The Presidential Election And The Future Generation

So you hear it all the time. The older generation worries about the younger generation.  My daughter did something shortly after the election that made me realize that we are in good hands.

Before the election, the whole family was eating at the dinner table and talking about both Obama and Romney and what it might mean if they are elected.  We were talking about all kinds of issues and Riley (my 12 year old step daugher) said that in her Social Studies class they were asked how they would vote on several topics to determine

which candidate they would most likely vote for if they could.  One that surprised us a little was the subject of abortion.  We didn’t expect that to come up at the table.  Riley asked what abortion was and we explained as carefully and as gently as you can about that subject. We directed our answer to Riley but apparently Tara (my 8 eight year old daughter) was paying close attention.

After dinner, Tara decided that she thought she might like to run for President and she wanted to write down what she would do if she were President.  She asked me how to spell “President” and if lowering taxes was good.  That is all that she asked me about but that’s not all that she wrote.  She finished the paper and left it on the table.  It wasn’t until later that we saw what she wrote.

She wrote: “What I would do if I was President.  lower texes, make sher when your prenet you must give birth.”   Lower taxes, make sure when you’re pregnant you must give birth. She didn’t ask me anything about abortion or how to spell pregnant.  We didn’t try to tell her that it was good or bad, we just told her what it was. We had no idea she was even thinking about that when she was writing it.  I guess the conversation had quite an affect on her.

This isn’t about whether you agree or disagree but it makes me feel better about the future that an 8 year old girl has opinions and cares in such a way.