June is Pride Month, which is a chance to celebrate the LGBTQ community and how far they have come in acceptance and equality in our society. All across the country, cities will be hosting events in June, and many of them are family friendly. Here’s how you can celebrate Pride Month with your kids, in your city and at home.
Attend Your City’s Pride Parade or Festival
Most major US cities and many smaller towns and cities hold parades in June. Kids love parades! Pride parades are full of excitement, color and kids will love being thrown necklaces and small trinkets. For the most part the parades themselves are family friendly, but if your children have never attended before, it may be worth a conversation about what new and different things they might see there.
Most Pride celebrations include activities and/or areas that are specifically for kids, with carnival-like attractions like bounce houses and games, and lots of great food booths. Make your city’s Pride Parade day a day of fun and family bonding with your people!
Get Your Rainbow On
Rainbows are everywhere in stores, and who doesn’t love colorful clothing, especially in the summertime? Target nails it when it comes to Pride clothing for the whole family, especially their matching family outfits. Swoon.
Your kids can also show their Pride by coloring their hair with temporary hair dye or hair chalk. There’s nothing like pink, purple or blue hair (or a combo of all three) to make a child squeal with delight.
You could also fly a colorful rainbow flag in your front yard to celebrate and show support of the LGBTQ community.
Visit the dollar store or hit up Amazon for some rainbow craft supplies: sidewalk chalk (rainbows on the driveway are sure to put a smile on your neighbors’ faces), beads for rainbow bracelets, and good old watercolors or washable markers make for great lazy summer afternoon activities.
Have some fun in the kitchen! June is a great month to shop for colorful fruits and veggies, which can be turned into fun rainbow snack trays! Also, check out these 10 Darling Rainbow Foods ideas from Everyday Reading.
Read with Pride
The best way for kids to learn about people and the different ways they live their lives is by reading. Thankfully, there are a plethora of quality LGBTQ children’s books for every age child, from board books to young adult novels. Adults can also show support by devoting June to buying and reading books by LGBTQ authors.
Teach Your Child to Be an Ally
Parades and rainbows are so much fun, but it’s important that we teach our kids the reason behind the Pride celebrations in June. We need to teach children to accept others with different identities, and to let them know we accept whatever identity they choose for themselves. This post from City Mom Collective has a plethora of resources from around our community on this topic.
Pride Month Resources to Love and Support the LGBTQ Community
Pride Month is a time of joy and celebration, and kids can and should be included! Happy Pride!
