There was, obviously, a lot to admire in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show: the joyful and free dancing, the celebration of America (with shout out to dozens of countries in the Americas), the absolutely inscrutable and direct message about love being more powerful than hate. Ricky Martin! But the one moment that stood out to me, as a mother of two, was so small and quiet and natural that it brought me to tears.

The performance, a portion of which follows a couple from engagement to wedding ceremony and beyond, winds through a chaotic celebration from the streets to the reception. As Bad Bunny joins the party, he reaches out and shakes awake a sleeping child, draped across two party rental chairs. The boy bounces up and trots off gleefully to join the dancing with extended family and friends.

It’s a small thing, but something anyone raising a child will recognize: whether passed out on someone’s shoulders or crawling onto a makeshift bed of coats, parents are intimately familiar with their babies snoozing at events. Most people, even if not parents, will remember the opposite side fondly, their own naps caught while listening to music and gossip; being lifted from a cousin’s couch or a grandma’s chair or a neighbor’s floor, to be carried home, your body still buzzing with the giddy thrill of staying up past your bedtime to be a part of everything.

Why did this universal moment feel so revolutionary? Because, as any parent can tell you, we’re at a moment in society where children – their very presence; their very existence – are increasingly up for question. The last half decade has seen a dangerous ideology emerge: that caring for children is not our collective responsibility. Instead, caring for children is regulated, isolated, and most importantly, supposed as nonexistent outside of the nuclear family (and, let’s be honest here, outside of their mother’s skirts since in the majority of heteronormative relationships, that is who is going to be tasked with the childrearing.)

From airlines offering “child-free” zones to restaurants making policies about banning kids under a certain age, the message to parents is clear: your kids are unwelcome from participating in society writ large.

Ironically – hypocritically – parents are being told this while our current administration is consistently clamoring for parents to have more children. Pronatalists wring their hands over “cultural mass extinction” and get splashy coverage for a 200-person conference discussing falling fertility rates. There is a well-documented obsession within the conservative movement with bigger families; this despite continually passing policies that are harmful to families and children, to say nothing of the “pro-family” party’s most recent obsession with snatching and separating children from caregivers and putting them in immigration centers.

Seeing this tiny Super Bowl moment, for me, put the two conflicting ideologies in the starkest of lights:

On one side, the most powerful political person in the world, is consistently pushing policies that are horrific for children. On the other side, the most powerful entertainer in the world effortlessly reminded us of the unfathomable idea that children are integral, that they are a part of the fabric of life.

On one side is the push for isolation and self-reliance, the (false) nuclear family winnowing from God to Husband to Wife to Children. On the other, an in-your-face reminder that family isn’t some isolated singularity, that children belong to all of us – expanding exponentially from our immediate family to our extended family to our community to our country.

It was an ethos also seen a few days earlier in NYC Mayor Mamdani’s press conference about child care. Flanked by a mini-podium and several toddlers, Mamdani showed not just a tolerance to the children he’s been tasked with caring for via policy decisions, but a genuine delight in them: there was whooping and running. There were discussions about favorite animals and the merits of golden snakes with super-duper tails. The visual was silent promise from Mamdani to all the parents of the city, a recognition and acceptance of the responsibility that he’s not just mayor for those who vote, but for all who live in his city.

Cynics might call the use of children stunts, particularly Mamdani’s, but for me, watching these two men brought to mind what anti-abortion politicians have been crowing about for decades: a focus on family. The difference is, the focus for them wasn’t empty lip service nor was it a dog whistle, backdoor, push to limit women while pushing forward racism and eugenics. It was a nod, an unspoken wish, at what a focus on family could be: messy, wonderful, and filled with joy. A greater, more expansive welcoming to our tiniest, most vulnerable members of society. A series of safety nets for parents, from a stray family member waking your sleeping child at the party so they don’t miss out all the way up to pushing through policies at the highest level in the biggest metropolis in America, and everything in between.

Kids can be loud, annoying, distracting, and frustrating. They are also, as the cliché goes, our future. We should all remember that.