Do you talk politics with your kids?

We are in an election cycle here (municipal offices - mayor, city council, school trustees) and I know the US is in one too and talking about yard signs with the kids this topic came to mind. So, do you talk politics with your children? Do they know your leanings? Have you told them who you vote for?
 
My parents never told us where their votes went. As an adult, I can pretty much guess where because I've turned out to be quite close to my parents politically. 
 
Brandon  (my bil) always knew who his parents voted for because they are very vocal conservatives and its just what they do. (In the June election for Provincial offices he laid out that their main platform would basically have Connie losing her job and they were shocked because they don't "follow" the debate, they just vote for the party)

 

I don't yet, but I will. I haven't missed voting in an election since I turned 18 (except the first time mayor Nenshi got elected!). I think it's incredibly important to be politically engaged. I don't expect my kids to vote the same as me, but I do want them to be able to think about the consequences of policy. Although I am very liberal, I have voted for every political party at some point depending on who I think is the best candidate; you can't always vote with party lines.

I really wonder how our next federal election will shake out. I can't live with Harper as pm anymore.

 

I'm not really engaged in the election here in Welland right now. I've done my checking and know who I'm going to vote for but I'm not dying to vote. Now if I lived in Toronto.....

 

I do at age appropriate levels. We talk more about issues than specific candidates though. My family had always talked politics. I can remember having political debates with my family as a child--being like 10, 11, 12 and wading into discussions on race, abortion, the death penalty. I don't know if I would say they encouraged it, but they treated me like part of the discussion even though I was a child with very different views on things than they had. I think they thought I'd grow out of it! I was in high school when my grandfather told me I was going to hell for being pro-choice (my grandfather who has always doted on me and still does). It's just part of our family dynamic.

 

We don't really talk politics yet but the kids always come with us to the polling station when we vote. And we've definitely talked about the privilege of living in a democracy and the importance of exercising your right to vote. I look forward to debating with them some day. ☺️

 

Not yet! But there's enough political debate in our family that they'll be exposed to all sides before the want to be. My folks didn't really discuss politics with us until we were old enough to ask, but now it's open season. My in-laws and I have a long history of heavy debate, too.

 

Not really,  a little on very basic terms at the time of the last Presidential election. Right now there are a million polical signs everywhere and they haven't even mentioned them.
 
Fun fact - I just realized earlier this week that we live less than a mile from our Congressman and our kids go to the same school. He is up for reelection next month. Now, I might feel a little guilty as I hope to vote him out of office. ; )   

 

This is us.  My kids do know about the different party system in the US that since I am not a registered Republican or Democrat, I can only vote in November elections and not in May.  They do come to the polling place with me when I vote and I have told them that voting is a privilege of living in a democratic nation and not all countries allow their people to decide on who represents them.  
I grew up in a family that was politically involved, so we have always had debates about different candidates and issues.
I do feel badly because our state governor is up for re-election this November and I don't care for him or the man running against him so for the first time since I started voting, I've been pondering not voting in a couple of weeks.  I just don't feel like either man represents my interests or things I care about.

 

not to start a debate but there is NOTHING good about Corbett!!!!  Wolf may be the lesser of 2 evils but I digress....
 
personally no we don't really talk politics in our house.  Tony and I are fairly liberal, pro-choice, agnostic and the other side of both families are uber Republicans, so therefore we don't talk about politics - it starts a huge fight!

 

We've started talking about various government officials because of the political ads we've seen. There are several for mayor and judge in our area, so they've been asking about those positions. My MIL is high up in an area of the government and when they've asked what Nana does it's lead to conversations about how the government works and the POTUS. We haven't gotten into our leanings just yet, but I do plan on being open with my views and will encourage them to really think about their stances and why they feel a particular way. I'm pretty liberal, but Chris tends to be more middle of the road, so I think they'll hear plenty of debates along the way! LOL

 

Yes, we always have because we are interested and involved and so it naturally flowed to our children. My parents were the same.
 
But we have never tried to influence our kids' political leanings. Most people know I am a supporter of our President and lean more towards the liberal side. My DH used to be a registered Republican. (Used to be being the key words here, lol.) So when Sean was a senior in high school and could vote for the first time, he was afraid to tell his Dad that he had voted for Barack Obama. But my husband, to his immense credit, congratulated Sean on casting his first vote, and told him he was proud of him for participating in the electoral process. He had absolutely no problem with his son voting differently than he did. (And to my husband's credit, he supports our President even though he didn't vote for him.)
 
We often have discussions about politics and world events at our house. Some of our best talks!
 
Craig loves it so much he has declared a Political Science minor to go along with his Business Analytics and Information Management dual concentrations.
 
ETA: DH and I come from very different political backgrounds. My parents are Democrats through and through and often talk politics. My mom served on the election board in our small town. Lou's family is staunchly Republican and not very involved politically other than voting in presidential elections maybe. 

 

I stay away from politics because I'm immersed in it all of the time through work.  We have civics discussions (electoral college, process, why votes count, different elected positions) and discussions about our morals and values separately.  But to actually talk to the children about political leanings or why we're voting for something, no.  It's just too much for me.  If they ask, I'll tell them whatever they asked about, but not much more.  /shrug. 

 

Amy, I am totally with you on Corbett and I'm not 100% sold on Wolf yet.  It's times like this I wish we did have a viable third party option!  Kim, your husband is awesome with how he handled Sean's first vote, so respectful!  My Dad was a Republican and usually just voted the party ticket most of the time and he was the same way, vote who you feel will do the best job.

 

My parents never talked to us about anything really. I am pretty sure the way they vote now that I have grown up, but nothing was ever said. That said, I don't talk politics with hubby. He likes to know how I am going to vote so we don't cancel each other out, so to speak.

 

Sophia (10 years old) started asking a lot of questions last night (tons of political advertising right now).  We went over a little bit about what republican vs democrate means and told her a little about what our stance is.  We dont want to 'brainwash' so to speak-we'd like for our children to form their own opinions as they grow up.   
 
Nancy-that's how I felt in the last presidential election...its so frustrating when you cant support either candidate, but you almost have to go with the lessor of two evils like Amy said.

 

We talk politics - but we are wise enough to know there's only so much one guy can do. We like Obama, but we know he's not perfect nor did we expect him to be.
 
It's funny how we live in a VERY republican area - around Charlotte NC - so most of our neighbors and co-workers bash Obama in front of us. I have no problem saying very nicely - "You do realize I like the guy and I voted for him right?"- then when they start telling me how wrong I am - I tell them - "Hey, I respect your right to have a different opinion than me, how about you do the same " - then they back off.
 
I was raised in a communist country (Romania) where before 1989 it was really not possible to talk politics or if someone said the wrong thing at the wrong place they could have ended in jail. I think it's important to be aware of politics but also I realize politics doesn't hold the answer to all problems. We are lucky here in the US to live in a country where day to day life is not as affected by politics. Nowadays in Romania the extreme corruption in their political system affects a lot of lives - and not in a good way. 
 
Our kids are 4 and they are really young to know too much about politics. They have an Air Force One toy plane so we explained to them what Air Force One is - and how here in the US we don't have a king or a queen - like in Disney movies, and we have a president that's elected every 4 years - and at times the same guy is elected twice so they can be president for 8 years. They know that right now the president is Barack Obama and he was president when they were born and they know the first president was George Washington. I told them there are 44 presidents so far - and then Max asked me to tell him the names of each of them. I told him about 10 of them and then he lost interest- which was a good thing since I really don't know all of them by heart .
 
For this age - I think that's enough politics for them . 

 

We've done civics, government and some politics. I don't break down exactly how we feel, but I do lay out issues with both sides and my opinion. It's a-OK if they don't believe how I do, as long as they vote.

 

My boys understand or at least have been told about the signs on the grassy areas with people's names and why they are there. But, they do not know which side we lean to. I figured they'd not completely understand that stuff yet. They just know it's like a competition for a job that does specific things to hopefully help improve how things work in our daily lives and how we live. Each person has their own ideas of how to accomplish this improvement. It's our job to choose the person we think will do that job the best and represent our best interests (we used more age appropriate vocabulary, but you get the idea).