I Will Teach You.

Well, my friends..it’s over. November 8th has come and gone and (even though it took approximately 87,413 years), election season is over. We have elected a new president. While I’m sure the majority of us are glad that it’s finally over and we can now go back to (hopefully) all being friends, we all feel different ways about the outcome. Some of us are happy, some are terrified. Some are confused, 

This year, my vote meant so much to me. I spent a lot of time looking up everything on the ballot. Because, even though it feels like we spend >1% of time talking about this, there are a lot of other things to vote on than just the President. 

So I researched everything. The Amendments that were up for vote, the people running for Sheriff, the county questions on taxes. It was so important to me to clearly understand who and what I was voting for, and the reason was simple: Because it matters to me what kind of world my son grows up in. He may not get a vote yet, but I did, and I wanted to cast my vote the best I could for him. 

He woke up to eat around three-thirty this morning, and I caught up with the final outcome while he ate. As I put him back to bed and kissed him goodnight, I thought, You know, it’s still my motivation. The votes have been counted and the decisions made, but I still very much care about the world he grows up in. 

And as I laid back in bed and scrolled through tweets and news stories and celebrations and devastation, I thought about where this leaves me as a mom. And the answer is very simple. It leaves me in a position to teach him a lot of things. 

I will teach him kindness. 

I will teach him love. 

I will teach him to respect women, and that no matter how many things in life tell him otherwise, they are his equal. 

I will teach him peace, for blessed are the peacemakers. 

I will teach him that we are all equal, no matter our race or religion or sexual orientation. 

I will teach him to stand up for others. 

I will teach him that it’s important to stand up and fight for what he believes in, no matter if his voice falls in the majority or the minority. That his beliefs are worth fighting for. 

I will teach him, I will teach him, I will teach him. 

If you are a mama, I hope you spend some time today thinking about the kind of America you want you children to grow up in. Because no matter the president, your children will hear your voice the loudest. 

And if you’re not a mom, I hope you still think about it. Because children are not the only people we have an obligation to teach with our words, our actions, our lives. We teach our friends. Our neighbors. Our coworkers. 

We have a new president. That’s done. It’s over. But today, we go right back to real life, with our kids and our friends and even strangers watching us. What will your life teach them?