PARENTS DON’T KNOW?
Where’s the problem? Blue equals Hillary. Red equals Trump.
THE subject line on my first email of the day said: “What to tell the kids”. I’ve acquired a good habit of not opening a lot of email that comes my way – there’s just too much.
But “What to tell the kids” isn’t something I’d click the trash icon for since children, parents and family are the essence of my business.
Before Wednesday, November 10th, 2016 was over, I’d had close to a hundred such eye-catching subject lines sent my way. And, now, more than a week later, they’re still rolling in.
Having opened the initial eye-catcher, I wasn’t about to be snagged by so many other ones offering advise on explaining to children how and why Donald Trump and his family will be the new occupants of the Pennsylvania Ave., Washington D.C., White House, when the current tenants; Barack, Michelle, Malia and Natasha are ousted.
True, the country has been through an ugly election with behavior, mudslinging, name calling and threats unheard of in political campaigns.
But needing advise as to what we should tell our children is pure nonsense. How come parents can’t operate on the strength of their own convictions and value systems.
During World War II, when America moved my Japanese friends along with thousands of other Japanese citizens off to relocation camps, my mother didn’t rely on what the experts told her to tell her children.
Somehow, ( mother-wit?) she knew to simply tell us it was wrong and that the families in our neighborhood were to be respected, welcomed back when they returned and that they were Japanese and not “Japs” as Americans took to calling them.
But now, this so-called dilemma surrounding Trump becoming President is taking us on the same stupid route of how to tell children where babies come from.
A bit of age appropriate truth can go a very long way when it comes to elections, babies and relocation camps.
Telling kids that storks bring babies was as off track as now trying to make life easier for adults by allowing them to dodge the simple reality of Trump winning the election.
While it’s a hard pill to swallow for some parents, for others they see Trump in office an omen of good things to come.
What if everybody in the household, 5 kids and 2 parents, got to vote on what movie to see. The vote was 4 to 3 in favor of the latest Disney screen attraction.
The Disney movie wins! Oh, it was the four kids who always cause trouble in the family who voted this way and the goodie-two-shoes kid voted with the parents.
Is this family election now troublesome?
What to tell the kids? Not for me to be caught offering up advise but maybe telling them Republican Donald Trump ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton for the highest office in the land and he won.
How ever awful his winning is to some – it ain’t that way for others. Maybe parents who are in opposition to Trumps’s new position, might have talked about who he is and the views he represented way back when he began campaigning .
What to tell the kids? Tell ’em storks bring babies and we don’t know why Cousin Ellie has a very big round shaped belly?
What to tell the kids? Tell ’em the Japanese friends across the street are going, with their very big suitcases, to an extended summer camp and we don’t know why they are giving away their furniture and strange people have moved into their homes?
What are YOU telling Your kids?
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I agree you tell them the truth, age appropriate. We need to say how we feel about what happened, but it needs to be simple and straight forward. Will this election change how we operate as a family, for the time being no. If things change we as a family will discuss it and decide on the path we will take. but for now it is business as usual.
Ms Jean Troy,
So true the impact of the election is yet to come BUT the family, as you have noted, needs to continue the discussion.
Thank you for broadening the conversation
Tell them voting is important. Tell them you will remind them to register to vote when they are 18. Remind them there was a time when women and African-American men could not vote. Tell them there was a time that you had to be 21 to vote. Tell them it’s every citizens duty to vote in EVERY election or important decisions affecting them will be made by others.
Start when your children are very young. Show them how you fill out the sample ballot and tell them how you decide that “yes” or “no” vote. Bring them to the voting booth to watch you vote and get an “I voted” sticker for everyone. Let them watch you fill out your absentee ballot, take it to the mailbox and let them put it in.
Now, have this family discussion: Would we have this new president if everyone eligible to vote actually did?
Hey Ms Florence,
You raise that important question so many people tend not to mention – all those people who didn’t make it to the poll and, now, may well be part of the protesters.
Thanks so much for bringin the importance of VOTING to the conversation.
The NY Times has an interesting Op-Ed post today: The Democrats’ Real Turnout Problem
Obama, for his part, has long had a minor obsession with the Democrats’ popularity among nonvoters. “Hopefully, it’s a reminder that elections matter and voting counts,” he said after Trump’s win. “I don’t know how many times we have to relearn this lesson, because we ended up having 43 percent of the country not voting who were eligible to vote.”
http://nyti.ms/2eKRqW5
The Democrats’ Real Turnout Problem
David Leonhardt Nov. 17, 2016 (published Nov. 20, 2016)