As a parent, I can definitely say being a mother makes it an awful lot harder to have any sort of interesting adventures -- at least of the sort that don't involve poop. Of course, that's in the context of our (my) current culture, which isn't really very supportive of parents, much less single ones.
Also, a big portion of fandom is, at best, ambivalent towards the idea and presence of children, and parts of it downright hostile. I've noticed the anti-child attitude creeping into SF/F with differing degrees of subtlety. (I read a book recently where the author dedicated large portions of the book to trying to show us how unlovable & horrible children are, for no reason in any way relevant to the plot, and sufficiently implausible/irrational for her main character that I as a reader couldn't interpret it in any other way than as a direct insertion of the author's personal pet peeve into the narrative. It was intrusive and clumsy enough that it didn't matter whether or not it offended me -- I won't be buying any more of that author's books again.)
In my limited experience, the more writing- and literature-oriented the convention, the less likely it is to have any sort of kid's programming (Readercon perhaps epitomizes this) with the exception of Wiscon -- and I can't imagine it's a coincidence that Wiscon is the standout AND the feminist SF con.
In addition to all the very good points you raise above, it seems to me that a lot of writers who aren't actively one side or the other of the "children are our future" versus "parasitic crotch-fruit" argument can't help but internalize some of the prevailing atmosphere of children not really having a place in SF/F literature or real-life community except as either a complication or an annoyance and, coupled with character-ageism (not a lot of middle-aged women protagonists running around, mothers or no) if you're still determined to have a mother as a main character you either end up with what must seem like an unnecessary complication to your plot, or you have to resort to a cliched "tragic past", or you have to have your character walk away from their children, which no matter how good the motive is something the vast majority of readers will hold against your character.
I *would* like to see more SF/F with radically different social structures and roles, not out of a specific desire to see more mom-characters (though certainly it'd be nice) but more because this is one of the real strengths of SF/F, to reimagine fundamental ways in which we could be different, and how that changes everything else.
no subject
Also, a big portion of fandom is, at best, ambivalent towards the idea and presence of children, and parts of it downright hostile. I've noticed the anti-child attitude creeping into SF/F with differing degrees of subtlety. (I read a book recently where the author dedicated large portions of the book to trying to show us how unlovable & horrible children are, for no reason in any way relevant to the plot, and sufficiently implausible/irrational for her main character that I as a reader couldn't interpret it in any other way than as a direct insertion of the author's personal pet peeve into the narrative. It was intrusive and clumsy enough that it didn't matter whether or not it offended me -- I won't be buying any more of that author's books again.)
In my limited experience, the more writing- and literature-oriented the convention, the less likely it is to have any sort of kid's programming (Readercon perhaps epitomizes this) with the exception of Wiscon -- and I can't imagine it's a coincidence that Wiscon is the standout AND the feminist SF con.
In addition to all the very good points you raise above, it seems to me that a lot of writers who aren't actively one side or the other of the "children are our future" versus "parasitic crotch-fruit" argument can't help but internalize some of the prevailing atmosphere of children not really having a place in SF/F literature or real-life community except as either a complication or an annoyance and, coupled with character-ageism (not a lot of middle-aged women protagonists running around, mothers or no) if you're still determined to have a mother as a main character you either end up with what must seem like an unnecessary complication to your plot, or you have to resort to a cliched "tragic past", or you have to have your character walk away from their children, which no matter how good the motive is something the vast majority of readers will hold against your character.
I *would* like to see more SF/F with radically different social structures and roles, not out of a specific desire to see more mom-characters (though certainly it'd be nice) but more because this is one of the real strengths of SF/F, to reimagine fundamental ways in which we could be different, and how that changes everything else.