Talks With the Kids

In the car:

Emma: We're going home and then we're going shopping.

Huston: You're wrong.

Emma: No, we're going home and then we're going shopping.

Huston: You're wrong.

Me: She's not wrong, that's exactly what I said we were supposed to do.

Emma: Yeah, so I'm right.

Huston: No, you're still wrong, because you forgot to say that we had to do our chores first.

Me: Ok, no semantics in my car.

Huston: What's "semantics"?

Me: That's picking some one's words apart.

Madilynn: Yeah, Huston, Mommy said no semantics!

Huston: MOMMMYYY!!! Madilynn's doing semantics on me!!!

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About the voting process:

Huston: Obama is stupid.

Me: Hey...even though we don't always agree with our president, we need to remember that our laws got him into office, and we need to be respectful of that.

Huston: Well, if we didn't want him to be the president, why don't we just fire him?

Me: :::Boring explanation about voting:::

Madilynn: Yeah, Huston, the only thing about Obama we need to worry about is that he's the first...um...brown? Yeah, the first brown person in... Oklahoma.

Me: Wait, what?

Madilynn: That's what my teacher said.

Me: I think you mean he's our first black president, which isn't something to "worry" about, it's...

Warrick: Yeah, that's a good thing.

Me: Well, it's not anything. It's like getting all excited about someone having blue eyes. It doesn't matter what color anything is. What matters is what kind of person they are and what they stand for. Dang, what are they teaching you guys at this school? How bout you ask your teachers to explain our government and how it works, because this has nothing to do with it. It may be better for you to know that the president doesn't live in Oklahoma than to know what color his various body parts happen to be.

Madilynn: Ohhh...I didn't know what she meant...she just said he was brown.

Me: :::scrambles up on my soapbox::: Ok...let me just...

Warrick: Mom, pleeeeease...we get it. President, lives at the White House, doesn't matter what color things are, respect. OK? It's fine.

Me: :::slinks off the soapbox::: :::considers emailing the teacher to ask why this education requires constant fund raisers::: :::decides not to email teacher since spellcheck hates me and I hate getting bad grades on my emails:::