Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
I wonder if anyone's evolved on this like I have.
Until a couple years back I considered it good parenting to be an "honest broker" when explaining political divisions with my kids: I'd present both sides as respectfully as I could, say which side I agreed with, and leave it at that. Now I consider it my duty as a parent to mold my kids into two informed, dyed-in-the-wool conservatives, and so I present political divisions as having correct and incorrect sides (at least on those issues that animate me). I'm still honest, but the mission is different.
Why the change? A) The threat to their future that is Obama B) Exposure to just how shamelessly our school system seeks to indoctrinate our kids in liberalism -- an effort that was particularly repulsive during Governor John Kasich's fight with the teachers unions here in Ohio last year. As Rush Limbaugh says, "I am equal time."
The results have been amazing: Our kids can now formulate conservative arguments as teenagers better than I could 10 years ago as a thirty-something.
Good parenting or brainwashing?
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Jun '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Mine are too young for it yet, but I plan to teach them the evils os socialism, national or otherwise.
Nov '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Mine at 10 is getting an earful. I just don't want to overdo it so that she ends up rebelling.
Jul '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Excellent parenting. Presenting the left wing view to children as anything other than lies would be to lie to them. You don't have any duty to instruct your children on the wrong thing to do.
Jun '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Good parenting or brainwashing? Both, considering how soiled their brains get in our publicly funded classrooms. Clear thinking is a learned skill, and they sure don't teach it in most K-12 schools.
Jul '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Good point... a real danger from to much prosthelytizing.
Sep '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
I take the opposite tack: whether indoctrinating them as raving papists or as underground agents of the underground theocracy I freely take the maximally offensive position, and then generously give them the reference material to attempt both a defense and a refutation and invite them to put down their iPods and "bring it on" if they'd like to prove me wrong.
Of course, I have all boys in my house.
Regarding President Obama, I simply say "name me one tangible accomplishment the man has ever had prior to attaining office, and then name one tangible accomplishment afterward."
Then I let them link to the relevant YouTube video send up of their counterclaim. Since the evident supporting Obama is so thin its relatively short work to make them realize the Emperor has no clothes and is up in smoke.
Sep '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
And to seal the deal I played them the last 10 minutes of Mark Steyn's After America in audio book format on my Kindle with special emphasis on the part where he says:
"You can be anything you want to be. No you can't: because your parents spent all the money."
They've also listened several times to Long, Steyn and Goldberg's bit about the "uterile lining" and that little vignette more than any other message has permanently cemented in their heads the idea that the Nanny State is a universally stupid idea.
And they're football fanatics. So, as a parent, if I die tomorrow I can say "mission accomplished".
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 7:31pmMay '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Is not this the perfect time to be a conservative apoligist? What better playing field could we ask for than two serious, attractive candidates who are about to mop the floor with a failed socialist and a useful idiot?
It's not a question of whether, but how. The techniques that Pseudodionysius uses won't work with the ladies in my house. But I caught my lovely left leaning wife watching Mr. Ryan with admiration last night.
Sep '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Granted, but I've stymied more than a few college age women enamored with Bill Clinton by asking this question:
"Doesn't it creep you out just a bit when a serial adulterer and confirmed philanderer is a cheerleader for a woman's unrestricted right to an abortion?"
Paradoxes and contradictions left unanswered are sometimes the most effective tactics in creating a slow thaw in someone's view of the world.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 7:41pmAug '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
There's a problem with the assumption that there are two sides to an issue and that both are equally valid therefore both must be presented.
I would agree that there are often two sides to every issue, but one is right and the other is wrong. We have to stop pretending that the most odious viewpoints of the left have any value at all.
So . . . "Good Parenting," I say!
Mar '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
We took our kids when we prayed in front of the local abortuary. They asked why innocent babies were being killed, and we explained it to them. Later they managed to understand that the Dems are the party of death.
They now vote. They vote pro-life which leaves the Dems out. The idea of small, fiscally sound government appeals to them. My service as a Marine resonates with them, as does the service of their own friends.
They stop to try and understand who is competing and whether those people are worthy of their votes. So, I guess that we did have an effect on their voting choices.
Apr '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Our eldest girl is still working on concept "that's the baby!" isn't the answer to every question she doesn't understand.
That said, I think my folks did a very good job by not really saying anything unless we brought it up, then being devil's advocate-- if they agreed or not, and only giving objective facts. Worked very well, because we tend to get fired up pretty easily.
I think that when push comes to shove, you have to be very clear about what things actually mean. Like "helping those in need" means taking money from a lot of people and then making a system to give it away, and that any system can be gamed.
The biggest problem I can remember was accepting that
1) teachers lie, and
2) teachers pass on information without realizing it's a lie. (That came out of one teacher pounding it into us that all Vietnam-era vets were either insane drug addicts or hated the US.)
Jul '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
We make no bones about our political affiliation with our three kids. They ask us about things they hear or commercials they see and my Wife and I try to formulate arguments as we might to political gentiles. Fact based brainwashing makes for good parenting.
You have the right to mold your children in your intellectual image. Indeed, if you present yourself as Switzerland they're unlikely to join you in your perceived neutrality.
EDIT: Children's minds can be like unformed, molten magnetite - if you expose it to a magnetic field it aligns in that direction, so it maintains its magnetism when cooled. Make sure that your field is aligned.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 8:23pmOct '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Though I made many mistakes with my older son, he has slowly eased from the default-young-Liberal to a Libertarian at 28. I don't take credit for it, it was good fortune.
With the younger--still at home in jr. college--I was somewhat smarter and discussed general principles rather than specifics which aren't usually of interest to teens anyway.
One that worked out was a discussion on free will. We discussed the pros and cons and I said that one of the philosophical underpinnings of Liberalism was the materialist take on it. That was two or so years ago and I don't think we've discussed it more than once since then, at least not directly, but not long ago he mentioned it in reference to something in the news. Proud father. He's going into biology with plenty of college and academic influence still coming, but so far so good. Even better, I just recently saw him reading The Abolition of Man on the sly. Yes!
Jun '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
My children are all adults now, but when they were kids I was a serious evangelist. I gave them facts, but I did my best imitation of a down home Baptist preacher whenever I could. They knew which side I was on, and all five would call themselves conservatives (though, oddly, none are quite so passionate as I am).
I've told those who didn't see Ryan's speech last night that their assignment today is to watch it. Most political speeches are pretty mundane--Ryan's speech will, in my opinion, be historic.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 9:22pmNov '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
As a parent you have an obligation to teach you children to be moral and to teach them to understand the world around them , both so they can function properly in life.
Better not to print a world view on them, but to instill in them the tools that will allow them to establish their own.
So, you teach them to ask questions, to seek truth, and to recognize that truth when they find it. Teach them to be rational and logical. Teach them be skeptical, with the proper understanding the skepticism is not a position, but rather a process.
Edited on August 30, 2012 at 9:32pmJan '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
All kids are different, but mostly, my kids learn from what I do, not so much from what I say. They know I'm conservative. That's not to say we don't have conversations about politics and religion, just that the fact that I go to church myself every Sunday seems to be more impressive to them than ordering them to go. Words without actions are just words. Actions without words are missed. You gotta have both.
Still, I do notice that there's a little Oedipal positioning going on. When it comes to politics, they first try to establish their own identity, and they naturally take a position opposite mine. It's not because they hate me or reject my choices. They're just trying to think for themselves, and the first step is to stop thinking like others expect you to think.
The dirty little irony? It was me who taught them to do that!
May '11
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Parenting was a job I took very seriously even though I hated the word. Child rearing is even worse as a term. It is weird that our language doesn't have a word for the most important activity we engage in. Rearing independent, happy, successful adults from the whiney brats they start out as requires conservative values and thinking. If you have children who vote Democratic you have failed miserably in the most important task you ever faced.
Dec '10
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
Scott - you, sir, are being an AWESOME dad! I can assure you they will appreciate the clarity you've provided them.
Profile reminder. Dad of 4 (ages 22 to 6), homeschool.
Our kids have been raised listening to Rush, watching Fox News, and mocking the foolishness of the left. They like to argue, didn't all have the same candidates in the primaries, and know why they believe what they believe. The older two earn paychecks and are still furious at the taxes they , rightly, feel are confiscated from them for no reason. Amazing how paying taxes clears the mind.
Keep it up!
They are, indeed, "young skulls full of mush"! Civilization may well be counting upon us doing two things, having lots more kids than the lefties (this is definitely true in my social circles) and doing a much better job indoctrinating our kids in the truth of conservatism!
Jun '12
Re: Do You Evangelize Your Politics to Your Kids?
I know what mean, I am choosing the same path as you cautiously. I don't want them to rebel later. Our strategy is exposure. The more they experience and ask questions, the more their minds will expand. So we live in a very evangelical rural town and we are church goers, but they go to a relatively liberal private school. They also travel extensively. His teachers are very dedicated teachers and it's his peers' parents and administrators who are liberals. My 1st grade son is beginning to ask me questions like " do you know my classmates do not believe in God?" or " why don't we recycle?" and we will try and explain to him our beliefs. I usually give 2 views, I feel he should be involved in our thought process as well as being armed with the information to rebuke his peers. Recently he started asking me the meaning of Justice and followed with " I don't want a President who does not believe in our pledge of Allegiance". My hope is for him to grow up taking on Liberalism without fear.