She Saw the Signs

...Opened up my eyes, she saw the signs.





As expected, we woke up early and went to vote as a family. Then we went to breakfast, dropped Bailey off at preschool and went our separate ways. After preschool, we promptly headed off because I knew I'd spend the day anxious for the election results and driving myself nuts. And as we were driving to Wonderscope, Bailey starts clapping and says, "YAY! Obama! It's an Obama sign. There are five more in that yard." She continued to do this. I was in complete shock. Daddy and Mommy may play this game in the car where we clap up front and point out signs on occasion, but we certainly weren't trying to leave a lasting impression on Bailey.

This may be hard for you to believe, but we actually try our best to keep some of our political opinions to ourselves, especially away from Bailey. Of course, if you have a habit of tuning in a lot to CNN or reading certain articles, (or clapping sometimes when spotting certain signs) a rather astute child is eventually going to catch on. That's what's happened from time to time with us. It shouldn't be that shocking. But please note, we don't necessarily do it on purpose.

I remember the 1988 election and I was a Plain Jane child making little Vote Dukakis tags. It was about that time that I guess I finally learned anything concrete of my parents' political views. My father didn't seem all that thrilled about my Dukakis campaigning and told me Dukakis' wife was a bad woman and she did drugs and that that they weren't the kind of people we wanted in the White House. I was as you'd think of me, not easily swayed. I voted for Dukakis in our 1988 classroom election, as did the majority of my classmates (even though we rarely discussed it). As I aged, I questioned their opinions more.

Fast forward to the present, and I can confidently admit that I do not represent all of the opinions (especially political) my parents subjected me to. Being a proud free thinker, I didn't want my own child to feel my political views were to be their own. With that said though, it is hard to not smile large when your tiny little girl is pointing out your candidate's signs. And someday, even if she's making signs for the opposition, I think I'm going to be proud then too. Because that means she's learned the most important value of all--freedom to make your own decisions.

Regardless, she saw the signs and opened up my eyes.