What happened to teaching our children to vote?

Today I could go in a lot of different directions but I woke up with something on my heart so I'm going to try to stick to that.....

However, I will first say this:  I try to not get into politics with people and I consider myself very uneducated in this area really, so for what I'm going to say you can take with a grain of salt if you even care to read.   My son and I just got done watching the Presidents Town Hall Meeting with CBS.   Griffen just turned 3, when he got up it was just starting, and I made a big deal of it (rather than having his usual PBS cartoons to watch) I said "Today is special, we get to watch our President of The United States of America, where we live."   (I've taught him about this before, and both Brett and I have taught him the pledge of allegiance, etc.)  So he jumped up and down, and sat and watched the whole thing, despite having a very bored look on his face it was as if he some how knew this was something important and he should be listening.   When it went to commercial he would play with his truck and then when it came back he would yell & jump, clap and say "Mommy he's back on, its back on, our President!" 

Now I'm not going to tell you my political stance or which party I'm on.........but I'm going to say a few things:
1.)   I think it is really sad that it has become publicly acceptable to bad mouth, have bumper stickers and T-shirts poking fun, or plain being disrespectful to the man in the highest position in our country.  Whom "We" as a nation voted for.  Especially, when most of these people probably didn't even bother to vote at all, yet they feel the need to post their derogatory opinion on the back of their mini-van for everyone to read.  Then we wonder why our children disrespect their teachers, parents, and other adults in authority????   Yet, these are the children riding in the mini-van with the bumper sticker on it, where their own parents are publicly announcing that they "disrespect our President of the United States????"  This angers me to no end, and seems to be a completely assanign thing to do!

2.)  What happened to teaching our children to vote?  Or better yet, the importance of voting?  When I was a child I attended a school that rarely had over 90 students.   Yet every voting season they would give us age appropriate info. on the candidates, the different offices, then they would bus us up to the Grange hall where we would go into the voting booths and physically vote.   Now, in this day and age of mail-in ballets, etc. I know this is a little harder, but yet with budget cuts we can barely afford as a school district to "bus" them to school and back home, let alone on a field trip.  Yet, we are in the midst of the largest recession since "The Great Depression", we will know doubt read about this in text books some day.   Many baby-boomers are concerned that they will not have any social security or medicare to depend on when they reach age (I just don't plan on it at all for my generation), yet we are not teaching our children the importance to "vote"?  I've read many publications on our children and the problem of "Entitlement", so many parents living beyond their means and going into debt just to make sure little Johnny gets everything they didn't have as a child, despite whether little Johnny even wants it!  Anything to make sure they are keeping up with the Jones' next door.   With problems like these, it should seem to be even more important to teach our children on the value of living in a  "Free Country" (now you can argue that if you want, but hopefully you get my point by now).   Just by living in America we are already richer than 93% of the rest of the world!  Yet, do we tell our children that?  Are they taught that at school?  No, they throw a fit everytime they walk into walmart with their parents and aren't allowed to buy the toy they spotted (that was probably made in China no less).  We already are living in a population where half of us don't bother to take the TIME to EDUCATE OURSELVES to vote and we don't even have to leave our home!!! (I've been guilty myself)   So even if for some reason our childrens generation (the ones paying for our social security, by the way) bother to vote, they are so uneducated, they are unlikely to spend the time reading and educating themselves on whom to actually vote for.........which means the media will now have total control of our country (if you don't already argue that they do).   Our childrens generation are technologically savy, if they aren't watching commercials on TV, they will see ads on the side of their email, or on the radio, everytime they log-in to their computer, trust me, the media, the politicians will find a way.   So they will be voting, based off a quick blurb, and which candidate has the best hair style, or is the most attractive, just as we would pick someone to dance with at the bar, or the one car salesman that sworms you, or the realtor in the magazine.    Seriously?   We cannot as parents sit back and think that someone else is going to teach our children the importance of this!

Ok, I'm going to split this blog up into two because I seem to be a little more verbal on this subject than I thought (Go figure!)

So I'm adding one more....
3.)  I mentioned that we have taught our 3yr. old the "Pledge of Allegiance".   When I was in elementary school we started our day by singing "Good Morning" to our teacher (ie. paying respect), we then faced the flag (which was in every classroom) and said the "Pledge of Allegiance", followed my singing "My Country Tis of Thee"........so why don't they do that anymore?   I don't have the answer, but could it be that in the Pledge of Allegiance it says the words "under God" which might offend some students.   Yet, we are talking about what our country was built on!!  People who believed in God, people who believed that God was the way and the only way that we could be so blessed to live in a FREE country!  Many others in our world are not so lucky.   When did this change?   When did the need to be so removed from the creator of our world happen to people?  I mentioned how we started the day when I was in school (not that long ago I'm 31).....yet I remember specifically that we had an aetheist and two Jehovah's Witnesses in our class.   Yet, they started class the same way, the Jehovah's Witness got to go home early when we celebrated holidays, such as Christmas (You know the Birth of Jesus, the son of God)........we didn't call them "Harvest Days", "Winter Celebration" or "Spring Concerts".......we actually sang real Christmas Carols, you remember the ones that mentioned "God".  Now, I think that most Christians prefer their children not dress as devil, or scary monsterish characters for Halloween, yet even though asked not to I see children dressed like this every year.  I also see Angels, they haven't banned that one, maybe they just disregard and call them "fairy's"??? Who knows. 

I'm getting a little off track but I feel very passionate about it.   Its hard for me to believe our schools are "public" when we pay taxes to support them, and then that doesn't even ensure us that our children will get a good education.   Every year our parent club is responsible for raising thousand of dollars (additionally from parents and the community) just so our children can have PE., Art, and go on Field Trips.......in addition any special programs are usually funded by grants that our wonderful giving teachers and principals take their own time to write and apply for, yet still most are not funded by our government.   So I consider my children's public school a "Public/Private School"  if it were not for the Parents and Volunteers our children's education would be severely less than acceptable........yet, we are raising the future leaders of our "FREE" Country!?!?!?!?!

OK, I'm stepping off my soap box.  I'm sure I ruffled some feathers, but hey you can't please everybody.  
Just notice I'm not telling you whether I like or dislike our President, I'm not telling you which party I choose to side with or how or if I even vote.   I'm simply stating some very obvious concerns of mine, that should be obvious to all parents, and I guess even more concerning to the people in my generation who choose not to have children (at least I know I have influence over a handful of people...LOL)......with that being said, I don't tell my children my opinion either other than I do not allow any disrespectful comments to be made to any adult let alone the President of our country, and I'm sure they've heard be gripe when I've seen the bumper stickers.  :)   I encourage my children to share their opinion (I love a healthy debate), and I make sure that their opinion is "THEIR" opinion.....not because they saw a commercial on TV, or heard one on the radio.  Not because their teacher shared only their opinion with them, or because they saw a lot of signs all over town, or because it's cool to be different, or the same.....whichever age group their in!    I want them to do their own research and feel proud of their opinion, and ready for the debate when the questions are asked.

So I just ask you who have children.....think about what you do and say in front of them.   None of us are perfect and we are all guilty of something in the sorts I've been talking about.  Hopefully, I'm just making you more aware.   Take some time to talk about voting & our country, and the differences in other countries.   Just know that we cannot sit back and depend on an under-funded education system to raise our children!  Values & Ethics are taught at home. 

Remember that you are the most influential person in your children's lives, and that is a large load to carry at times.......but you are just the person for the job!!  I know it!

Have a good day!  Sorry for talking Politics  ;)

If I had it to do over would I?

If I had it to do over would I do it again?

I read this question in one of my books yesterday.   I believe that it was meant in the context of "your whole life".  So if you could go back from today and get a "do-over" as my kids often call it, would you? and what would you change?

I've always been someone who I believe and have told others "I have no regrets".   It just seems silly to think of your life in a way where you would wish you could taken and changed parts.   We've all seen those movies where they get a wish, and they wish to change just one "moment", then from changing just that "moment" their whole live ends up changing. 

How precious is a moment?  According to these movie producers, pretty precious.   According to God, I think he'd have to agree. 

People remember moments.  The first time you said I love you to your spouse.   The day you found out you were pregnant.   The day you hit that home-run and won the game for your team.  We all remember moments.  Unfortunately, we remember the bad ones too.....the time you didn't block the goal and lost the game for your team, the time the boy made fun of you on the school bus, or the time in P.E. where you had to pick teams and you were chosen last.  So which moments are more important, the good or the bad?   

I've had lots of good & bad moments I can remember so well I can remember what I was wearing, sometimes the song that was playing, what the other person was wearing, what kind of day it was, I remember moments distinctively.  I used to let the bad moments "haunt" me.   I would think of them all the time, and get that sick stomach feeling and think "why did I say that?" or "why did I do that?".   Oddly enough as much as I'd let them haunt me, it never ever occurred for me to ask God for a "do-over".   I have just always believed things happened for a reason, and I guess even as a child before I understood this concept, I still understood it in a childlike way that our life is what we make of it.  (I think I may of heard that from my mom a few times).  ;)

So my answer to the question is Yes.   Yes, I would do every single bit of it over, even though it means spending times I'd rather not..........laying on the bathroom floor crying so hard I would throw up over my divorce, or when I broke up with my first boyfriend and I thought the world would just stop for me right there.   Even the day the boys walking behind me on our way home after getting off the school bus lifted up my skirt, and then ran away (I was humiliated!).   Even the moments that I'm going through now that are not the best at times......I wouldn't change it.   I can change the future, but the past is what makes me who I am, and that it what I focus on.  All those bad and good things that happened to me helped shape me to where I am now, and I like me.  Jamie Lee Curtis has a book called "I'm gonna like me...." obviously its a children's book, but I read it to my boys often.   It talks about self-esteem and how at the end of moments like being chosen last, or doing the right thing vs. going with the crowd, or doing something nice, that is what makes you "like me" and others like you too!

So, even though I'm not where I want to be, I thank God I'm not where I used to be, and ask God to guide me to where he needs me to be.   All this is made up of moments, and even being a natural gambler, I'll "hold" my cards at bet where I'm at right now is exactly where God wants me to be!

A couple years ago when I could no longer afford to buy the expensive gifts my teenagers required I stopped trying.   I thought about what I could "give" them that would be special to them, but didn't cost a fortune.  It finally came to me, I could give them memories (moments).   So one year my two daughters and I left at 10:30pm and drove over to the coast in the middle of the night......we had our little adventures (I'll keep them between us) and got home about 4am in the morning (where I then had to be up at 7 and to a soccer game for another child), but it was worth every "moment".  You see at the end of our lifetimes, the "moments" will be what we remember.

So make your moments special, give your kids the gift of happy memories vs. Ipods, they will thank you some day I promise, and if not you can blame me!  :)

Here's to some good moments! (I'm having my in-laws stay the night.....gotta go clean!)