Post #1707007

I've had a couple of comforting moments with other mothers recently around ANZAC Day. I'm deeply uncomfortable with the glorification of war that often comes with these commemorations. Less "war is terrible and we should do everything to avoid it", more "they bravely faced death, upright, in order to secure freedoms" (when of course the truth is much more complicated and grubby). Yesterday I was reading a picture book they'd put out at daycare to my kid before we left. Many of the pages were quite open to interpretation, so I was trying to talk honestly. "Here he is. They had to hide in these holes in the ground, trenches. They were muddy and there were rats. They would try to rest there and sometimes people would come and try to kill them, and other times they would be told that they had to go and try to kill other men." "This page says 'lest we forget'. I think we should remember that powerful men all over the world decided to have a war, and they sent young men to kill each other, and it was terrible, and we should try hard not to do that again." The other mother sitting there nodded along with me, and when I said, "Sorry, I hope I'm not being too grim" she shook her head and said something like, "no, you're right, we should tell them". And then today I went to the ANZAC Day ceremony at my older child's school. A lot of "glory" and "faced death bravely" and "secured our freedoms". The children sang a song about how they are all the soldiers who went to war. "He is me, I am also in the jungles of Vietnam", something like that. I was so furious and sad, and the mum sitting next to me understood and we talked about a little. Just enough that I didn't feel totally alone. She asked as we both left for work, "Are you more angry now that you're a mother? I can't compartmentalise any more. I can't believe anyone gets more conservative as they get old!" I am so grateful to not be alone in all this.