A couple years ago, T-Daddy and I made the decision to expose the TDs to the election process by allowing them to tag along the next time we voted. In my head, it would go something like this: Get the girls up and dressed, head to the polling place, vote, talk about what happened over a nice special breakfast and drop them off at school before going to work. As Election Day got closer, the plan became: watch some debates as a family, talk about why they were important, go to work/school on Election Day, pick the girls up, go vote as a family, discuss what just happened over a special dinner.
It’s finally Election Day, so how did it actually go? Well, for starters, we didn’t watch any of the debates. T-Daddy and I were mad last minute scrambling to research the candidates. (In all fairness, that’s still more than I’ve done in previous elections, so it’s progress.) My appointment with my midwife had to be rescheduled for Tuesday night due to an emergency (after I cancelled therapy so we could have extended family time). This gave us a short window to vote and do dinner but, hey I’m the queen of cramming as much stuff in as I can, so universe bring it! I went to work; T-Daddy dropped the girls off at school. Found out he had a meeting scheduled for the time we were supposed to be voting, so T-Daddy went and voted solo. I picked the girls up and we went to the polling place. On the five-minute ride over, we talked about elections and what it means to vote. Apparently TD1’s teacher had already explained this to her. We signed in, waited about 10 minutes, then it was go time!
TD1 wanted to know who I voted for. I told her we’d talk about it when Daddy came home. Meanwhile, TD2 wanted to touch everything. I compromised and let them take turns pressing the next button. They wanted to “do it all by myself. Don’t help me.” So I didn’t. We finished voting, got our stickers and took a picture by the American flag.
Then I decided to take them to the park. We’d just done our civic duty; why not have a little fun? T-Daddy met us up there. I went to my appointment, came home, and we ate dinner (late) as a family where TD1 asked,
Mommy, Daddy, who did you vote for?
09/06/2016 at 10:49 AM
I Love your writing!!!! I really do. thanks.
09/06/2016 at 11:04 AM
Thanks!! I’m glad to hear that.