Monday, October 22, 2012

Raising a Politically Aware Child

With all the election buzz going around, I thought I would get in on the action too.  Now that I have a child I've realized that things I say and do will trickle down to her.

Now I was never one to follow politics.  When I was younger, I found them confusing.  My family never talked politics.  At least they never did in front of us.  I remember when I was in junior high, I think it was the election of Bush the 1st, I asked my mother who she had voted for in the election.  My mother turned to me and said "None of your damn business!"  I have always remembered that and to this day I am grateful that she did that.  The way my parent's raised me I was able to make up my own mind and not just blindly follow the party they did.  I still don't know what party either of my parent's belong to and honestly, I don't care.  My brothers and I each share our own views, some of them similar and some VERY different.  While I do align myself with one side, I do try to look at both (or all) candidates before making a choice.  9 times out of 10 I pick one side over the other.

My husband, on the other hand, is very politically minded.  He has such passion and he gets very heated when he sees what he perceives as injustice from the other side.  His parents are also very politically minded, so I know that he was raised in a different manner than I was.  I'm not saying this is bad, mind you, just different.

I would like to raise Baby R in a similar fashion as I was raised.  I don't want her to say "I'm this party because my mommy and daddy are".  I want her to be able to form her own opinions and if they are different from ours, then it is what it is.  Since Papa R IS so politically minded, I think this is going to be quite the challenge.

How do you handle politics in your family?  Do you openly discuss candidates?  Do you tell your children who you are voting for and why?  Do you "bash" the party you don't agree with?  I'd really love some feedback on this one.

No comments:

Post a Comment