Thursday night, my two 7-year-old daughters stayed up to watch some of the Republican debate. Needless to say, I had a lot of questions to answer. In my house, they went like this:

“Mom, why do all these men hate Hillary Clinton so much? Is she going to be our next president?”

“Mommy, is that Donald Trump? I don’t like him. Why does anyone like him? Yuck.”

Kids have agency. They have opinions. They say the darndest things, and they mean them. At the time. But their framework for those thoughts come from their parents. Their life experience and ability to parse complex governmental, political and legal issues are limited. I am a firm believer in encouraging youngsters to learn about our political process and partake in the discourse surrounding our cultural standing. To awaken a thirst within them for knowledge about our country and their role in our democracy is one of the key roles of parenting.