Introducing your children to politics at an early age and helping them understand how our government affects each of our lives is an essential step in molding your children into responsible and active democratic citizens. While your approach will depend on factors such as age and maturity level, children seem to have a wonderful grasp on fairness and hope, two important considerations in teaching children about political landscapes that can often become stages of conflict.

Democracy in Your Household

You can teach your child about the fundamentals of democracy by letting their voice be heard within your family. By validating their opinions, you’re teaching them that they are active citizens with the ability to make decisions (and make those decisions heard). In your home, you can hold votes on seemingly simple activities such as what to make for dinner in order to give them an understanding of how democratic voting process works, as well as that everyone is given one single vote with equal weight. While this is perhaps oversimplifying, it is easy to grasp for young children. Children also have a wonderful tendency to understand fairness. While we, as adults, know that the system is far from fair at times, we can explain fairness as the backbone of politics; children understand that there are rights and wrongs.

Introducing Conversations about Inequality and Social Responsibility

Talking about politics can also be a great segway to talk about inequality and social responsibility with our children. Perhaps point out a political issue in your own community and explain how the community is working with the government to find a solution to a local problem, whether that is increased funding for after school programs or the protection of a local park. Bringing the issues closer to home in your child’s own community is a quick way to show them that politics isn’t just limited to the people talking on TV; political interactions are happening every day in our communities, and we can teach our child that they can be instrumental and make a difference if they engage with them. You can also segway to larger conversations, perhaps about global health and income disparities or racism and sexism.

Bullying and Eliminating Hate Speech as Normal

Election seasons and the campaigns that come along with them can also help you talk to your child about bullying. Especially in our upcoming election, there will be nasty campaign ads and insults thrown left and right on the debate stage. It’s key to make sure that this isn’t understood as “normal” or a part of the process. We can use this time to have productive conversations about hate speech, xenophobia, and racism. You can have a great conversation with your child as to how you don’t have to put others down to be successful, and also help them develop their media literacy skills. When you are watching the news or reading an article together, you can help them learn how to decode all of the complex information that we are often presented with and make sense of it for ourselves. This is the perfect time to teach that the internet can be an untrustworthy place, and we have to critically analyze all of the information we’re given. Doing so will also help your child form their own opinions by listening to both sides, rather than just aligning their views with those of their parents (although this can be natural).

Helping Our Children Identify With an Issue

It can be a wonderful thing to watch your child begin to closely identify with a political issue. Whether that’s women’s rights, climate change, or even a more targeted issue central to your local community, helping your child identify with a political issue can be central to their development into democratic citizens. Question driven discussions can be the most effective, as tailoring your political discussion to topics your child is actually interested in will help them feel connected. It can also be a great time to connect what you’re discussing to your own family values so they can see that it plays out in real life.

Talking about politics with your kids is never going to be light or easy. However, we do have a wonderful opportunity to help broaden their perspectives about our world and their role within