The other day in Ikea, Aki and I went to the bathroom, and I couldn't help but squeal at the sight of the tiny sink and dryer at the lower level meant for the kids. Seeing how effortlessly he could wash and dry his hands was uplifting, leaving both of us delighted with the thoughtful design. Later, a digital drawing board in the shape of a house at the refund service desk caught Aki's attention, allowing him to draw and paint while I handled the refund.
I'm not exactly an Ikea aficionado, but this experience left a lasting impression on me for one simple reason: the consideration of children. As we left the store, the nagging thought persisted even days later: the world's disregard for children in its design is inherently wrong and conniving.
The system is crafted to keep the working class in a perpetual hamster wheel. It begins by separating the child from the mother and the family as early as possible.
We're urged to place unwavering trust in clinical studies and Western medical ideology instead of learning about our bodies and trusting our intuition; we spend our days working to pay for fundamental human rights and unnecessary stuff and subject our children to school indoctrination that echoes prison incarceration. Capitalism strategically robs us of our energy and time, leaving parents and children unable to fully tap into our extraordinary wells of love, creativity, and the divine.
The primary motivation behind this severing is to make sure that our vulnerable, impressionable children have no roots and no belonging in the world, which leads them to seek a surrogate father or mother as their new authority. The objective is to mold them into obedient soldiers, consumers, and extremist worshippers. This manipulation weaves its subtle threads, primarily through seemingly innocent pastimes like TV watching. Shows flood the screen with objectification of women, war-themed video games, inappropriate and violent language, elevating celebrities to unwarranted pedestals, and restricting the boundless potential for children by offering only a narrow spectrum of options in a world teeming with infinite possibilities.
My son is 2.5 years old, and even in cartoons rated for his age, I'm consistently appalled by the choice of words used – words like "stupid," "idiot," "dumbass," "kill," "choke," etc., for children as young as him. Given my hypersensitivity to these matters, it's an immediate NO when these words appear. I often find myself explaining that the cartoon lacks imagination and respect for him.
Our sacred, pure children (in retrospect, us) then grow up conditioned to consume instead of create, waste instead of preserve, defend instead of learn, and destroy life instead of grow life. They are coerced to develop in an environment suited for adults, forced to mature quickly, and long to be adults themselves.
The more I mother, the more I realize how most of the society is anti-child. Keep our children quiet, keep them orderly, keep them polite, tell them to wait in lines, –don’t ask questions, don't talk back. Ensure they comply with the rules and respect others instead of their inner wild. Throw in a few plastic playgrounds around the town - it will be enough.
Children literally have fewer rights than Ikea furniture. Yet, that's precisely the design: feed them junk food and prescription drugs, glue them in front of the vile TV, force-feed them propaganda, dress them in uniforms, and strip away their imagination, purity, and the right to exist as little powerful human beings.
I remember arriving in Toronto, starting grade 10 without a trace of English on my lips and hardly a friend to call my own—just a small group of ESL comrades. School life proved challenging; cliques had already formed, and connecting with a refugee wasn't high on anyone's list of priorities. But what irked me more than anything was the mandated uniform: black pants and a white shirt, a hefty expense that my family stretched to afford.
In those pivotal years of navigating the path to womanhood and adapting to this new world—both as a maiden and a refugee—everything felt novel and unfamiliar. A new land, a new family, and a new language were all a world away from the sense of belonging, community, culture, and land that had nurtured me. Amidst this whirlwind, there it was—the uniform. Uncomfortable to my very spirit. Others might have viewed it as something insignificant, but for me, it was something I couldn't make peace with.
What fascinates me is the societal indoctrination that urges us to fear external tyrants with ill intentions. Yet, in many instances, liberal societies impose system-wide constraints on their communities, limiting their freedom. And yet, it's our own governments that we should fear. In fact, oppression, especially in the West, is the result of people's blind choices that cause unquestioned norms and habits.
And so, it begins – the oppression of societies at a tender age. The ruling class and institutions spearhead a division, cutting our connections to belonging, sacredness, togetherness, and nature, ultimately diminishing the potential for all people to embody their full humanity.
My life has always revolved around paying attention to subtleties, listening sharply, delving into depths, sensing rooms and environments, and trusting my gut feelings. As a young refugee girl striving to find a sense of self when nearly everything was taken away, even as a whole new world opened up, wearing a uniform felt like an assault on my sovereignty. Though lacking the understanding or the words I have now, I simply knew it in my bones. It was wrong.
Robin Wall Kimmerer's words, "The land knows you, even when you are lost," deeply reflect my experiences. I see my body as my land and the land as my body. Within this symbiosis, my body was, is, and will continue to be an intuitive oracle, capable of sensing and intuiting, discerning actions at odds with nature, registering immorality, and recognizing anything that doesn't immediately resonate with my soul, body, and spirit.
The system robs us, and our children, of childlike wonder, joy, purity, and imagination. Take uniforms, for instance—they strip kids and teens of personal choices. With constant propaganda, many remain unaware of alternatives that could genuinely belong to us instead of being forced upon us.
Then there are those complaining about children as if they're not meant to exist. Don't bring them out, don't take them to events, don't be loud, don't be messy, don't be gross, don't be unpredictable—essentially, all the things children naturally are most of the time. We've absorbed a belief that hyper-individualism and personal peace must be safeguarded at all costs, elevated to an insidious high regard. We are taught to avoid inconveniencing others by exploring alternative ways of existence and questioning the systems in place.
My father couldn't believe I was taking my son to the pro-Palestine protest, and people questioned this in my DMs. But if 2.5-year-olds can be targets of genocide, then they can also be protesting, learning, and absorbing with their entire being the astronomical power of community. It's about experiencing firsthand what unfolds when kin from all walks of life unite with the same purpose.
Liberation is a multigenerational effort, and I won't accept advice on how to mother my child, no matter how polite or well-intentioned it may be.
Our society sees children as expendable human resources. Child labor, trafficking, abuse, exploitation, genocide, sacrifice, and recruitment are an assault on life and are evil––yet they remain normalized—like everything else that doesn't personally or immediately concern us.
The persistent oppression of children remains an urgent issue. When I look at the genocidal army of the IDF, I see children too. Children who have been denied a healthy upbringing and instead subjected to a focus on annihilation, aggression, violence, and ideological molding. Children who are mere pawns in a larger, sinister narrative. Children whose souls have been ruthlessly torn from their bodies. Children who kill other children because their own childhood has been stolen.
I see how Israel in its nefarious agenda utilizes children for malicious intentions and economic growth. They don't care for children, Palestinian or Israeli, or any human life on earth— not the hostages, not the trees, not the animals, especially not the human beings.
When children are groomed into becoming soulless soldiers from a young age, they become a threat to humanity itself. We must openly denounce evil, ensuring the protection of our children worldwide.
In the realm of oppression, the seed of resistance always germinates. Our societies possess formidable strength, abundant resources, and inherent kindness. Despite the challenges, there's ample time for a collective awakening––a rejection of the falsehoods we've been fed.
We must dismantle systems that perpetuate injustice and actively participate in communities that prioritize and advocate for the well-being of children.
In this tumultuous world, it is imperative that we unearth a sanctuary within ourselves and along our journey, ensuring that every child can forge a path towards both a sacred and secure existence.
How do we do this: by relentlessly questioning the status quo and standing as fierce protectors of every child, in every instance possible, regardless of whether we brought them into the world.
All children are ours.
With love,
Vanja
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I bursted with tears after reading these lines:
"My father couldn't believe I was taking my son to the pro-Palestine protest, and people questioned this in my DMs. But if 2.5-year-olds can be targets of genocide, then they can also be protesting, learning, and absorbing with their entire being the astronomical power of community."
I also am a mother of a 2.5 year old, a girl, and currently pregnant. This second child was conceived around the beginning of this genocide and this great dark heartbreaking chapter of human history has been part of this pregnancy. At the same time, within this same pregnancy, my heart -first broken for the children and the mothers- has expanded, has become more strengthened and liberated than ever before (and was not a weak one before all this either).
Thank you for your writing. You have put exact words to describe long trail of thoughts and deep feelings of our current reality, and although we are quite far and on different walks of life, this too is an example of how to activate the power of soul community through the same tools that this system has used to disconnect and desensitize us.
Freedom to Palestine, to all children and to all souls.
Dear Vanja,
What a great and thought provoking essay. I am also mother to a 2.5 year old and the line "The primary motivation behind this severing is to make sure that our vulnerable, impressionable children have no roots and no belonging in the world, which leads them to seek a surrogate father or mother as their new authority" really struck me.
Thanks as always for your work <3
Charlotte