Do you expect your kids to align with you politically?

My kids are 9, 12, and 15. I don’t expect them to find where they stand politically for years. And, I expect them to find their own way.

That said, I am encouraged by their current values, which are grounded in fairness and inclusion. You can’t go wrong there.

I didn’t expect it but it pretty much happened naturally. My kids are quite liberal as am I.

I taught my kids to think with compassion and justice, and to question my opinions.

For the most part they are just as conservative as I am.

No I don’t expect it. My daughter’s views just happen to be very close to my own. My son was the opposite. He was very right wing for a time but he has become quite apolitical.

Why bother.. I will just pay for their college and they can turn them into the nice little socialists I want.

I didn’t expect it, but mine was a very open minded house to grow up in, discussions are very open. We don’t agree on all the details, but the general attitudes are the same.
I am sure because of the spontaneous reactions I see to certain situations and attitudes that others project.

Two daughters. One is a center-leftist like me. One is rock ribbed republican.

That’s life.

My poor kids never stood a chance. Their mother is a hopeless idealist and they grew up on protests and demonstrations. Leftist politics were integral to their childhood. The boy (fortunately) came through it with a more subdued attitude, but his sister by age 8 was lecturing anyone who’d listen on the sanctity of the picket line and environmental racism. Her brother spared his 2 sons the relentless indoctrination defining his own upbringing, but they are only slightly shielded from the machinations of their aunt and grandmother.

WTF is environmental racism?

Serious question.

@johnpowell Think Flint water.

or locating the garbage dump across the street from the projects.

No. I taught her to think for herself. I’ve told her since preschool, “If someone tells you the sky is blue, go outside and check.”

If I had kids, no. I could always disown them…

I don’t have children, but I think if my kids were extremely different than me politically it would bother me a little. Not enough to make an issue out of it, unless their views caused them to have a problem with me.

I feel the same about religion. I’d prefer my kids to align with me religiously, but if they chose a different religion, I just don’t want it to be one where they think everyone else is wrong and that they all, including me, are going to wind up in hell.

I guess my main theme is I just have a very low tolerance for any sort of hate or venom just because someone has a different opinion, assuming the opinion isn’t causing any great harm.

I think I would probably steer my kids in a direction though. I’d talk in front of them about some political issues hoping they see why I feel as I do. I wouldn’t just let them form their own opinion without knowing mine. It’s not like it would come up daily though. I don’t want to talk about politics all the time, I’m tired of it.

@JLeslie GA, same.

The great flaw in our so-called democracy is that citizens are allowed to stumble around ignorant of it and how it works. And believe me, the class which owns and runs the place suffers no such handicap. All of us would undoubtedly conclude that the political process here is sleazy and corrupt, but that is the worst possible reason for shielding your children from the cesspool or your opinions on it.

I have 7 children and step children, all grown. Some align with me politically, some don’t. We have no problem talking politics because we don’t get upset about it. My view point is that they can like who they like and have their political views, just as I do. Thankfully, though, they are all very intelligent and rational. When we do disagree, there is usually good healthy discussion. I listen to their views and they listen to mine. We may not sway each other, but we listen.

My son is three years old, so the most political he gets is not wanting to play with someone at recess. But I don’t expect him to align with me politically when he grows up. In fact, I expect him not to—and I expect him to teach me what’s important to his generation that my generation didn’t even know was a concern.

@janbb & @stanleybmanly :: I always considered that a war on the poor.

@johnpowell I always considered that a war on the poor.

Kinda like the war on poverty-stricken!