Democracy, the World, Trump and our Kids

I was excited to see that number 1 son’s school has been exploring democracy in their various year groups. I asked number 1 son earlier this week what he understood was going on in the world, his answer was pretty alarming…

“Well mummy, Trump has dropped the biggest bombs in the world on Syria and now he’s at war with the whole world”

Wow, where did he get that idea from? It seems that he has picked up snippets from the news on the radio and pieced it together to create his current picture of the world. He had no idea who Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn was.

On the positive side he’s very enthused about democracy as their class used their democratic might last week to vote in a class pet, their new class companion is a goldfish!

Arguably I shouldn't be too surprised as recently on the Radio 2 Chris Evans Show the results of the ‘five hundred words’ contest was discussed. There was an analysis of the most used proper noun in the children’s stories, the answer was...yes, you've guessed it - Trump! Of course our kids think his name is hilarious so I guess when they hear his name mentioned on the radio or by the adults around them they prick up their ears.

What I’ve learnt from this is that I should involve my son more in discussing current affairs. In all honesty I imagine the discussion will be fairly short and to the point as his concentration seems to revert to fidget spinners after 7 minutes, still as parents we need to be responsible for our kids understanding what is going on around us.

So……where do I start with the election results?!