a thing. Attempts to simply reframe the holiday, to just consider it as an opportunity to be thankful for what we have now, does a further disservice to indigenous people. That approach simply ignores the truth. This federal holiday as taught in schools tells a story of peace and cooperation. Too often, this story comes without recognition of the oppressive and violent history betw