Re: Do your young children know your political views?

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

No but they hear us arguing about them all the time. One day, I did a guest-reading in DDs' pre-K class. It was about the election. One girl raised her hand and said, "do you know Obama cheated?" I guess she's well aware of how her dad stands. (i know him and he's super red)

Do your young children know your political views?

Yes, I hate Hilary.
She knows it and point blank demanded I explain why. Fair enough and I did. They had a mock election with Trump and Hilary and she voted for Hilary. Why, because every said she'd win. So I in turn questioned HER logic. I showed her videos and news from both sides. Neither were good. She said one was a bully and the other a liar. I agreed. She said "Voting is hard" and at that I said YES!! THAT is the truth. She still voted for Hilary and asked me if I was ok with that and I said ABSOLUTELY because it was her right to vote how she saw fit.

My husband can't vote as he's not an American. She knows that too. So she understands the pride and privilege she and I have to vote. As women and as Americans.

She once asked him what he thought about the election and he answered "it doesn't matter, mama votes for our house" which again is true.

People here aren't ugly about Hilary (because our town voted for her) and they aren't ugly about Trump because he is our President even if we didn't vote for him locally. Could be it's a military town and we are just used to the chain of command? She saw the protests up close both in downtown San Antonio and again at the Austin Capitol building. That's ok too. People have a right to vote and a right to protest. But the votes were cast and he won, it's that simple.

It's not politics that are ugly it's people who are.


ETA: she asked me why I voted the way I did. I said because I had to vote between to bad choices and one I already knew I'd never vote for. So although I didn't WANT to vote for him. I did. She said "that's sad" and honestly, she was right. But we need to do better on the little people. Then I explained we vote a lot not just once every 4 years.

I have protesters at my office Every Tuesday haha because my congressman is in my building.. how fun is that? yet no one votes him out. Hence the problem.

Message edited 2/15/2017 5:59:41 PM.

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

Yes, my 7.5 DS and 4.5 DS know my political views. I had campaign volunteer events in our home, so they know that I was supporting Bernie Sanders. I took my 4.5 yo and newborn to a rally for the environment recently. They know how I feel about the president. Not in such colorful language, but in a simple way. I tell them they can vote for whoever they want when they are 18. I think it is good to involve kids in the political process/voting and protesting even so long as it's safe. I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

My girls are 6 and 4. Both girls know we do not like Trump. During the election we told them we did not believe in a lot of the ideas Trump had. They were sad when HRC. We try to shield them from watching Trump because I don't think he is appropriate for young children much of the time especially during the election. Dh and I teach then about history all the time. My 6 year old doesn't really care but my 4 year old is very interested and asks why questions all the time. We explained to her in terms she could understand when she wanted to know why people were protesting at airports.

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

Yes. They know who we voted for, and they know we were disappointed with the outcome. But I tried to use it as a teachable moment and remind them that we don't always get what we want. I'm trying to teach them that it's ok to disagree with friends or family, but disagreements don't give us a pass to be disrespectful. They're 6 and 4, so we're spoon-feeding them politics lol. When they're older I'll use a shovel.

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

mine knows. we arevery open about it in our home. once he came home and asked if his dad was "going to go behind the wall because hes a little brown, not dark brown like xyz's dad, but light brown" I knew we had to talk with him.

Message edited 2/16/2017 10:13:15 AM.

Do your young children know your political views?

My 7 year old knows how we feel about Trump, but we've made sure to not say anything awful about him. We say things like how it's important to be inclusive of everyone, to treat people with respect, etc, and that Trump has done things like taking rights away from people, kicking people out of the country, etc.

So we don't say that Trump is a bad man b/c we want to teach lessons that it's not about the person, specifically, but how you should conduct your own life (treating people with respect, etc).

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

My 3 year old is too young (although when she sees Trump's picture she said "yuck!" It was pretty funny but we told her that it wasn't nice). Based on only issues, she liked Clinton more but she thought that some of Trump's ideas on security were better (not the Muslim ban or the wall, of course, but increasing the military). I let her watch some of the debates, and she became totally turned off by Trump. She said he was mean, kind of scary, and probably stupid ("I know I shouldn't call people stupid, Mommy, but he just never answers any of the questions!"

After Trump was elected, she was very upset. She asked as soon as she woke up, and immediately cried. They banned election talk in her school as well.

She came with me to protest at the Philadelphia airport and we are going to the Science March as a family. I told her that my DH and I would always tell her our opinion but she needs to think for herself. We would always support her. So I hope that she will be an independent thinker rather than simply agree with us.

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

Re: Do your young children know your political views?

No bc they're too young but when they get older & understand they will definitely know.

Do your young children know your political views?

No. DH is a liberal that works with well-known conservatives, and we have a no-politics rule in front of DS (he's 5). DH tends to go off on tirades and I don't want DS repeating what DH says.