The Politics of Parenting

Time to make some eggs

First, some house cleaning. Yesterday, I tried to create a new section and add a new email list to that section. Well, the result was that I merged them all together. So, if you are receiving this email in error and are only supposed to be on The Very Flannel Dino list, I do apologize. Feel free to unsubscribe from the other lists, or you can stay; it's up to you.

Let’s talk about the similarities between politics and parenting.

So, what do you have to do as a parent? Take care of your kid, right? Make sure they grow up to be a functioning adult. But how do you do that?

Well, you set rules. You institute boundaries. You educate.

If you have a large family with many different personalities—you balance interests. You find compromise between yourself and your partner, and between the two of you and your kids. You do all this by sharing responsibility with your partner. And as your children get older, you start to share that responsibility with them. Through it all, you hold each other accountable.

You do all this because you love them. You want them to be able to take care of themselves. You want your next self (your kids) to have all the advantages you didn’t have. You want them to be able to have a healthy life, lots of liberty, and time to pursue happiness.

It isn’t much different from politics and our government.

Our Constitution is a set of laws, boundaries, limits, and rules. Our representatives are supposed to educate us on what’s going on in the government. They’re supposed to balance interests and find compromise. And they do this by sharing responsibility with us. Together we hold each other accountable.

The problem is that our government stopped sharing responsibility in 1929 when it capped the House of Representatives at 435 seats. Since then, the people have grown restless and entitled.

So let me share a story.

My eight-year-old daughter, Eleanor, is very interested in helping out around the house. She makes her bed, folds her laundry, and puts it away. Sometimes, she even helps out in the kitchen. I taught her how to make me coffee—she manually grinds the beans. Recently, she’s been helping Mom and me make pancakes for breakfast.

Well, one morning, I came home from dropping my teenagers off at school. My wife was upstairs, and I walked in the door to see Eleanor making eggs by herself. Now, she had never done this on her own before and didn’t ask for permission.

At that moment, I had a couple of choices. I could discipline her, telling her she shouldn’t be doing this because it’s dangerous. But what are the chances she listens? Or—I could continue to educate her. I could help her learn how to do the job on her own, so I can trust her to make eggs without me.

Parents understand that when you withhold power from your kids, they might just start ignoring your rules and boundaries. Push too hard and they might rebel.

So next time you think, man, why are politics so volatile right now? Ask yourself, are the people in charge doing their job? Are they educating and informing us? Are they sharing responsibility, balancing interests, and compromising? Or do they keep fighting among themselves, ignoring the rules, withholding power, and telling us we aren’t ready to make our own eggs.