Teaching Your Kids About...

Politics.

It's important, right?

In no time, they'll be bestowed the civil duty of casting their vote and in the age of voter decline, we need to teach them that their voice matters.

This can become a pretty sticky situation if you choose to impart only your beliefs on your children (age appropriately of course) rather than talk to them about important issues, teach them how to educate themselves, and let them make their own decisions.

This is probably one of the most (and some times least) effective ways of parenting for me.

By raising independent thinkers, I'm setting myself up.

I have one child who supports Donald Trump. We've had several conversations about it and it's been a series of comical errors.

I do not support Donald Trump. This makes our conversations very challenging because I want to shut him down and tell him that Donald is a blithering idiot, but I don't.

Instead, I ask him questions.

"What do you like about him?"

"What does he believe that you believe?"

"How is he going to make the country better for you?"

As he answers, we discuss. I try very hard to keep an open mind, because I want him to learn to be open minded. When he comes out with things such as, "He speaks his mind," I often counter with questions such as, "What specifically did he speak his mind about?" Questions like these make him think. They make him actually listen to what is being said, analyze it, and make a decision.

Yay, critical thinking!

Our conversations started out with things such as, "Well, he's rich, and he's famous."

They have evolved into, "Did you hear what he said about *insert random thing here*?"

Then we talk about the other candidates. We talk about Hillary Clinton, her stance on the issues, and what she plans to do for our country.

We talk about what it means to be a public figure. We've also talked about how nominees make tons of promises they may never be able to bring to fruition because there's a balance system in place.

He knows I'm a Sanders supporter. He knows why. We've talked about women's rights, immigrants, financial reform, and a plethora of other topics.

The best thing you can do for your kids when it comes to politics (and they're old enough to understand the issues unlike my nine year old who thinks a girl president would "kick butt") is educate them. Let them draw their own conclusions and DO NOT under any circumstances push what you think they should believe on them.

While we get a plethora of beliefs and morality from our family, pushing them blindly into what adults believe isn't going to solve any of the world's problems. They're eventually going to be adults who need to learn how to research, educate themselves, and make informed decisions.

Teach them how to think for themselves and they will run the world!

~Kim


photo credit:
Voter via Free Images(license)
New York Primary 2016 via photopin (license)

I Love Facebook...

...but holy shit there's a lot of stuff on there that drives me insane!

This political season cannot end soon enough.

I'm tired of people pointing their fingers at whomever the opposer of their candidate is and screaming in accurate information and accusations. At first, no matter which side it came from, I tried to do a little research, provide the link to some solid information, and viola! Problem solved...

Well, we both know the problem solved part is a load of horseshit.

People are going to believe what they want to believe. They're going to skew statistics, speculate with information, and align the facts to their perspective.

I've accepted that.

Okay. That's a lie. It's secretly driving me loonie!

Huh. Well. I guess it's not a secret anymore.

In the age of instant media, it is incredibly difficult, near impossible, to fact check every piece of information that is reported from the, now, millions of different news outlets. The Internet has opened up a vast arena for anyone and everyone to report whatever it is they deem news.

You have liberal sites, conservative sites, patriot sites, gossip sites, more liberal sites, more conservative sites, militant sites, I could go on for pages!

They all skew the news to suit their particular agenda with absolutely no one to keep them in check. There's always a lot of finger pointing:

"So and so said this."
"No, So and so did NOT say this."
"So and so ate an elephant with a spoon."
"No one saw So and so eating an elephant with a spoon."

et cetera...et cetera....et cetera...

Back when I was much much much younger, there were three major television broadcast companies. ABC, NBC, and CBS (FOX came along a bit later). There was no reason for one-upmanship other than to report more details so the viewers watched your new program.

Don't get me wrong, there was still fear mongering because you could get much less of the story at a time and when you did get it, it was probably a couple of days old in some cases.

No twenty-four hour news channels who feed their anchors entertainment most of the time rather than facts. Entertainment sells. The days of Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, and Walter Cronkite are slowly inching away in the rear-view mirror.

If you don't know who Walter Cronkite was, look it up.

We're exchanging it for overly made-up, oddly dressed, and decidedly intellectually inferior faces who are being fed their stories and having arguments with their guests.

Nobody seems to care!

Instant gratification societal demands are dumbing us down and making us slaves to our computers, phones, and televisions. And not the good kind of slave that comes with a much needed spanking at the end of the day.

Do yourself a favor. Have your opinions. Find your own facts. Remember eighty percent of what you read is bullshit. Make your own decisions.

~Kim



 photo credit:
Historical Stock Photos dot com 
FreeImages.com/Erhkin Sahin

What I Don't Understand Is...

...why women feel the need to cut each other down.

I mean, seriously, why?

Look...You can like Donald Trump. You can like Hillary Clinton. You can like Gary Johnson. You can like Bernie Sanders. It's okay, you're allowed. It's called autonomy. You can make your own decisions.

Some of the stuff I see on social media is driving me insane. It really is.

I don't begrudge you your opinions. Obviously, I have my own (and you're here, reading them so you already know that), but seriously, why do you have to cut other women down?

There are a plethora of posts running around Facebook (and I'm sure other social media as well) about Victoria Woodhull being the first female president nominee.

This is true. Her running mate was Frederick Douglas, a black man, and they were part of the Equal Rights Party (imagine that) in 1872...They appeared on 0...yes ZERO ballots in the United States.

There have been 3rd parties nominating women since 1872. THIRD PARTIES. Not one of the two major political parties that "We the people" have created over the years.

 Hillary Clinton is the first viable female candidate ever nominated by one of the two major parties.

It's not saying the nominations of the previous parties mean any less.

For example, I'm sure there were several female CEOs before the first one appointed to a Fortune 500 company, but that first appointment to a major player was STILL historic.

Even if you don't like Hillary Clinton, don't deny my daughter the ability to see that women can do ANYTHING. There's even the possibility to rule one of the most powerful countries on the planet.

Just because you don't like her doesn't give you the right to belittle what she has achieved.

And that achievement will empower little girls from now until the end of time as we know it.

Stop cutting people down. Period.

Women have enough people cutting them down without their own gender doing it too.

~Kim

female nominees found here