Mojo Mom Podcast and Kidpower
I am pleased to welcome my friend, teacher and mentor Irene van der Zande as my guest on this week's Mojo Mom Podcast episode, Mojo Mom and Kidpower.
Twenty years ago, Irene founded Kidpower, a grassroots organization that has grown to teach personal safety and self defense skills to over 1.2 million people worldwide.
Listen to the podcast now:
I believe so strongly in Irene's work, that I have become an instructor and brought the Kidpower program here to North Carolina. What I love about Kidpower is that it gives people of all ages the skills they need in order to navigate the world with safety and confidence. I don't blame parents for being confused about how to teach their kids these skills--most of us parents have not been taught this vital information. Kidpower steps in to fill that knowledge gap with high-quality training. To me, Kidpower is a much-needed antidote to "helicopter parenting."
Kidpower has training centers across the U. S., Canada, and around the globe. The Kipower website is also chock-full of quality resources for you to explore, including articles and their own People Safety Podcast.
Her is a photo of me demonstrating a high-elbow strike at Kidpower instructor training in Santa Cruz last January. Most of Kidpower skills are everyday life skills, such as identifying trouble and maintaining a safe distance from unsafe people or situations. We do also teach physical self-defense skills that allow escape from an emergency. It is empowering and satisfying to realize that you have that capability! (Further proof that mojo comes in many forms!)
Labels: child safety, helicopter parents, Irene van der Zande, Kidpower, life skills, Mojo Mom Podcast
posted by MojoMom at 2:41 PM
2 Comments:
I really appreciate your continued attention to the gendered/maternal dimensions of the economic meltdown and advice to learn more (I'm loving Planet Money). I do think it is important that we also find ways to advocate for collective action - not only do we each need to sort out our personal finances, but we need to so much more connected to the mothers who are working 2 jobs to pay for food (no retirement, no college, no housing, no childcare, etc. in the budget) and advocate living wages and more public solutions. And even for those of us who are middle-upper class, we need public solutions to escalating college costs, to elder care, etc. not just individual ones. I definitely think each person needs to make plans for the status quo, but I hope you'll use your combined brilliance (Amy and Sheryl) to help us sort through the myriad activist/policy ideas and encourage us to support some meaningful social reform that will help parents and families find more happiness and balance.
In Maine, where I live, Paid Sick Days are on the docket and seem like a no brainer but face enormous opposition from business. But how can we find our Mojo or balance if we can't afford to stay home when we or our loved ones are sick?
Hi Kimberly, I totally agree with you--yes, this is not just about individual action and decisions. A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how angry I am that Wall Street gets a trillion dollar bailout but we still say we can't afford paid sick leave, health care, or parental leave. Where are our priorities, truly? Yes, Wall Street is important but it makes me sick to see how we rush to it aid when we can't get other basic societal needs taken care of. The glimmer of hope I feel is that we'll make progress under Obama's leadership.
I recommend MomsRising.org as a great source for activism on the issue of passing family-friendly legislation.
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