Today, I plopped all 5 of my kids down in front of the television and interrupted their last day of a four day weekend for some history.
They were not pleased.
They could have been listening to iPods, playing air hockey, making aliens, bossing around a robotic dog, or building castles out of sand that is guaranteed never to dry out.
Instead they were watching Charles Gibson and the rest of the ABC crew comment on the Inauguration festivities.
An almost actual transcript follows.
Jare, "Mom, I thought you didn't even vote for this guy. Why would you want to watch him become President?"
Boose, "How long does an Inauguration take? Is it longer than watching Kung-Fu Panda?"
Bal, "How do you spell Presidential Inauguration?"
Nod, (watching the proceedings) "How come only old people get to go to that party?"
Me, "Guys, your teachers will probably ask you tomorrow if any of you watched the Inauguration. Won't it be cool to be able to say yes?"
They stared at me as though I had no clue of the definition of cool.
I tried again.
"This is history in the making. This doesn't happen every day. Don't you want to be a part of it?"
They looked at me again, trying to determine if I was actually giving them a choice.
"Oh, forget it", I said.
And so they milled around doing whatever, while I watched the proceedings. They only showed interest when they saw the people skating on the ice over the reflecting pool after the ceremonies were over.
"Wow, I wish we were at the Inauguration," Bal said, voicing the opinion of all five kids, who were now staring at the television screen watching with rapt attention.
So apparently ice skating may be the key to get our youth emotionally invested in the political process.
Who knew?
---Subscribe to World's Greatest Mommy posts by email or in a reader.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
History Lessons
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Was it bad that I was focusing on what Michelle, er, the First Lady was wearing?
My son was pretty bored through the whole thing too. He couldn't understand how the inauguration took ALL day long.
Good for you for trying. I had my preschoolers watching also. They were curious why they all had to wear black suits, why their were policeman and "navy guys" where george the bush was (as if he was a cartoon character) and were very eager to wave their American flags. I guess I should be thankful they were at least interested. :-)
I recorded it & then watched it all in fast forward.
At least you tried! Boo watched it at school, and thought the ice skating was cool too, she talked about it all night on Tuesday. She then decided that since Obama looked so handsome in his tux that she would like to marry him..lol
Post a Comment