My 8 year old daughter is watching the kid inauguration, and with her laughter I have even more hope for the future. My son (only 4 months old) is less enthusiastic but is watching none the less. Every time she watches the Jonas Brothers or Corbin Blue I feel the need to ground her until she’s thirty but that's because she's my little girl. But as I cried yesterday at the inauguration special, I cry watching her having her moment during this extraordinary event.
We talk about the government all the time, mostly because her dad is a political junky. But she knows the branches of our government and (with help from School House Rock) can sing the preamble to the Constitution. She knows who is currently President (ugh) and knows who is soon to be President. She is only just beginning her journey but this is a great way for her to start and have fun at the same time. Well, ok - mostly she is just having fun, yesterday's show on HBO was mostly artists from my time but these are all from hers. That means she will remember it and remember how she felt at this time in her life. This is important to me since kids these days are full of sensory overload, and a having her remember something this important is hard to accomplish. Other than the first moon landing the only other events I can remember with clarity is how upset my mother was when George McGovern lost and the impeachment of Nixon.
She asks me if she can be President, but when I say yes she then worries that she would never see her friends again. I reassure her that if she becomes President she can still have her friends. I don’t want her to worry too much about politics right now (that's my job) it is not yet her time, but she needs the ground work so she will understand why it is important to pay attention to her world and what is going on in it. If this helps me get that started then I can suffer with having to listen to Corbin Blue sing – whatever it is he is singing about.