Life With Ladybug: Rock the vote

By Shannon Magsam, Ladybug’s mama

Well, it seems when Ladybug’s elementary school had a mock presidential election, “Rock” Obama emerged the victor. That’s what Ladybug said anyway.

I found it interesting how much she had gleaned from conversations at school. I know a lot of parents discuss their political leanings with their 6-year-olds, but our conversations had been mostly bipartisan. We discussed how important it is to vote – how women weren’t always allowed to vote — but I didn’t think it was necessary to worry her about who may or may not win the presidency. Apparently many parents do discuss politics at the dinner table. Ladybug came home Tuesday talking about “Rock” Obama and John McCain. She voted for McCain because, as she put it, he likes Jazz and adopted 17 kids.

She said “Rock” only cared about rich people.

“Who told you that?” I asked, surprised.

“No one,” she said mysteriously.

We told her neither candidate was just for the “rich.” Later Tuesday night she was transfixed by the election coverage on television. Every time a newscaster uttered McCain’s name, she acted like she knew him personally. She had lots of questions about the election process. Her father and I got to tell her that we’d spent two hours casting our ballots earlier Tuesday because we went to the wrong polling place first (I would have sworn it was the other church), but it was very important that we exercise our right to vote. While I checked my e-mail at the kitchen table, Ladybug yelled out: “John McCain winned?!”

Her dad had to explain that he won South Carolina, not the whole election.

While keeping her eyes glued to the t.v., Ladybug was steadily dressing a baby doll in toilet paper (the baby looked like she was headed to a toga party). At one point there was a great cheer on the television and Ladybug lifted up the doll and yelled, “The baby won! The baby is the new president! The baby says everybody has to speak a new language: Goo-goo, ga-ga.” M’kay.

Then she got serious again. She and her father got into a discussion about how votes are counted. After a while, he jokingly asked her, “If mom and I were running for election, who would you vote for?”

“I would do two votes,” she said thoughtfully, diplomatically.

Maybe it’s good we started the conversations now — I think she might have a future in politics.