My lovely eight-year-old daughter has been very concerned about the election and the candidates.
The stories I am going to share are not new topics but that my daughter has expressed her thoughts so clearly is what struck me.
She is a compassionate girl, loves animals very much, when our dog Kona passed away she was distraught for some time and still wishes she would come back from time to time, like literally, she wishes she would come home and our Kona was home waiting for her. Charlotte has a little box of Kona memento's, including some of her fur she pulled out of her brush, nail clippings from the last time I cut her nails and her collar.
So her comments are not that shocking but as they say, out of the mouth of babes...
We were driving home from soccer practice and Charlotte declared from the backseat:
Romney just cannot be President, Poor dog!
And then he said he liked it!
And the poor dog got sick (She is under the impression he threw up, I explained to her the the dog had actually pooped on himself in that tiny little box on the top of the family car) and he just took him out and hosed him off and put him back up there.
If he would just admit he did something wrong it wouldn't be so bad, but saying he enjoyed it makes no sense, you always get in trouble when you don't admit you made a mistake.
If he treats his dog like that, how is he going to treat us if he's President.
Yes, she said all of this and she repeated it this morning to her father, she is very concerned about Mitt Romney.
Another thing that concerns her is Rick Santorum and his stance on abortion. I know, she's eight, but I have always been honest with her and open.
We were watching Rachel Maddow (Yes, she's a very smart girl and she loves Rachel Maddow, when a Republican not so subtly implied that he wished Maddow had never been born at CPAC and Maddow graciously said she was glad he was born, Charlotte mentioned that what he said was very mean and that she liked that "Rachel" did not say something mean back and that's why she likes her.)
So, Rachel was talking about how extreme Santorum is about abortion and described that he was not in favor of it no matter what, even if it were to save the life of the Mother.
Charlotte looked startled and saddened by this, "Even if the Mom would die". I explained yes, that they feel it was that important (and by the way, she doesn't quite know what an abortion is yet, I am waiting for her to ASK what it means, which she has not, she just heard the exceptions and that a mother could lose her life). And she said, but what about other children, if she has other children, then they would have no Mother? Yes.
She was upset by this and thought it was very extreme.
That's my Charlotte. She has stated that both Romney and Santorum are both unfit to be President and she would vote for Obama. She has asked me if we are Republican or Democrats and I've told her we are Democrats, that we feel the Democratic platform fits more with our belief system.
I love to talk to her about these things and make sure that she knows that she is welcome to ask questions, to form her own opinions and that we will always love her no matter her politics.
I wait for her questions rather than forcing mine on her, she has quite the imagination and when she is ready, she will ask us. And when she has thought long and hard on the answer, she always has something interesting to say.