Our province is having an election today. The ruling party has been in power 41 years. Very little opposition. You'd think we lived in a developing country with a dictator. I voted. As I went into the polling station, I realised that I have belonged to every major political party in Canada (no two party system for us). I've changed how I vote depending on the jurisdiction where I lived, the issues, the candidate, and the leader of the governing party.
I'm a little nervous about my vote today. I want the current candidate out of politics. Out out I say. The alternative has a very sticky social conservative contingency within the party that make me very uncomfortable. Still I am aligning myself with them - standing a little apart yet clearly on their side.
I have tried to teach my children to vote. Democracy is a priviledge. I'm always a little suprised when they don't. Women were able to vote in Canada one year before women in the United States voted. Whole platforms are designed to attract the female voter. We can be a powerful ally for a candidate or party. I don't care how you vote. But do make the effort. It is your duty.
PS My children remind me that "duty" spreads on way too thick. I have mastered making them feel guilty. It's not my intention but I do feel strongly about certain behaviours and attitudes and want them to always know what side of those issues I stand.
So my question is this: how do you teach and express opinions on not just politics but also on relationships with family, on how we treat each other, on observing unspoken rules without making everyone completely miserable if they don't agree or practise your particular version of the world?
4 comments:
I think by the time your kids are fourteen they know where you stand on everything. Adult children aren't remotely interested in parental opinions. And whose unspoken rules are we keeping? Were you interested in your parents' unspoken rules? Don't we leave home so we can live by our own rules?
Keeping relationships open is another rant. I'll save it for later.
When you have the answers to your questions, I'd like you to post them. Life would be great if all worked out well.
LP: Thanks for that reminder. I wish it was etched so deeply into my DNA that I could/would let them be.
I agree with LP but also think that our kids continue to watch our behaviours and do make changes based on our opinions and on our actions. I sometimes think that I have failed but am often reminded by my son about family values, respect for others, and all those good things that we can only hope they take along the way. He has even had to lecture me about not living the way he was taught-that was eye opening. Bonnie, we do the best we can and then hope that it was enough for them to be the good people that we all want to be. I am sure yours are....
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