Just wondering how you teach your children about politics???

We had a situation come up today, and I used it as a tool to teach my DD about politics, and the different parties (DEM and REP).

DD and her friends wanted to go to the movies. DD had $20 in g/c from the people she worked with over the Summer. One of her friends had NO money, and DD wanted us to pay for her to go. Hmmmmm......well, I had some movie passes, and told DD that she could use one for her friend. That would mean we would be short one ourselves, the next time we wanted to go to the movies.

When DD got home, I asked her how she felt about us having to give one up for her friend?? Afterall, I did the "legwork" to get the ticket, and now one of us would not get to use it. She said she had no problem with it. We all agreed that we were glad we had the ticket to give, to her friend. DS asked DD if she would feel the same way if we gave the ticket to someone we didn't know. Well, no, of course not. IOW, she only agreed with taking from us to give to others if she could determine who it went to.

I thought this was a good lesson that was easy to relate to.

How do you explain politics and the political parties, to your children?

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

We discuss politics daily. My daughter who is 15 was told to the leave the class the other day becuase her position didnt' fit in line w/ the teacher's. Needless to say, I had a nice discussion with the principal about that.

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Proud Wife of an Army Soldier and proud mother of an Army MP currently serving in Iraq.


"To any critics who say a woman can't think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I'd just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave." - Sarah Palin

I think that children learn from example.

One thing that I did was encourage involvement with the Junior Republicans in our community. Only one of our children chose to get involved, and he is the most active in politics in our family. He has helped out on elections and he has a very strong opinion on what he believes in.

The other boys, they really don't care. lol

But we talk about it, share our beliefs and let them decide for themselves. But I really think that it is important to at least give them exposure of some type.. talk about it at the dinner table, when watching the news open up commentary in the family, whatever.

Patriotism is so important to teach, and I think politics is just a small part of that.

I have a 10 year old that is very interested in politics, has been since he was about 6.

He is sponge and spends hours reading up on it via the internet, his sisters high school government book, and talking to anyone who will talk about it with him.

When he asks a question, we are careful not to push our opinions on him, we sit down with him and find the technical answer, then we find examples for both sides of the fence and research why someone feels they way the do about issues.

It is funny, because he amazes adults when he sits and has a conversation with them. They are expecting a child's level perspective and he follows right along with the topic, inputs accurate information and sometimes tells them things they didn't even know.

In class last week, they were covering the basics of voting and how it worked. He brought up the electoral college and the teacher (who hadn't planned to go that deep) had him explain to the class what it was, how it works, and why it was put into place. This prompted her to send home a handout election night of the map for them to fill as states were called. He had a blast with it.

He has said forever he wants to be president some day. If he holds the interest he has and does something with it, he just might be!