My Life's Work

Today, my 2.5 year old son grabbed nail polish from a shelf in Dollarama and told me he wanted to paint his nails. We settled on getting one bottle of nail polish, rather than a box of six—the colour “pink” being his preference.

Now, my kiddo has never seen my nails painted, nor anyone else’s in our family, so I assume that he’s interested because he saw someone at daycare with nail polish on—maybe a teacher or another child.

When we got home, he wanted me to paint my nails and said he wanted to wait until he was ready to paint his nails. (And because toddler logic is the best, it was important for each of us to only paint the nails on one of our hands.)

When we were done Daddy triumphantly said, “Looking good!” to our proud little one.

This is a story about so many things. Among them, centring on the needs of my child and supporting him as he explores his identity, while, at least in this case, defying gender norms in the process.

And this story is as much a personal one as it is a professional one: committing to advancing justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, including creating safe spaces to nurture this work, means committing to it everywhere and with everyone.

My kiddo might not know what these words mean now. And he might never want to do his nails again. He might continue to worship garbage trucks, garbage cans and garbage of all shapes and sizes. He might tell me and his dad any number of things about who he is and how he wants to show up in the world.

But what I hope he feels is that he belongs. And that one day he will support other folks, especially those who do not benefit from the same privileges as him, so they can feel they belong, too.

This is my life’s work.

#socialjustice#equity#diversity#inclusion#belonging