Would you (are you going to) let your kids watch the presidential debate?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Because of the R-rated material?
I don’t have children. But it seems to me like this would be an excellent teaching opportunity.
“See that ugly man there? He did cruel things to women. Now all his friends want nothing to do with him. And he’s going to lose the opportunity he wanted more than anything else.”
For the worried:
My two year old? Or my 25 and 30 year olds?
well, you’re not the best example.
I have a six-year old.
See my comment below if you have any questions.
So you guys don’t want to explain the p-word to your six year old. If the Trump coalition holds together, my wife and I may be thinking about this issue in 2020. But then the Donald Trump freak show may be in a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.
Oh MY GOODNESS. You certainly are in an interesting position.
Are you doing different things with this little one based on your experience with the older ones?
Many things. I’m more mature and emotionally present. I’m married to a far more mature and stable woman who’s an amazing mom. We have a really solid marriage.
There’s much to be said for older parenthood. Though I’m not nearly as energetic as I was in my twenties, I’m also a heck of a lot less crazy.
My grand kids would be bored to tears or whining, or both. Prolly both.
I don’t have children, but if I did, and they were old enough to understand the context, I think I’d make them watch it, and parent-splain anything that needed explained.
Our impressionable child will be in bed and sequestered.
The adult ones get to choose for themselves whether to watch. 🙂
Same here; child well away. Heck, I won’t even let myself watch it. I’ll hang out on Twitter instead.
Mine is 17 so I’m hoping he will.
Trump just had a presser with four women
who have accused Bill Clinton.
.
The Donald also intends to put them up front in the audience.
He’s fucking insane.
But she fainted once, and I hear that there is an email where she said ‘open borders’.
.
The pre debate tweet Gennifer Flowers sent out.
photo
.
No kids but if I had I’d probably make sure they ignored the whole thing until they were at least 10.
You’re obviously asking about a certain age group of children. My three sons are older: 23, 27, and 29, so that doesn’t apply. However, I know that two of them will be watching.
The youngest one is at work, so he’s not going to see it. The middle son in Charlotte probably will, and the eldest definitely will. He joined my husband and me at the rally with the cast members from The West Wing when they came to town and picked up a canvassing packet. He phone banked a couple of weeks and did a couple of neighborhoods over the past month.
He is a smart and politically active young man and he’s not afraid to speak out for human rights. And that mean’s womens’ rights, too. He loathes Trump and while he was initially a Bernie supporter like my husband, they’ve both committed to Hillary.
I believe you should inform children of political matters when it’s appropriate and when they seem to have an understanding of what’s going on. This election seems to be so outside the realm of standard politics that more careful monitoring would be wise.
Mine are 29 (talks to me, uninterested in politics which are not comic-book related), one 26 YO (smart, engaged, politically interested, cynical), another 26 YO (I have lost contact with him, and have no idea what he is doing).
So varied.
Age: NO one under the age of 10 should watch this campaign. There is too much disgusting shit going on.
No one shouuld watch the debates; they should get the news at one remove through a good liveblog conducted by someone who is skilled at a debate drinking game and determined to survive.
If they were old enough, of course. They need to see how quickly things can turn south in this (or any) country. Vigilance is our only defense.
We let our three-year old daughter stay up a little late to watch the first 15 minutes, since we think it is good for her to see a female role model tear apart Trump. Also, she likes watching Packer games with me, so it was a twofer tonight.
I watched a couple of minutes of Rudy Giuliani doing post-debate spin. He is one of the very worst people on Earth, truly a worm of a man. Thankfully, I remembered that one flick of my TV remote would make him disappear. What a relief.
I helped run a phone bank for Hillary tonight, and I’m tired. Slower on the uptake than would have been best for my soul.
One of my teens had no interest. The other watched and was appalled. My friends let their 9-year-old watch. I thought that was risky, but it seems that they finally got Trump’s meds balanced out. The 9-year-old thinks Trump is an idiot. I was a teacher for many years and my opinion is that no one pre-teen should be exposed to politics in any but the most positive ways.
No, but the sad truth is that if your kids are in school they’ve already heard far too much about this election from their friends. They bring their parent’s opinions to school and then filter them through a kindergardener’s understanding of the world. The result is only slightly less disturbing than the reality. The one curse word that my kids are legitimately shocked to hear is the name “Trump”.
I didn’t let me watch the debate.
My son and I did. My wife cannot stand Clinton, and went in and out of Den. She could take about 5 minutes before she would leave.
My son (17) said they don’t answer the questions asked. How can you trust people if they don’t try to answer what is asked of them
my daughters (11 years old) chose to watch. Their mom had to leave the room in tears when Trump opened his pie-hole. I found myself apologizing to my children for the state of the country/world, and spent some time in the kitchen comforting my wife, keeping an ear out so I could provide some context for the kids. We were all relieved when it ended.
Sat down with myself last night and decided I would allow myself moderate doses of the bizarre spectacle of potential violence in St Louie while occasionally checking in with the Meat Packers playing a few states above at Lambert Field WI.
It didn’t quite turn out to be actual violence at the debate — Donald threatened it with his angry menacing look standing behind Hillary — but it was still an ugly spectacle. But thankfully the four dubious women Donald brought to upset Hillary weren’t more than just off-stage props.
If Donald does somehow manage to get elected, I’d think we’re in store for a full-blown civil war in this country by the time of the next election in 2020.
I’m voting for Hillary here in CA. Despite serious concerns about her stance on Syria and Russia.