Well, today was the big day. My daughter, who turned 18 in April, voted for the first time. I was probably more excited about it than she was; to a kid who loves routine and hates being asked questions, getting a day off of school to go figure out a piece of machinery and express an opinion on a non-concrete subject isn't exactly call for a whoop-de-doo.
I made a point of not telling her who to vote for, although in some ways, she probably would have preferred that. She did some online research of her own, and I talked through some issues with her as we went through the find-your-candidate questionnaires at WQAD.com and GlassBooth.org. It was interesting to watch her formulate opinions of her own, and go back and forth between the candidates depending on different factors.
Maybe I should have done some talking about the election with my son, too. We're a household that keeps politics pretty private, and aside from helping my daughter figure out her own vote, it's not been a general topic of conversation. I guess someone at school's not so circumspect, though, because my guy came marching home yesterday loudly declaring that one of the candidates is the greatest and the other one stinks. Of course, today, his candidate assessment was just the opposite, so he's a pretty fickle voter-to-be. Maybe he's just been watching too many campaign commercials.
Did you vote today? Did you bring your child to the polls, to vote or to observe? Share your experience in the comments.
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