Suffer the children

I promised myself I wasn't going to write about politics or annoy any of my facebook friends with my political views. I'm still holding true to that promise but I heard several things this morning, that have made me want to write about the election taking place tomorrow and the effect it might be having on our children. 

Yesterday, I was working in my yard, when my daughter walked down to me holding a political pamphlet which someone had brought to the door. I told her to put it the recycling can, which she did.

This morning while driving to school, she told me that she had ripped the pamphlet into pieces. I asked her why? She answered that she had done it because she knew that her mummy and daddy didn't like this person and was not going to vote for them. I was shocked. 

Then on the radio whilst driving home, I heard a comment from a listener of the show who said, "I told my daughter that I would forgive her if she did drugs, dropped out of school or got herself preganant. But I will disown her, if tomorrow she votes for X."

I think that my wife and I are pretty careful about what we say around our children. We certainly have not said anything hateful about any political candidate. But if my daughter could do what she did, then I dread to think what she would do or say if I harbored the kind of hatred for a political candidate that the listener of the radio show did.

I will be so glad when the political ads are done, and we can forget about politics for a while. I just hope the children out there can forget about it too.