密歇根新闻广播 孩子们对总统选举有很多疑问 看看家长们如何应对

 

Little kids have a lot of questions about the election right now. And for parents, those conversations can be painful. Or comforting. Or sometimes, just hard to navigate¹.

Kids learning through the election that "there are dishonest people"

Bill Pickens is an organic farmer from Dundee who used to be an engineer. He says he and his wife have four kids under the age of 8 right now. They lost their fifth child to SIDS last year, and now, they're pregnant again. 

Pickens says they've been talking a lot with their 7 and 8-year-old, about the moral complexities² of this election.

"Oh they have a lot of feelings about it, and it's one of the things they're learning about this, is there are dishonest people," he says. "I didn't go into the details with them about emails. But you can clearly say, ‘This person was lying about what they're lying about,' and they know that's wrong."

Pickens voted for Trump³. But he says he was honest with his kids that he doesn't think Trump is perfect, or is even his ideal candidate.

"My kids will ask, ‘Well, is this person Christian⁴?' And I can say to them, ‘Well, probably not!'" he laughs.

But he also tells them why he voted for Trump anyway.

"Some of it was to keep Hillary out. But at the same point, there were certain things that we said he had to stand for, like being pro-life. They can understand what abortion⁵ is, and they can understand what that means."

A child worries his grandmother in Mexico will be behind "some stones or something"

Meanwhile, in Ann Arbor⁶, Maricela Rodriguez is picking her son up from elementary school. He's blowing off some steam on the monkey bars, and Rodriguez says she has two older daughters too, ages 14 and 19.

The girls, especially, have been glued to the election coverage⁷, she says.

"That was the first question they asked [Wednesday morning.] ‘Who's the president?'" Rodriguez says. "They worry about what's going to happen because of everything he said, you know, about different races. So they worry."

She looks at her youngest on the playground. "Even he said one day, ‘He's going to leave my Grandma out, because she's in Mexico. They're going to build some stones or something.'"

Rodriguez says she tells her kids not to worry, and says they can't change anything at this point.

The day after conversations: talking to kids before they go to school

But another mom on the playground is less calm. Amber⁸ Bowman says the hardest thing about Wednesday morning was realizing she had to tell her son about the election results, before he went to school. 

"So I went into his room and woke him up and I told him, ‘I have something to tell you. The election is over.' And he said, ‘Who won?' And I said, ‘Donald Trump.' And he said ‘How? But mom how?'" she says, her voice breaking.

"And he was quiet for a long time. Visibly upset, but quiet. And then he said ‘Well, he can be president of the rest of the country, but he can't be the president of us!' And I felt like I had done something right."

Bowman says during the campaign, her kid didn't like what Donald Trump was saying.

"You know I taught him what's right and wrong. And I know it's scary for him, that someone who's so wrong could be in charge. And that's a really unsafe place for a kid who doesn't have much power."

Parents tell kids about their hopes for the future

In Eaton Rapids, Mark McGee and his wife, Krysta, run a downtown café called Mark's Place. Their 8-year-old son, Christian, wasn't a big Hillary fan, but he was very vocal⁹ about his opposition¹⁰ to Donald Trump. Christian even told other kids that "Trump put his hands up a girl's skirt, and I don't like that," his dad says.

So Wednesday morning, McGee says he had to talk to his son about his hopes for the future.

"He was really scared this morning," McGee says in an email. "After I talked to him he was better. It's crazy how into politics he is. When he was 4, he loved Obama. He's going to miss him.

"Here is what I said to my son: ‘Trump won, now we have to stand behind him and hope he makes good decisions. He is a businessman just like me. He took $1 million dollars and turned it in to a billion! Then lost it, then made a billion again! So things could be ok. The decision has been made by the people...and there is nothing we can do.'" 

McGee says he's "both nervous and excited at the same time. This is a huge change for our government. Now we have a Republican government. America was great to begin with. Let's see what the next chapter will bring."

And Bill Pickens, that farmer in Dundee? He thinks parents and people who are freaking out right now are overreacting. He says that's how some people reacted when Obama won, and he says, nothing catastrophic actually happened.

But other parents are less sure, and trying to balance that uncertainty¹¹ with the right level of honesty, and comfort, when they talk to their kids.

1 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

2 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

5 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

6 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

7 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

8 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

9 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

10 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

11 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。