A Three-Year-Old’s View of Voting
I was all set to take my 6- and 3-year-old sons with me to vote today. What a great way to set an example! Let them see democracy in action! Then my husband, who had headed to the polls on his way to work, texted me to say he was still in line and had bumped into everyone we know. And then I ran into a neighbor who said she had waited an hour and a half to vote.
Suddenly my patriotic parental intentions evaporated. I think it’s fantastic so many people are voting in this election, I really do. Exercise those rights, people! But 90 minutes on line with an energetic 3-year-old?! In front of everyone we know?! I vote no.
On the way to the sitter’s to drop off the kids before I headed to the polls, we had a lively political discussion.
6-year-old Miles: “Are we allowed to vote, too, Mom?”
Me: “No, you have to be 18.”
Miles: “Or older, like you?”
Me: “Yeah. Or older.”
3-year-old Riley: “I wanna vote!”
Miles: “Who would you vote for, Riley?”
Riley: “Santa Claus!”
Miles: “No, Riley, this is serious. We learned about it at school. Your choices are –“
Riley: “Underpants!”
Miles: “Riley!! Listen! You can vote for –“
Riley: “Pepperoni!”
Miles: “No, your choices are Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. Got it? Either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney gets to be president. So who do you choose?”
Riley: “Mitt ‘Bama!”
And there you have it, people. The children — the future of our great country — have spoken. I have to admit, though: Santa Claus seems like a pretty solid choice.
Did you bring your child along to vote today? How do you talk to your kids about the election?
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This is my favorite political post all year. You win!
Ha! My 3-year old said Santa Claus this morning too!
I brought my son. He didn’t care. He’s 6 months old. He just laid there in his carrier. I hope he’ll be more enthusiastic in 18 years when he can vote!
We got right in, but we also went at 1:30 in the afternoon. I’m guessing the big rush is before and after work for most people, so we were in and out in 5 minutes.
Lol! I took my 10 month old at 10:30 this morning. We didn’t have to wait at all, but they said at 7:30am there was a humungous line and they expected the lunch hour to be busy and especially after 5pm to be busy. That’s the rush hour traffic for voting.
I love the underwear comment! Such a boy! I lucked out, actually. My polling place was in the basement of my son’s preschool, and his teachers said they would watch my 16 month old while I went down to vote. There wasn’t even a line, but it was nice not to have to deal with him while I read the ballot.
wow, way to mimic the media and narrow it down to two choices for your kid. there were at least 4 other third-party candidates on the ballot in most states….
hahaha this is AWESOME. so, so awesome. i wasn’t going to take my almost 3yo to vote with me but i did. she thought we were going to go on a BOAT.
http://finallymom.blogspot.com/2012/11/boating.html
Dang it. I should have written in ‘Underpants’.
Wow , that is one hilarious conversation, i guess kids sometime speaks illogical but when we think on it the out come is different, i hope president should have a different option for voting..:)