"We're going boating, we're going boating" O gleefully shouts as she bounds down the steps. "No" I shout back "We are going voting"....Perplexed she stares up at me "Oh, what's voting Mama?" Hmmm....How can I explain to her the magnitude of such a simple yet profound action? What words can convey to my 3 year old it's importance? I'm not even sure most Americans understand considering only 64% of the electorate turned out at the last presidential election (the highest in years). She can not be expected to grasp that thousand of men and women have sacrificed their lives to secure her this right. That in today's "modern" world still only 60% of countries are democratic. Worldwide people continue to relinquish their lives in order to vote, to let their voices be heard. In our own country it hasn't even been 100 years since the 19th amendment was ratified affording women the right to vote. Her innocent eyes stare up at me....I continue to draw a blank...finally I sputter that voting is a method people use to express a choice or opinion. These words feel so empty to me but O just blinks, smiles and runs away shouting "we're going voting, we're going voting". We load up and head to the polls so my children can witness democracy in action. I hope O can sustain this exuberance for a lifetime.
4 comments:
Thank you SO much for taking your children with you to vote! Modeling democracy in action is one of the most important things we can do as parents. I always take my kids to the polls with me, stressing good behavior, of course, and it's made them very interested in the electoral process. My oldest, especially, wants to know why we vote how we vote, and why someone might vote another way.
Thanks Smrt Mama I couldn't agree more. I always take the children with me to the polls. Being politically active is very important to me, last year the children even helped with canvassing the neighborhood.
I may have been too strong with my kids, because the two oldest both go around talking about the "bad" people who don't vote. :) It does amaze me the number of people who don't bother to vote, and how in the world are their kids going to think it's important?
We didn't have any elections yesterday, though I was watching a few elsewhere closely.
Post a Comment