KIDS VOTE

Ah, the election. It finally got here in spite of mudslinging, ugly behavior, threats, and with far too many propositions on the California ballot.

‘Hmm, bilingual education,” mused my twenty-something daughter as she sat pondering her vote-at- home ballot. “Seems to me,” she went on, “ If people are in an English-speaking country they ought to speak English, so I’m thinking not to support this measure.”

It wasn’t my mail-in ballot. I’ll cast my vote in the booth on November 8th. So it being her vote, I wasn’t in the musing conversation.

But then she turned to me and asked if everyone shouldn’t just speak English? Now we could have a conversation that wasn’t about the ballot measure so I asked her how she might feel going to school in Japan and being in that country only knowing English as her native language.

I saw her thinking wheels start to turn – they were turning.

I don’t know how she voted on any of the measures or who she is hoping to send to the White House.

But I do know it’s been an interesting journey watching her pay close attention to the overwhelming amount of campaign mailers that were dumped into our mailbox and viewing, with critical commentary, the too many political ads on our TV screen.

Geez, I realized, watching her with her laptop do some last minute research/fact- checking on the internet before marking her ballot, that she’s actually been learning.

Way back when, I didn’t know that kids’ playtime is actually their route to knowing a few things. What? No way, they’re just horsing around – so I thought.

Added to my surprise about this aspect of our youngsters’ brain development was the big shocker regarding kids mimicking what the adults around them are up to.

Yikes! They do what we do?

So, all those years that our family members took Ms Twenty-something, when she was quite young,  to the polling place with them on voting day has paid off!

That practice machine available near the punch-your-ballot booth wasn’t just a toy for her; she played and she learned.

To all the folks whose kids aren’t old enough to vote include them in the process any way that you can.

Take ‘em with you when you go to vote. When you have a mail-in ballot let them watch you do it at home. Keep the household conversation going when it comes to TV ads and mailers.

Election day is already here, yup, but some more are yet to come, so start playing the voting games now.