Yeah, it's a week late...but WHOOOOHOOOOOOO

I know....the election is old news. But, I had to write a post about my excitement over how the election went. I was excited that Obama won...along with most of the other people and issues I voted for. But, it was also exciting because my kids are getting to the ages where they can begin to understand the democratic process. They watched the debates with us this year...and did they have some fun comments!

With the first debate, my son spoke up early in the debate and declared that he would vote for the dark skinned man. When asked why, his reply was classic. "That other guy looks really old....mom what happens if a president dies?" After laughing a little to the side, my husband and I explained the Vice President's role to him. My daughter was more curious about why someone so pretty would marry such an old guy :)

After each debate, we'd ask the kids who they would vote for (if they could) and why they chose that candidate. It's very interesting to hear the reasons young kids give. At one point, my son wanted to vote for McCain because from his perspective Obama kept talking about war and "mom, I don't like war." My daughter thought she might vote for McCain at one point too, but then decided he just looked way too old.

When it came time to vote, my husband and I laid out our ballots and voter's pamphlet on the kitchen counter and invited the kids to join us. They found this to be very exciting. With each candidate or issue, we discussed both sides and asked our kids how they would vote. Then, we'd tell them who we were planning on voting for and the reasons we chose to vote that way. This led to some great conversations.

One issue on the Washington Ballot this year was a death with dignity law. (Quick background: When my son was 5, he cried because he broke a worm in half. He knew the worm's mom and dad would be looking for him, so he put the two pieces back where he had initially found the worm. This summer, a fly found it's way into our car on vacation. My kids decided he would be a good pet and saved some of their trail mix to feed to the fly so he wouldn't die.) My son's first reaction to this was that he would vote against it. My daughter was unsure and wanted more information.

In our state's case, only terminally ill people who have 6 months or less to live are qualified to get a lethal prescription from their doctors which they would self administer. A couple of years ago, one of our cats became very ill and was in a lot of pain. We used this example to help explain the law to our kids. We loved Kita soooo much that we didn't want her to suffer. We knew she was going to die and we were sad, but we didn't want her to be in pain if she didn't need to be. This helped the kids understand why we voted yes. We don't let our pets suffer, why would we want people to suffer?

That was just one of many interesting conversations that night. We reminded our kids that it's OK for them to disagree with us. That's what makes life interesting :) How boring would it be if we all agreed about everything all the time!

On election night, my kids and I watched as the results came in (my husband had to work). I thought that they would get bored of watching it after awhile, but they stuck with it and actually asked to stay up late so that they could watch more. We cheered together when it was announced that Obama was our new president! We also watched McCain's speech together. I thought McCain was very humble and thought his speech was one of the best I've heard through this entire election process. But, the kids were concerned with all the booing amongst McCain supporters when he mentioned Obama. I was too....I told them that sometimes people just don't think before they do or say something.

They missed Obama's speech because it was getting too late for a school night. But, as I watched it...I actually felt that this country could turn around. It was a nice feeling :) That was a great night....Obama won and I was able to enjoy the experience with my kids. None of us will ever forget it.