This morning, I was ready and waiting for the conversation I knew would be at hand.
"So Mom, who won? Who is our new President? Did the one with the lady win or the brown skin man?"
Steve and I had already gotten our thoughts together last night and we knew we would speak truth, love and honesty to our children. So here is how it went.
"Our new president is Barack Obama."
"So my vote (the one at the public library in the kids section) did not count?"
"Yes, it counted. Be proud you had a chance to vote, and stand up for what you want."
"Was McCain mad? Did he cry?"
"No, actually Senator McCain spoke on the TV last night and he thanked everyone for their vote. He said he wanted all of us Americans who had voted for him to support Obama and even if we disagreed, we should show him respect."
"That was nice. Yeah, sometimes me and Olivia disagree, but I still love her. You and Dad disagree and you still love him. You respect him too Mom, you call him the leader of our family. So, what about all those commercials we saw about how they said bad things about each other, did they mean it? Were they trying to hurt each others feelings?"
"Not really hurt each others feelings, but they were trying to get other people to agree with what they believe. But now we have a chance to respect a man that is our leader. He is someone who we will honor as the President. We might not agree with all of his choices, but we will not be disrespectful." "So, how do you think it was in the Obama house this morning when they woke up?"
"He probably woke up and said 'Yeah, this is over. Now I am the President. I have work to do.' His wife probably said,'Oh,my goodness, I am the first Lady.' His girls were probably talking about how they want their new rooms decorated while they ate breakfast." (Stephanie)
"I bet those girls are going to be the most popular girls in school today." (Olivia)
"I bet they don't go to school today. They might celebrate. They might have to pack to fly on a plane to Hawaii, because their great-grandmother died the other day."
"What? Fly on a plane to Hawaii for a funeral? How can you go on vacation and go to a funeral?"
"She lived there, it is not a vacation."
"Well, I am sad for Sarah Palin, I guess I can't wear her shirt anymore, but I am glad I match our new president." (Olivia, referring to her brown skin.)
"Mom, I bet they are making the statue of his face, to put in that hall of presidents, at Disney. We will need to go see it soon."
And that was just for part of the ride in the car today. Don't you wish you were hiding in our trunk?
4 comments:
LOL! We had a very similar conversation this morning too! I think it's so important that our children see us showing respect for the president, even if we didn't vote for him. It's just another way to teach them the important lesson of submitting to authority.
Xandra
I think that is a great thing for children to understand with our country's leaders. We definetly know they learn by example. I was very impressed with McCain's speech last night. I expected to hear a lot of "talk" today, but was pleasantly suprised.
That is just perfect. I talked about respect with my students in my class and how even though you don't agree with everyone in charge, they have such a big job and they deserve our respect. It was interesing how the opinions of their parents come out when they spoke about the election. I wanted them to understand the whole process to we did a complete unit on it. It was great. I can't wait to teach Raleigh and Hudson about politics. I am a major "Meet the Press" girl and have always loved it! Tell here she can still be proud and wear her t-shirt..
Okay, so I didn't start with the being of your blogs. I just had a couple of minutes and read this one. So, precious. I love that Olivia identified herself with Obama. She really does have brown skin. Oh, to have the sweet mind of a child.
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