I was getting dressed for work, and my 5-year-old daughter came to me, holding a drawing. I asked her what it was of, and she said, “It’s me and Obama, takin’ a walk.”
I looked at the drawing, and those curved legs and big smiles and said, “Yes, I can see that now. Of course. You and Obama, taking a walk.”
Since the hubs and I have been watching more TV than usual in the last few weeks, I started explaining the election to my daughters. I’m so glad I have done this because it’s been the source of some funny and memorable moments, not the least of which was the illustration above.
When we first told the girls about the election and informed them that Daddy and Mommy will be voting for Obama, Djuna kept making gagging sounds whenever she would see a McCain sign. The sounds grew increasingly dramatic as the days passed and included wilder and wilder gesticulation.
So, we had a talk about how people believe different things and just because Mommy and Daddy want Obama to be president, that doesn’t mean that we have to make a big show of distaste when we see a McCain sign. We talked about how the McCain signs belong to our neighbors and that we need to act neighborly, even if we don’t agree about who should be president.
The true test of this was when a McCain supporter across from my daughters’ school put out awesome Halloween decorations, including a giant purple and black blow up spider.
You could see their 5-year-old brains ticking, sort of like a robot in some sci-fi movie, when their eyes look like typewriter carriages going back and forth, necks ticking, just a little, from left to right as if they were reading something across the front of their robot cerebral cortexes: “This does not compute, this does not compute. A McCain supporter with cool Halloween decorations. Does not compute.”
Djuna really struggled with this. And suddenly, the gagging sounds stopped. Now, when we pass by that house, we merely comment wistfully on the McCain sign and then spend time really discussing the variety of decorations.
Another morning on the way to school, Dinah kept looking at all the Obama signs and saying that that house must be Kimmie’s house (not her real name). I asked Dinah why she thought that, and she explained that Kimmie has an Obama sign in front of her house. Knowing that my daughters have never been to Kimmie’s house, I was really confused.
“Dinah, how do you know that Kimmie’s house has an Obama sign in front of it?”
Dinah responded, “She told us.”
The idea that my daughters are hanging around the playground or maybe in the line for the water fountain, discussing the election with their Kindergarten compadres cracks me up completely.