My 3-year-old is going to be really sad about Biden
I was in the process of writing a post about how my 3-year-old was Ridin' with Biden when I heard the news.
This is my first presidential election as a mother. I was heavily pregnant with my older son, Z, when I voted for Biden 4 years ago, wearing a shirt that said "Nasty Women for Biden-Harris".
I should mention that Z is on the spectrum and is hyperlexic, which means he taught himself to read starting around age 2.5 and especially likes to read signs. I should also mention that we are a divided political household.
A few weeks ago, he noticed and read a Biden sign on someone's lawn, and I explained that Biden is the president and is running for president again. Since my husband and I agreed to be fair with what we tell our kids about politics since we disagree, I just told Z that Mommy likes Biden and Daddy likes Trump and asked who he liked. He said Biden, either because he had just seen that sign or because he is going through a phase where he usually likes Mommy better than Daddy. I also tipped the scales a little in Biden's favor by telling Z that Trump says "you're fired" a lot. Z knows that this means because we occasionally "fire" him from "helping" with things around the house if he starts getting chaotic and deliberately putting things in the wrong place or making a mess.
A few weeks later we saw a big Trump billboard and he wasn't happy about it, so last Tuesday he and I went on a quest to find more Biden signs. We drove a few miles south where I knew Democrats had about an 8:1 advantage in voter registration, and eventually we found a few more Biden lawn signs. Surprisingly, there are not a lot yet for either candidate around here, despite being in a swing area of a swing state. It's been really fun watching Z get into this with me, especially since I have fond memories of getting into the 1992 election with my mom when I was 8 years old and making up a little song to promote Bill Clinton. Z even took to asking people at his gymnastics class "do you like Trump or Biden?" which was hysterical. I was even planning to see if I could take him canvassing with me to ask that question, recognizing that he'd probably last 10 minutes if I was lucky.
A couple days ago, I told Z that Biden may decide not to run for president anymore and that he might ask his friend Harris, who was on the signs with him, to run instead. I asked if he would want Harris to be president instead if Biden didn't run. He was pretty adamant that he only wants Biden, so now I am scared of losing him to the dark side. Although I do think I could bring him on board in the highly unlikely event that Michelle Obama were to run, because he likes the word "Obama" because it's very phonetic and he recognizes it on some of my t-shirts. He even chimed in about a year ago when my husband and I were having a heated political argument about Obama and said "Obama starts with O!"
Z is napping now, and I am dreading telling him when he wakes up. I'm really hoping I can get him on board with Harris or whomever we nominate, but I am not so confident.
He is such a pure soul, though: with a little coaching from Daddy, he decided the other day that he wanted to write Trump a card that said "I'm sorry you got hurt, I hope you feel better" and write Biden a card saying "I'm sorry you got sick. I hope you feel better." He also wanted to include "please don't win" on Trump's card, but we suggested that he write "please don't let Trump win" on Biden's card instead.
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that they start breaking away from us. Just keep developing the critical thinking skills.
My eldest is a libertarian, and also on the spectrum. Youngest is out of country, and very very left.
Both grew up with a conservative to moderate dad, and a green socialist mom.
