Politics and Kids

2007
02.20

So I was listening to NPR tonight while I was making dinner for my kiddos.  (Scrambled eggs, boca sausage, bagels, potatoes, and chocolate cake with raspberry filling – Dillon got to choose.  He later said "everything is so delicious I don't know what to eat next!")  But anyway, I am quick on the NPR switch when anything too gruesome comes on for the kids to overhear.  But they were covering McCain's position on the Iraq war (pro-troop-surge) when Dillon completely surprised me by saying, we shouldn't have any soldiers in a war.  

I have specifically been trying to shield him from war discussions as he has entered the phase where (as I suppose all little boys do) he is really into "guns" (anything that can be used as one since he doesn't actually own any).   He's stealthy about it, he knows Chuck and I disapprove of gunplay, so he changes up and says he's shooting a laser or something like it.

But he's been talking about the war with someone, so…  I inventory my responses and say something like, "well, the soldiers don't get to choose where they go.  Other people, like the President, make those choices.  The soldiers have to do their job, so even if they don't want to they go to where the war is." 

D: "The President is pretty much a bad guy."

M: "Um…  Well, he definitely made some bad choices."

D: "Are soldiers bad guys?"  

M: "No!  You know a lot of people who were soldiers, like Auntie Cheri, Auntie TJ, Grandpa Charles…  Your Uncle Luke has lots of friends that are in Iraq…"

D: "Oh.  Okay.  I hope I don't be a soldier when I grow up."  

M: "Me too.  Not because it's a bad job but I sure would worry about you if you were in a war."

D: "Why is the President the President?"

M: "Umm…  Well, there will be a new president when you are seven!  Maybe even the first Black President or the first Woman President ever in American History!"  (Putting a positive spin on it…)

D: "Yeah.  But what if it's just another white guy?"

M: "Well, I might be a little bit disappointed.  But it depends on the guy.  It's really cool when you have a historical first.  But what people believe in is more important that what they look like."   I go back to cooking.   A few minutes later, Dillon interrupts me to tell me that in two years is when he'll be seven.  And I say really, when you are six and a half we'll have a new president. 

And I am sure he'll be backing a candidate and organizing fundraisers before his sixth birthday.   

2 Responses to “Politics and Kids”

  1. Cheri says:

    Pretty sure he had it right with his comment on the president being a bad guy. What an astute little man.

  2. Nic says:

    I am not the one who has been talking about the war with your child. But let me tell you, that is so cool that your son is smart enough to question what is happening, and that he likes chocolate cake with raspberry filling.

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