A Pint-Sized Independent

You may start to notice a pattern. Rob and I discuss politics a LOT. Seriously, it probably makes up at least 50% of our daily conversation. The other half is a mix of Sam logistics, what's for dinner, Relay For Life and American Idol. In no particular order.

So... the conversation was continuing as we were getting dinner ready last night. Rob and I were talking about Hillary's shenanigans in Florida (no bias there, sorry) when Sam asked if we were "talking about the president AGAIN?!"

Uh, yes. Sorry.

In order not to leave him out, we asked him if all of the news of the past few days had changed his mind about who should be president. He's apparently DONE with all of the antics, because his reply was that he "didn't really want anyone to win."

Well, then, are you a Republican or a Democrat?

"I'm really nothing."

Ok. Here's a test for you: Do you like elephants or donkeys better?

"Definitely elephants. I love elephants. Ella is an elephant."

So, you must be a Republican.

"NO I'M NOT!"

Clearly we are agitating our young son with all of this talk, so we dropped the subject and moved on to chicken nuggets vs. a cheese sandwich for his dinner.

My mom arrived a bit later and I relayed the conversation to her. She tried telling him that he could be a registered independent like Nonni.

Is it wrong that I'm teaching a 3 1/2 year old that registering as an independent is like throwing away your vote since you can't pick your candidates?! I am sure there must be medication for this.

A more age-appropriate moment came when Sam had had enough and retired to his bedroom to play with trains while the grown-ups cooked and continued the boring political talk. He screamed at the top of his lungs that we HAD to rush upstairs to see what he'd done. My little engineer had actually built a track for his trains all by himself for the first time. Rob and I were both suitably (and for real!!) impressed with what he'd done. The irony was not lost on me that if, perhaps, Mommy and Daddy found more constructive things to do with their time that maybe we'd get around to re-doing the bedrooms as we've planned or, say, renovating the kitchen that so desperately needs it.