but I try to avoid inculcating prejudices too quickly. I'm a very political person by nature (although I hardly register on the DailyKos measure!), I've gotten my husband more politically aware by conversational default, and, logically, my daughter is aware as well. At 2 1/2, she can identify the prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, the deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard, Dubya and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (JE gets less press over here in Australia, so she sees fewer pictures of him. It is what it is.).

I try not to indulge in teaching her to parrot my views in a simplistic way, because I don't think it's kind to her. I want her to come to political views on her own, not learn to repeat what I say. So I restrain my most basic responses like wanting to hurl objects at the TV every time I see Dubya or throw out a "you go, girl" when I see Ms. Gillard. I just save them for the late news broadcasts!

I have to say, though, that Jess is very observant in ways that I like - the other day she told me that Dubya has an "angry smile." Not a bad observation!

i agree with you. to me it is using your child and that just isn't cool imo. i was fairly upset that my ex used my dd to help him sell anti dem tshirts at a fair when she was 10 years old. totally respect his right to make money any way he'd like, but was not happy with using my daughter as the schill.

now exposing your children to political activities like voting or rallies?  that seems appropriate.  but using your child as your billboard?  no.

My 6 year old is fascinated by the election.  I generally keep NPR on in the car, and he usually asks to wait in the car while I pick up his brother from preschool, so he can continue listing to Robert Siegel's latest primary analysis.  I kid you not.

He's rather into identity politics, though.  He supports Obama mainly because of his skin color.  He feels I should be for Clinton and makes me defend my support of Edwards.  Ever try to discuss health care policy with a 6 year old?  How about Clinton's Iraq and Iran votes?  He wants me to be specific.

We were hit up by an enthusiastic campaigner last week, and now my 5 year old plans to vote for "the guy who we talked about at the farmer's market".  I decided against explaining why brown people don't vote for Ron Paul.

I don't think the lady is uncool or a bad mom or anything I just haven't thought about this subject much yet, and wanted to explore a bit why it bugged me. I think you are right though Rachel, that's it's more about being aware of passing on particular political prejudices. I just hope to be able to present things to my child in a way that begets tolerance and critical thinking. Something like...."Some people believe XYZ, what do you think?" KWIM?

Ugh.  Bumper stickers.  Not a fan.

I don't really want to know how someone votes, or eats, or anything else by reading the back of their car.  Nor do I want people to know that about me from reading mine.  Whether strangers, or acquaintances, or friends.

I guess if you live in a politically-homogenous area and you never leave there, it's ok.  But if you don't, it just causes unnecessary friction.

Putting pins on kids, well, I won't even go there!

it reminds me of people who put their kids in beauty pagaents or otherwise objectify them.

They're people, not accessories.

I don't understand what pus and milk have to do with each other. Maybe I don't want to know...

but apparently cows that are treated with artificial growth hormones have pus in their milk. As far as I understand organic milk without RGHB has less unsavory stuff in it, but is still deemed to be gross by those who oppose drinking or eating animal products. I guess as far as advocacy slogans go it's an effective (albeit disgusting, shoc-valuesque) message, but c'mon let me enjoy my latte for gosh sake!!!

I have a t-shirt I got for my daughter when she was 2.  It says, Outsource Bush '04.  She wore it political rallies and Dem. meetings, otherwise it was a strictly in the house shirt. There's a high level of distaste seeing kids politicized.  No matter the subject.  The hip thing in my old neighborhood were babies wearing pro-bfing onesies (those ones that make women who don't/can't BF seem worse than Hitler...you know the ones).  Even that crossed my invisible line.

I don't hide my politics from my kid, but I do make her aware of why someone is not my Hit List.  She understands fairness.  I just couldn't see putting her in a shirt spouting my candidate du jour or in a Stop War shirt.  She's my kid, not my billboard.

My son asked about people arguing on tv a few years ago, and I explained that they were talking about Bush, saying he told lies. He asked if that was true, and I told him, yes, Bush said things that were not true. Since then he has a seething hatred of Bush - who gets away with telling lies, something my son would never get away with doing! For a long time, my son believed his grandma in Texas did not love him, because "how can she love me? She likes Bush!" and in his either/or world, that made sense. I try to tell him - EVEN I do not hate Bush, just feel he is making too many mistakes and harming the country, and I wish he would make "good choices." I don't want him to add to the polarizing in this country - it has been hard enough for me to endure the 70s AND the years since 2000 being told I am unpatriotic for not supporting yet another foolish war.
He is a tough kid, with strong opinions of his own, but I try to stay more neutral with him than I might be in private, adult conversation.

Living out in a rural, suburbian, conservative area, we seem to be bombarded with messages on kids and cars from the right.  So, I feel like our lefty messages just level the playing field.  Though I don't think it's appropriate for a 4 year old to wear a button about pus and milk, (just something I think a kid that young doesn't need to know about) I don't think it's a big deal if they wear a noninflammatory political shirt (like Hillary or Edwards for president) or whatever.  

There was a recent thread about religion and someone said that kids will end up making their own choices when they get older.  I think the same holds true for politics.  My kids may hear my opinions now, but when they get older they'll have the opportunity to make their own decisions regarding politics.  

make big huge buttons for me and Liza to wear that say "Oh GET OVER YOURSELF ALREADY"

as left wing liberal as I am I have no tolerance for the smugness of buttons and tshirts like this on adults let alone on their kids.  Seeing a button like that would make me want to loudly order a BIG TALL GLASS OF COLD MILK PLEASE.  Just like dining out with one of the most obnoxious vegetarians in history (a college friend) alway smade me order a bacon cheeseburger ;-)

I am very politically active - a policy wonk and have been for most of my adult life. I take my civic duty very seriously. I want Campbell to be the same.

That said I want her to be an independent thinker so, once she is old enough to understand the generalities of politics and the election process, etc. I will openly share my opinions as well as explain those of others.  Basically I will give her the facts and let her developing mind shift and grow and the opinions she espouses change as she matures.  I will not use my independent thinking child to air my political preferences like the ex-husband mentioned in an earlier post who used his 10 year old.

That said, I admit to having a bib for Campbell that reads "If I were old enough I'd vote for Barack Obama" But she is 7 months old so I think it's just funny at this point since she obviously doesn't know Barack Obama from Dora the Explorer.  

One of the greatest things I think my parents did was never telling me who they voted for. (My dad constantly emphasized what a great gift the secret ballot is.) They never pushed an agenda with me and always kept the lines of communication open when it came to social and political issues. they made me realize that reasonable people can have completely different ideas and that partisanship gets us nowhere fast. I think they both really wanted me to make my own decisions, not follow a party line.  

They would talk about the issues a lot, and if I took one side, my dad immediately took the other. He continued this through college. When I was in my 20s I found out he was a Republican. My mom was a Democrat. I would have guessed the opposite!

Now I'm--you guessed it--undeclared! I have equal skepticism and admiration for both parties. I make a point of checking out the candidates individually, and I've voted Dem, Rep, Green and Independent.

I have 7 and 3.5 year old daughters, and I managed a mayoral campaign last year. During the primary, my 3 year old saw a picture of one of my candidate's opponents and was totally enamoured of it, "What's her name? I love her.  She's my favorite girl."  It took lots of restraint for me to explain who she was in a non-biased way.

My 7 year old, Julia, will see Bush sometimes and say, "We don't like him, right Mom?" I always try to be measured and say, "Daddy and I don't think he's a good president" and explain why -- which often gets us into some VERY DEEP conversations.

We also volunteered a lot for Deval Patrick's campaign for governor of MA, and I was blown away when Julia came home from school with a count of how many in her class would be voting for him in their mock election at school.  A little canvasser in the making!

She totally thinks that she votes ("When are WE voting?"), and I do love that she's so politically aware, but I think you do have to set boundaries.  I never had her wear my candidate's pins, and when she had to write something about each of the mayoral candidates she brought literature from both candidates and wrote very objective paragraphs on both.

I don't think it's too difficult to know that the button you described says something that is gross. Obviously, it's meant to, but come on. Have a little consideration for others who don't share your views. And then to stick it on your kid and have him be the one going around offending people, to me that's not right.

In general, I don't politicize my kid by turning him into a billboard as fabooj put it so well. We do have a Ramones onesie for our baby that we get a kick out of. Clearly he has no idea who the Ramones are. Is that the same thing?

Obviously this sort of thing can go to the extreme.  When I was in college, I was a TV news intern.  We were covering a protest at an abortion clinic, and I overheard parents saying to their young children, "Now, when you see the TV camera pointed at you, yell 'Please, mommy, don't kill me,' OK?"  Admittedly, that's a pretty far line to cross, but compared to that, I don't have a problem with my kid wearing a shirt or button that expresses my beliefs, at least for something simple. I think milk/pus is a bit of a complex idea for a pre-schooler.

I see it as the same as setting DS's religious beliefs, or leisure activities, or music choices.  Right now, he does what we do.  When he's old enough to start understanding choices, I'll certainly talk to him about tolerance, open-mindedness, & independent thinking. I don't see it as a bad thing that he is a bit of an extension of me right now, as long as I don't get creepy & obsessive about it.

It's the first one I've ever had.  Living here in the land of Focus on the Family, I felt like I had to say something.  I like the message because it's not offensive or critical, just a nice peaceful "can't we all get along" message.  I've only ever gotten positive comments about it.

We do try to be careful what we tell our kids about politics and religion.  Living here especially, I'm waiting for the day they come home spouting their friends' parents' views.  We always tell them, you can believe anything you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.  They're 4 and 6, so I'm sure the conversation will get more complex as they get older.

I was a Free to Be...You and Me Kid.  I supported the ERA and was pro-choice- all before I was 10.  Now granted, this was the 70's and we were all more political then, but still- my folks explained their positions to me like I was able to understand (which I was) and then let me choose if I wanted to do anything about it.  In fact, I was more political than they were.  Still am.

My kids (4 & 6)are Obama supporters, but that's as much a part of living in New Hampshire where the Presidential process is in your your coffee shop, your school and living room, so they've seen all the Dems in person.  I'm sure they're parroting my support at this stage, but we also try to make sure they understand the differences in the candidates and the importance of thinking for yourself.  DH even pointed out that this is one of the first primaries in which he and I have voted for the same candidate.  I think that you have start early in teaching citizenship, just like  you have to start early in teaching morality and social skills and table manners.  If you wait too long, it's too late. And too long comes way sooner than you think.