I arrived at Fairbank Memorial on Friday at 6:30 p.m. My 6-year-old was ready to play badminton but had no sneakers. Every net was taken. The staff facilitator was gone. It didn’t start out well, but it turned out to be one of the most revealing nights I’ve had among parents.
My daughter had forgotten her running shoes at school and she started playing with her friend in winter boots.
Usually, conversations between us parents are short and impersonal. “Hi, how are you?” “How was your weekend?” “The weather is crazy.” Then we part ways. On Friday night though, with the sound of rackets and birdies whizzing in the air, parents told me what was actually going on in their lives.
“No matter how much I try to save, I just can’t. Everything goes to bills,” said Michael, (not his real name) a young dad with a good job. “Am I the only one going through this?” He talked about how companies are now buying up houses to rent them. “No one is going to be able to own their own house in the future,” he said while two of his little girls hit birdies beside us.
We did talk about the weather, but in a surreal way. “Have you noticed the sky? There’s always a haze now. No matter if the sun’s out. Next time you’re out, look up.”
I also spoke with badminton mom Natalie (also not her real name). After the game, when we were taking our kids to our cars in the parking lot, Natalie told me about a court system stacked against women facing domestic abuse. “This isn’t about women versus men. It’s about a court system that favours people with money who can afford to stay in court.” She’d been through a lot. “Sorry for talking so much about this.” No apology needed.
It might have been the chaos of the night, or the rackets and the birdies, but these parents were willing to speak openly. I was surprised.
Both Michael and Natalie are young parents, compared to me anyways. They’re involved with their kids, they work at their jobs and they contribute to their community. Yet they both talked about a system that’s stacked against them.
I don’t think they’re the only ones. It just happened that they chose to talk about it under a hazy sky one badminton evening in the Midtown
