BIPOC Parenting Series: Kiara's Story

As a community-focused company, Kabrita USA strives to be inclusive and to continuously celebrate diversity. In honor of Black History Month, Kabrita USA is featuring a BIPOC Parenting Series, for the entire month of February. The BIPOC Parenting Series centres BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) parents’ experiences. Our goal is to enhance greater representation of BIPOC parents in the media, as well as to amplify BIPOC voices and stories.

Today, we are sharing Kiara’s story about wanting to protect her children and finding pockets of joy.

Kiara's Story:

“As a black mother, my parenting is always political”

When your child is born, it’s one of the most magical moments in your entire life. You dream of all the possibilities and potential that their little lives possess, hoping that one day they’ll grow up and do everything they set their minds to. For me, giving birth to DJ at only 24 weeks, I knew that every moment I got to spend with him was a literal gift and miracle. You want to protect them and shield them from anything that could possibly harm them. For a Black parent, that sense of protectiveness never fades, and most times grows the older our children get.

I oftentimes look at my son’s beautiful Black face and I can’t imagine how anyone couldn’t see how dope he is. How smart he is. How kind he is. I think about how one day he will grow up and realize that there are two America’s. One that they’ll teach him about in school and another that is his reality. How do we prepare him for that? How do I teach him how to navigate through others’ prejudices and stereotypes of him, without teaching leeriness of everyone that doesn’t share the same hues as him? Without teaching him to go through life tip toeing? Armed with defensiveness because we as Black people have learned how to thrive in survival mode.

That is the hardest part for me. Teaching my son how to balance how being Black in America will often feel like; because honestly, heaviness isn’t anything new to us. As a Black parent it can sometimes feel like what’s the point? The point for me is my son. My son who will one day be a grown black man, and I’d go through the lowest of valleys to make sure he gets to live at peace. To experience unabashed joy. To journey through life unafraid.

So even in our weariness, we keep fighting. We keep filling in the gap because someone stood up for us, and now we have to stand up for them. Black parents it is okay to find pockets of joy and laughter and positivity. We deserve it. More than ever.

Kabrita USA BIPOC Parenting Series shares genuine stories written by parents from the BIPOC community. Each story offers a different perspective from their personal parenting experience. To read more stories, please visit our Nourish Blog.