Lessons For My Son About The New U.S. President.

I had planned a post regarding the Presidential Inauguration as a follow-up to the post I wrote the day after the elections, which you can read here. For some reason, however, I just could not sit down and write. Maybe it was my subconscious trying to avoid the subject altogether. I’m not sure, but can you blame me?

When I think about how the new president and his actions will affect those around me, as a parent the most important person is no longer myself. My biggest concern is now the little brown eyed boy sitting in front of me who truly has no idea about what is going on around him. The days after the election were filled with numbness. I began to question whether we really did need to make America great again because the amount of people that came out and supported a platform based on racism, bigotry, hate, and division was appaling to me. The fact that our country was apparently not ready to elect a woman as president, or at least this particular woman, was not the worst. The worst of it all was that such a high number of Americans had so willingly elected someone into office who had previously and continuously disrespected women, bad mouthed and generalized immigrants, publicly made fun of someone with disabilities, and the list goes on.

At the time I thought that the best I could hope for was that in four years this would all be over. That by the time my son became better aware of the world around him this would all be but a small bump in our country’s history. That nothing this presidency did would be significant enough to change the path of our country towards change, towards a better life. Now that I have had time to reflect, however, I understand what my role as a parent is in this situation. I have to teach my son about what is happening. I will allow him to learn from this as to avoid for history to repeat itself in the future. We, as parents, cannot allow for the new president’s values to dictate how our children and the future generations will be raised.

[ctt template=”4″ link=”tCO12″ via=”no” ]We, as parents, cannot allow for the new president’s values to dictate how our children and the future generations will be raised.[/ctt]

I will teach my son to be a man. To respect women. That women have the final say regarding their bodies. That his hispanic background by no means dictates who or what he will be. That this is his country, despite what others may say. I will teach him compassion for those around him. For those less fortunate than him and those more fortunate than him, because at the end of the day we all have our struggles. I will teach him that hate will never be the answer. I will teach him that we all deserve human rights. That our muslim brothers and sisters deserve them, that our black brothers and sisters deserve them, we all deserve them. We are all human, we all bleed red. I will teach him that LGBTQ families are families, period. I will teach him to never make fun of a person that is different than him. Not to be a bully. I will teach him to have kindness, empathy, and humility. I will teach him that our country is a nation of immigrants, that immigrants are not a plague as some would like us to believe. I will teach him to go out and make his voice be heard. To speak for those without a voice, because he is lucky enough to have one. I will teach him to protect those without a voice because his mom was once one of them. I will teach him to stand for what he believes in. To respect others and their beliefs even if they differ from his. I will teach him that all of this hate will only bring us together to fight for what is important to us. I will teach him to be passionate about something. I will teach him to respect different races and different religions. I will teach him what “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” truly means. I will teach him that while people like our current president may hold the highest office in our country, he by no means will dictate our country’s values. I will teach him that there is hope. That we can make a change. That it will get better.

What will you teach your children about what is going on around us?