My oldest is a few months shy of 8 years. He watched the election process with some interest, and joined me (actually voted for me) in the booth. He knows I was #neverhillary and #nevertrump from the outset, and I explained to him why: long histories of pathological difficulties with truth. I explained all the usual stuff about politics and how some level of fudging facts to support a position is common, but there are, and have to be, limits to what behavior we should reward with our votes.
I also taught him early on that, as with all other adults, and particular POTUS, we use proper titles for them out of respect for the office, even if we don't like them personally, or their policies or political agendas. It's as much about us as it is about them, in terms of how we conduct ourselves. He gets all of that, and is very good about manners, being respectful to us and other adults, teachers, etc.
I also teach him that words have very specific meanings and that we should know exactly what they mean, and how they should be used, and that even though some people disagree with their usage, it doesn't mean he's wrong to use them. For example, he was dragging his feet on his homework and mrs sphere put the foot down and gave an ultimatum. He had a mini meltdown and accused her of judging him. Her response was that she wasn't judging him, and went on about his responsibilities. The next day we talked about what it means to judge, that there are respected people whose entire job is to judge right from wrong, and that it's never wrong to form a judgment provided that it's correct to the best of our knowledge, and that it's not biased, prejudicial, or intended as hurtful. It's OK to judge someone's behavior as inappropriate, bullying, dangerous, etc. That general theme is applied broadly when it comes to words and behavior. We don't do PC in our house (unlike his elementary school), but we make certain that he's careful with the freedom to speak honestly, to the extent that we can monitor and regulate it.
This morning he and I were watching the news, and a highlight reel of the President's most recent lies caught his attention. He asked my why he seems to lie all the time ("dumb lies" is what he called them, specifically). I reminded him of why I couldn't vote for someone like him, for that reason, among others. I reminded him of why I get so upset when I catch him lying to me, because of what repeated lying says about a person's character, and their level of respect for the person to whom they're lying. A few minutes later he made a later comment about the President being a liar, and it grated on me. I didn't correct him, because...he's right. I made sure to tell him he's not to talk about it at school, because it's not an appropriate place for the discussion, but if the topic of the President comes up (President's Day is next week, so there's a fairly decent chance of it), I don't know that I'd be upset if I heard from a teacher that he used the word. Using derogatory pejoratives like loser, and vague inflammatory statements like "the President hates ___" are unambiguously off limits, and he knows this, but the use of accurately descriptive terms like liar are not, provided they're literally accurate.
This being my first born, I haven't dealt with this situation before, and it may bite me in the ass someday sooner than later, but it's the only approach that makes sense to me. I don't like the sound of my son calling the President a liar, but no more or less so than that being the case. I'm erring on the side of honesty and proper usage of terms, until compelling evidence points me in another direction.
Since the start of the campaign season, I've wondered about this, how parents will talk to their children about the President. I'm guessing most of the LR denizen parents have bumped up against this problem as well.
The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
I also taught him early on that, as with all other adults, and particular POTUS, we use proper titles for them out of respect for the office, even if we don't like them personally, or their policies or political agendas. It's as much about us as it is about them, in terms of how we conduct ourselves. He gets all of that, and is very good about manners, being respectful to us and other adults, teachers, etc.
I also teach him that words have very specific meanings and that we should know exactly what they mean, and how they should be used, and that even though some people disagree with their usage, it doesn't mean he's wrong to use them. For example, he was dragging his feet on his homework and mrs sphere put the foot down and gave an ultimatum. He had a mini meltdown and accused her of judging him. Her response was that she wasn't judging him, and went on about his responsibilities. The next day we talked about what it means to judge, that there are respected people whose entire job is to judge right from wrong, and that it's never wrong to form a judgment provided that it's correct to the best of our knowledge, and that it's not biased, prejudicial, or intended as hurtful. It's OK to judge someone's behavior as inappropriate, bullying, dangerous, etc. That general theme is applied broadly when it comes to words and behavior. We don't do PC in our house (unlike his elementary school), but we make certain that he's careful with the freedom to speak honestly, to the extent that we can monitor and regulate it.
This morning he and I were watching the news, and a highlight reel of the President's most recent lies caught his attention. He asked my why he seems to lie all the time ("dumb lies" is what he called them, specifically). I reminded him of why I couldn't vote for someone like him, for that reason, among others. I reminded him of why I get so upset when I catch him lying to me, because of what repeated lying says about a person's character, and their level of respect for the person to whom they're lying. A few minutes later he made a later comment about the President being a liar, and it grated on me. I didn't correct him, because...he's right. I made sure to tell him he's not to talk about it at school, because it's not an appropriate place for the discussion, but if the topic of the President comes up (President's Day is next week, so there's a fairly decent chance of it), I don't know that I'd be upset if I heard from a teacher that he used the word. Using derogatory pejoratives like loser, and vague inflammatory statements like "the President hates ___" are unambiguously off limits, and he knows this, but the use of accurately descriptive terms like liar are not, provided they're literally accurate.
This being my first born, I haven't dealt with this situation before, and it may bite me in the ass someday sooner than later, but it's the only approach that makes sense to me. I don't like the sound of my son calling the President a liar, but no more or less so than that being the case. I'm erring on the side of honesty and proper usage of terms, until compelling evidence points me in another direction.
Since the start of the campaign season, I've wondered about this, how parents will talk to their children about the President. I'm guessing most of the LR denizen parents have bumped up against this problem as well.
The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W