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6th November 2008

I just can’t believe what some parents say…

posted in being a parent, politics, president 08, raising kids, yada yada yada |

I know the election just ended, and if you’re like me you’re probably tired of hearing about it no matter who you wanted to win. But I just had to take a minute and write about how appalled I am at what some parents are telling their children as young as 1st grade!

While I am a big fan about introducing young children to how our government and elections work, I also very strongly believe that you treat politics like you would the birds and the bees. You adjust what you teach your children according to what they are mature enough to understand. Apparently there are a LOT of parents out there who do not believe this way, as my own daughter came home not that long ago wanting me to vote for McCain because “he lowers taxes” and “wants us to have money”. She’s in third grade. I asked her what taxes were, to which she honestly replied she didn’t know. Ugh.

Today while volunteering at the school I heard there was a child in 1st grade who had a horrible time last night as he had been told by another child that “Obama wanted to kill babies in Mommy’s tummies” and the child was scared because if Obama won all these babies would die! Apparently this was going around the classroom, the poor teacher had to deal with the fallout of this.

Tonight at Bible study I heard another Mother talking about how her daughter wanted to know who she voted for, (another 3rd grader) and the Mother gave her Biblical reasons as to why not to vote for Obama. It was her interpretation of the Bible - because as we all know the Bible has many.  I know the Mother meant well (she really did), but it just seemed a bit over her daughters head.

Children idolize their parents. There’s nothing wrong with that! However, it is our job as parents to control our need to push our opinions on our children when they are not yet old enough to understand what it all means. I don’t care who you voted for, what you think of Obama winning, or what you will do in 4 years from now.  You are entitled to your opinion, but you are an adult. We need to stop using our children for our own gain - all it is going to do is ruin the innocence and purity they have such a limited time to experience.

So please, before you go complaining to or around your young children about politics, think twice about how much you say. Keep it age appropriate, and focus on the process as an educational experience instead of using it as a way to spread hate and bitterness. After all, these children are America’s future!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 4:27 am and is filed under being a parent, politics, president 08, raising kids, yada yada yada. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

There are currently 4 responses to “I just can’t believe what some parents say…”

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  1. 1 On November 6th, 2008, Mariecel said:

    Well said!

  2. 2 On November 7th, 2008, Jeff said:

    That’s so sad- there are so many parents that are just poor parents. Unfortunatly their kids may end up the same. My first time on your blog, found it searching for popcorn balls :)
    I already like how you think: a way that is all too hard to come by now-a-days.
    Thanks,
    Jeff

  3. 3 On November 15th, 2008, Thomas Northrop said:

    The worst part is that not only do parents need to watch what they say, but many teachers are guilty of pushing their own political agenda. Parents need to watch what the teachers are saying. The influence a teacher has in the classroom is very powerful. The views and mindset of young children can be set for life by what a teacher believes and conveys in the classroom. I personally believe that discussion of politics in the elementary classroom should be banned for this very reason.

    I know this post was slightly slanted toward what a poor teacher had to deal with. Well who brought up the subject to begin with? More than likely the teacher. Far to many teachers push their own political agenda in the classroom. While discussion is a healthy thing, discussion moderated toward one view is not.

    I have a hard time figuring out the agenda of these teachers. Hitler had a masterplan to start training all the children at a very young age to be perfect little brainwashed nazis. Pehaps this is their agenda. That probably gives them to much credit. More than likely they are just trying to influence the parents through the children. What an extremely stupid idea. Parents are smarter than that. I hope.

  4. 4 On November 19th, 2008, Nicki said:

    I TOTALLY agree with this post. There was no denying who we were for, my kids read my blog :P and we were so active politically. But unless asked a specific question, we did not discuss it. I was actually happy to overhear a conversation between my 14 year old and a visiting friend this weekend who were talking about the election. The friend (who was 8) said he would have voted for whoever he thought of first (ha) and my 14 year old said he didn’t feel prepared to discuss because he hadn’t followed the issues closely enough. I was proud of both of them, relative to their ages. It would have been easy for them, like most kids, to just favor who their parents voted for but they didn’t and I think thinking individually is the most important lesson we can teach our children at election time.

    I am horrified about the kid who was taught about abortion at such a young age! That’s so horrible!!!! Actually I am finding it really weird how much discussion is happening NOW about the election now that it’s over. Church signs condemning Obama as a Muslim, for instance. The election is over! move on!! I don’t get it.

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