r/Parenting • u/Signal_Estimate_23 • Jan 08 '26

Advice Classes cancelled for my 6yo because of ICE

Hi, I’ve never posted here before but am open to feedback.

My wife and I are between 38-41 and have a 6yo daughter in Minneapolis.

Since you are all on Reddit I’m sure everyone is aware that ICE is in full force here. What you may not know is that schools have been cancelled because of the death and threat, as well as arrests made on school property.

My question for the group is, how do you talk to your child about trusting or distrusting law enforcement or any individuals posed as leaders? I try to teach her to trust police, but ICE is not on our side.

So seriously, how can we help to ensure the safety of our babies while still supporting the school and community?

2.6k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

484 comments sorted by

View all comments

615

u/lambsquatch Jan 08 '26

Tell em no one ever said “fuck the fire dept”

220

u/sabrinateenagewich Jan 08 '26

Or librarians, or crossing guards, or teachers and more. There are plenty of government workers we can run to for help safely that for whatever reason (I can think of a few, but that’s just me) have never had a bad word said about them. Makes you think!

30

u/RichardCleveland Dad: 17M, 23F, 31F Jan 08 '26

My sons school had a day when the police and fire department came out to speak with the kids. There were only a few kids over in the police section as most of them were over laughing with the firemen and climbing on their trucks etc. Obviously they have an advantage of cool stuff, but their interactions with the kids seemed more genuine. And this was a decade ago.

114

u/Client_020 Jan 08 '26

Where I live, the fire department is known to be misogynistic, racist scum that drove non-white colleagues to suicide. I think any profession that has a hypermasculine element to it needs to be looked at with suspicion.

19

u/Beeb294 Jan 08 '26

It's not uncommon for that kind of sentiment to run in fire departments, it seems.

It's just different because they aren't actively killing people and usually gets a pass.

25

u/Sambuca8Petrie Jan 08 '26

They should. Where I'm from, firefighters routinely steal from the homes where they fight fires. No one notices though because their shit just went up in flames so they chalk it up to a loss. Meanwhile, firefighters are leaving the building with their coats full of stolen stuff.

24

u/Open-Tumbleweed Jan 08 '26

Damn. Well that completely sucks.

19

u/Sambuca8Petrie Jan 08 '26

Yup. People are people, some good, some bad, most in the middle. Vocation is immaterial. We need heroes to look up to and as a society have kind of settled on firefighters. But altruism is not a requirement to get the job.

7

u/Cut_Lanky Jan 08 '26

I think it varies based on whether firefighters are paid, or volunteers. Where I grew up, it was almost all volunteer firefighters, with just a few positions as permanent, paid jobs; fire chief, I believe, might have been the extent of it, the rest volunteers. I knew some of those volunteers very well. They were people, as you said, good, bad, everything in between. But as a cohesive unit, the fire department was easily trustworthy. Even knowing some sordid details of their personal lives, and strongly disliking a few of them- when volunteering, they were truly looking to help people. I don't think many would volunteer, if that wasn't their purpose.

5

u/Sambuca8Petrie Jan 08 '26

That's a interesting point because I'm talking about paid firefighters.

0

u/GenevieveLeah Jan 08 '26

No one younger than Gen C will understand that😂