Kids, Politics and Rebellion

By Rebeldad Brian Reid

Thank goodness spring has arrived early. The ground is now nice and thawed, which has made it much easier for just about everyone in my neighborhood to stick a sign in their front yard advertising their candidate of choice next Tuesday.

It's not just the signage that has sprung up. We have buttons and stickers all over the place, including plastered all over the local kids. Which raises the question: Does pounding children with a specific political message do any good?

We've certainly spent a great deal of time around the dinner table lately talking politics with our oldest daughter, who is very interested in the fact that there's a woman in the hunt. And while she can't rattle off progressive talking points on the war or offer an opinion on health coverage mandates, she is familiar with the finer points of Title IX.

We're not trying to indoctrinate her with a rigid way of looking at the world, but we do have high hopes that she'll retain her interest in gender equality well into adulthood. Still, my wife is living proof that exposure to a given political stance as a kid guarantees nothing. She still has scrapbook picture of her parents with Ronald Reagan, and she remembers Newt Gingrich being hailed in her house as a conservative savior way before the 1994 "Republication Revolution." She had a red-state childhood, all the way.

Naturally, she's now a committed liberal who looks back at her conservative roots with a mixture of amusement and amazement. And she wonders if our little one will someday rebel in the same way, experimenting with Republicanism when she finally gets the ballot in 2020.

How are you guys handling next Tuesday's election in your household (and the much more divisive vote coming in November)? Are you making any effort to sway the voters of tomorrow? And do you have any fear your dinner-table chats will backfire on you when your kids hit that rebellious voting age?

Brian Reid writes about parenting and work-family balance. You can read his blog at rebeldad.com.

By Brian Reid |  February 7, 2008; 7:00 AM ET  | Category:  Conflicts
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