My 8-year-old has made his choice for President, sporting a navy blue Obama T-shirt just about every other day. His friends are Obama fans, too.
I was glad to see my son take such an interest in the Presidential campaign. I'm a news junkie myself, and Sawyer wanted to watch the debates and listen to political news on National Public Radio.
The night before the Arizona vote, he spent 20 minutes talking to the Obama campaign worker who came to the door.
But I noticed that Sawyer hasn't pulled his Obama T-shirt out of his drawer in the last few days, not since he heard snippets from sermons given by Obama's pastor on NPR as part of a larger news story about the controversy.
“I thought Obama was for bringing everyone together,” Sawyer said.
How does a parent explain the complexities of race in the United States, let alone the intricacies of political campaigning?
Maybe listening to Obama's speech today will help some. Maybe it will add to the confusion. And maybe little kids should worry more about Friday's spelling test than who the next President will be.
Are your kids following the Presidential race? If so, how are you handling this?
Karina Bland is raising her 9-year-old son in Tempe with a lot of love, humor and support from her friends and family. A longtime journalist covering child welfare and education issues for The Arizona Republic, she blogs about raising good kids.
No, my children are not
No, my children are not following the Presidential race. This does not mean to say they don't hear things from the TV or from friends.
I wish I had an answer as to how to handle dealing with sort of thing. It seems easy to just say we can't control what our friends say, but this is bigger than that. If you take your children to see this person week in and week out they figure out pretty quick what this person stands for. Doesn't look like a good picture to me...
KarilouMomof2 is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Tempe. Her daughters are 9 and 6.
Reading the text and then
Reading the text and then watching the speech certainly helped me but the length might be too difficult for a younger child. I think you have to pare it down to - some people have different views and Obama doesn't have the same view as his pastor and that Obama tried to explain that he does want people to come together to make things better for everyone. He did acknowledge that if you look at the past people didn't always try to help one another and people did bad things but if we talk about it now, and everyone looks to the future, we can have a good country. We all want peace, jobs, health care, good schools, and clean air and just because you give that to some it doesn't mean you have to take it it from someone else.
Very tough issue to address but if he's into the campaign, you have to find a way at his level to explain it.
I'm sure Sawyer doesn't
I'm sure Sawyer doesn't always see eye to eye with his friends. I'll bet that you have friends who believe things that you don't believe. I'd use those examples to explain that Obama likes and respects the pastor, but doesn't agree with everything the pastor says.
Thank you for the great
Thank you for the great advice. I think figuring out how to explain it on his level was the toughest part, and I likely would have made it way too complicated. Your ideas for relating it to his own world are perfect.
Karina Bland is raising her 9-year-old son in Tempe with a lot of love, humor and support from her friends and family. A longtime journalist covering child welfare and education issues for The Arizona Republic, she blogs about raising good kids.