Parents wonder: How do I explain Trump’s win to my kids?
Now that Donald Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States, how should parents discuss his victory with their kids?
It’s a question prompted by the incendiary remarks Trump has made about women, minorities, immigrants, the disabled, and others throughout his campaign for president.
Van Jones, a CNN political commentator, was emotional on the air as the election results tipped in favor of Trump on Tuesday night, saying: “It’s hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us. You tell your kids, ‘Don’t be a bully.’ You tell your kids, ‘Don’t be a bigot.’ You tell your kids, ‘Do your homework and be prepared.’ And then you have this outcome, and you have people putting children to bed tonight, and they’re afraid of breakfast. They’re afraid of ‘How do I explain this to my children?'”
Van Jones: “This was a ‘white-lash’ against a changing country” https://t.co/fVi0JzyFOr #CNNElection #ElectionNight pic.twitter.com/mWuTQqN83C
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) November 9, 2016
Jones wasn’t alone in his feelings.
“Parents struggled to contextualize for their children that a candidate for the highest office in the country displayed the very vulgarity and bullying behavior many families and schools worked so hard to combat,” wrote parent Michelle Maltais in a Wednesday morning commentary for The Los Angeles Times.
Maltais, who has a preschooler and kindergartner, said she will tell her children that democracy is difficult and we must respect the winner even if it was not our choice. She’ll tell them we still have to respect one another and fight for those who need our support.
Lori Edelson, a therapist, told the Detroit Free Press, in an article about election anxiety and kids, “We have to remember as parents that even if it makes us anxious and scared we have to communicate calm.”
“We have to teach tolerance, empathy,” Edelson said. “All of that is what gets you through when you lose.”
Ali Michael, the director of K-12 Consulting and Professional Development at the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, had the following advice for parents in a Huffington Post article: Tell them we will always protect them, that we will honor the outcome of the campaign, but that we will fight bigotry. She said we need to teach kids how to be responsible members of a civic society.
“Finally, remind them — to ease their minds — that not everyone who voted for Donald Trump did so because they believe the bigoted things that he has said this year,” Michael wrote. “Many of them voted for him because they feel frustrated with the economy, they feel socially left behind, and they are exercising the one power they have.”
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