Better You Than Me, Parent Who Takes Their Kids To Coachella

More power to parents who take their kids to Coachella, but NO THANK YOU

When she was pregnant with our first kid, my wife and I pledged that we would do our best to make our kid a passenger in our lives, and not allow ourselves to become slaves to his.

Yes, we were a little naive in the ignorant, “we’re gonna do it RIGHT!” way pre-parents often are, but we’ve also done our best to hold to that ideal, and we’ve had some success. We’ve kept our social lives, stayed in touch with our friends, and, thanks partially to the fact that we live in a parent-dominated urban neighborhood, we even manage to do some day-drinking with kids in tow.

What we don’t do is take our children to weekend-long music festivals. For their sake and ours.

First of all, I stopped going to festivals when I hit thirty. Somewhere between the crowds and the porta-potties, they kind of lost their appeal. I still love a good concert, but the logistics of attending a multi-band, multi-stage, outdoor festival became too much for me to bear. And this was before I had any kids to consider!

Now that I have two children, my stance hasn’t changed. I’m as desperate to inculcate my children with my cultural tastes, but I still wouldn’t consider taking them to one of these things. Dragging them to a festival doesn’t strike me as fun – for myself or my kids!

PopSugar ran an article about parents who took/are taking their kids to Coachella, and sorry, but it sounds like a nightmare.

One couple interviewed explain how they’ve brought their daughter along to the event every year since she was born.

“We love her, and she’s totally rad, so we want her to be everywhere we are,” Weinman told PopSugar. “The other thing is, it allows for her to kind of be indoctrinated early to culture. To see different people, different things — the exposure of it all.”

I love my kids, they’re totally rad, and I love sharing the things I love with them. We like exposing our kids to culture, to diversity, to as many different experiences as possible. But pushing a stroller through the grass in search of a good vantage spot to see Guns n’ Roses while trying to avoid having beer and/or other things spilled all over them is not my idea of a good time. Sure, it’s outside, and in theory, maybe that’s a better environment for kids. But it can also be a zoo.

Sometimes, I want to have an adult experience without having to worry about having my kids around. And even if I weren’t interested in partying or getting up to adult hi-jinx, that doesn’t change the fact that in some situations, young children are more trouble than they’re worth. An outdoor music festival strikes me as of those times.

More power to you if you want to take your kids along, but I’ll wait to see that band in a concert hall. And I’ll get a baby sitter.