Children Talk Trump

Having the occasion to spend a few hours with my nephew and nieces, ages 10, 12, 14, and 19, we were flipping channels looking for Olympic coverage when we happened to land on a station featuring yet another shocking story about Donald J. Trump. Trump stood on a a dias, behind his podium, not surprisingly sliding in yet another dig at US President Barack Obama, or as Trump calls him 'Barack Hussein Obama'. This time he was making light of his witty use of sarcasm after having doubled down on his claim that the current president, along with his M.V.P.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were the actual founders of the terrorist group ISIL. As he laughed off the incident as a clear example of sarcasm, Trump couldn't help but give his audience one more gem by adding "but not that sarcastic" in a mock-muffled tone.

Why am I surprised that I am no longer surprised by the sheer volume of verbal diarrhea coming out of candidate Trump? When did this become something I can almost anticipate like clockwork in conjunction with his first Tweets of the morning and ending with his final call of the day to his pep squad over at Fox 'news'.  Is everyone who has been subjected to over 12 months of Trump, not unlike a form of ongoing torture, so used to the shock and pain that we have adjusted our truth-o-meters to accommodate bananas? If we have become immuned to it, what is happening to the children who are watching the Trump campaign break every rule we have been trying to teach them since the history of forever?

We teach our babies to; be gentle, be kind, be a good friend, tell the truth, say you are sorry, play nicely with others, share, be polite, be compassionate. We teach them by showing them the example of lived values. We praise them if the situation warrants, we laugh with them, we cry with them, we help them learn coping strategies. We tell them that there is value in a good work ethic, that cheaters never win in the end, that as long as they do their very best, we will be their biggest cheerleaders. We tell them it is wrong to make fun of people who have limitations or are different from them, that children are children are children. We tell them that boys and girls are both wonderful and important people, and that even though they might not have many persons of colour in their class, that the world is a beautiful place because everyone is different, and everyone has their own unique beauty and gifts. Most of all, we tell them that when they are older and they find someone they love, someone that treats them with loving respect and kindness, that we will be happy for them, because love is precious and all people deserve love.

I looked at the faces of these four amazing kids, all with varying degrees of confusion registered on their faces, and I decided it was time to turn off the television. I really worry about what kids are taking away from the 'race to the bottom' Election 2016 coverage. I decided it was time to check-in with them and ask them what they thought about what they just saw. I simply posed a question and the responses of these four kids, all raised in different homes, all talented in a dozen different unique ways, are a very small snapshot of what parents across the globe, and particularly in the US are currently juggling, actively or perhaps by their inaction.

So I asked the question, a kid-friendly and appropriate question, one I would be likely to ask after a rough day at school or squabble among neighborhood children;

Q: If somebody said something really mean about you, something that wasn't true, and then apologized to you, how would you feel? How would you feel if right after that person made an apology, they said "but I'm not THAT sorry"? 

Without missing a beat, all four sun-bleached, tanned and wide eyed kids starting to shake their heads back and forth. The youngest, and only boy, immediately said precisely what I anticipated from him. A very empathetic and loyal friend, he piped in with "then that mean person was never really sorry at all, they were just saying it because someone told them to". He shook his head a few times and threw his arms up in exasperation adding, "but Trump is a rump". Yes little man, Trump is definitely a rump.

My 19 year-old niece quickly added, "Trump is an old man, he should know that when you say you are sorry for something, you have to mean it. If you can't apologize when you are caught lying, then you are acting like a bratty little kid, not an adult." Yes, she nailed it too. She went on "Trump lies like this every single day, and he even lies about his lies." Clearly someone has been discussing politics in her vicinity, and I owe that person bigtime.

The 12 year old, who spends most days dancing or doing gymnastics, was quick to support her older sister and cousin. "I don't think that guy even knows what an apology is for. Everything he says looks like he is just trying to be funny." Well, leave it to the kids to always call a spade a spade. This little goober went back to trying to do the splits on the area rug in front of the sofa.

Finally, my 14 year old niece looking suddenly much more her age and just returned home from sleepaway camp in Nova Scotia made every one of us in the room choke from laughter as she added, "Oh that's just Donald Trump, he always says crazy things for attention. He is so completely stupid. He knows he makes lies everyday and can't remember what he said, but he doesn't even care because he doesn't know what sorry even means." Then she went back to taking selfies, many many selfies.

Out of the mouths of babes.