My husband & I try our best to explain the world to our daughter
without hiding behind "angels bowling" or "storks" so when she caught
us watching the New Hampshire debate over the weekend, she turned into
Helen Thomas. "What are they doing? Does she really, really, really
want to be President? Do all six of them want to be President? Who do
you think will win?" I'm 33 years old and still trying to get a grasp
of the insane way we elect Presidents and now I have to explain it to
an incredibly curious and observant 4-year-old? *sigh* Can we get a
"where do babies come from" question instead?
The photo for this
post was how I tried to show her what was going on. Yes, I explained
the presidential campaign with stick figures & a flow chart.
"The
President of our country makes very important decisions about our lives
and it is time to pick a new one ("Hallelujah!" I yell in my head) and
all four of them want to be President. Yes, really, really, really want
to be President." I went on to describe the four candidates (Clinton
has stereotypical 'woman curls' on her stick figure, Richardson has
slight shading, Obama has a bit more shading, and Edwards is just a
stick figure) to her and at one point I stopped, looked at her daddy
and we exchanged a smile. "Can you believe we're looking at an
African-American, Latino, woman, and a white guy on the same stage? For
President?" he says with a smile. I shake my head and return to my
Elections 102 lecture.
"See, out of these four people, one of them will be the Democratic
candidate. Then out of another 5-6 people, there will be a Republican
candidate (I note that they are all white men)."
"What's a Repuglican?" she asks?
I snort and correct her, "Republican. Well, let's just say that Mommy
normally agrees with the Democrats and rarely with the Republicans."
Thankfully that answer satisfied her and we went up the flow chart.
"And in November, Mommy & Daddy will have to decide between the
Democrat & the Republican on who we want to be President. Mommy
already knows she will vote for the Democrat." Please note that in the
figure, I drew the White House first and then drew a figure over it.
AND not to read into the plain stick figure at the top.
She takes a few seconds to take it all in and then jumps into our laps
(yes, sprawled out over both our laps) with a giggle, "So who do you
think will win the race?" "We don't know, sweetie," I reply. "Well who
do you want to win?" "We don't know yet. Any of them would be great
though," we respond. "Well who would you vote for?" we ask her.
"BARAK OBAMA!"
We laugh at her firm conviction. "I'm voting for Barak Obama!" she
yells again. And then of course, I have to break her heart and tell her
that she can't vote for another 14 years. "But, Mommy & Daddy will
take your vote into consideration."
I knew that this election cycle would be fun to watch, but it's gonna
be even more fun to try to explain. Now we have 10 months to figure out
how to explain the electoral college to her!
Are you engaging your kids in the primaries? How are you explaining it
to your younger kids? Have your older kids taken any interest?
When Veronica's not being a political artist, she blogs at Viva La Feminista & Chicago Moms Blog, where this was cross-posted.
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