ELECT to Have Teachable Moments with Your Kids

The harvest is ripe for teachable moments with our kids during election season! Seriously, they’re everywhere, just waiting to be picked and used. Parents, are we looking for them?

The obvious one is to make sure our kids understand that voting is both a right and a privilege for us in the US. Hopefully they are learning in school about the progress of suffrage for various people groups over the centuries, but it is good for us to talk about it at home, too. If they (and we) have never known anything different than the fact that we can go cast a vote if we want to, the privilege can very much be taken for granted, the impact of its importance lost.

But does my one vote even matter? I confess I get tangled up in this one myself. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s good to pose the old question of “Well, what if everyone thought that?” So let’s set good examples for our kids by exercising our right to vote. And if we take our kids with us to the polls to see how it all works, it will have an even greater impact on them. (Plus, they’ll get a sticker.) Once they turn 18, we can make a big deal out of the fact that they now have the right to vote themselves!

We can also talk to our kids about why we are choosing to vote for certain candidates. This doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it’s better to keep the rationale simple, especially if our kids are young. Just letting them hear our thought processes behind which candidates will receive our votes helps them understand that each vote deserves careful thought and consideration. It can also be appropriate to give simple explanations about why we are not voting for other candidates.

Lastly, we can use the election season to bring out teachable moments about how to treat others and how to disagree while still being respectful to each other. Sadly, our politicians often serve as BAD examples to point out to our kids. But hey–it’s still good to point it out! And, mom and dad, it’s important that we ourselves serve as GOOD examples by not getting dragged into mudslinging and name-calling ourselves during this season.

Whether we love election season or can’t wait for it to be over, let’s not miss the opportunities to teach our kids some valuable lessons during it.

My name is Carrie Bevell Partridge, and I approve this message. Also, it was paid for by no one.