Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Super Terrific Tuesday!


I decided to go and vote just before lunchtime yesterday figuring there would be less voter traffic. I was right! Girl-Child and I were in and out in no time flat. Before leaving the house I tried to explain, as well as one can to a four year old, about our civic duty as citizens of these here United States. She totally didn't understand. Don't believe her for a second with her "Uh-huh, sure, yeah, right, yep, got it" because she is totally lying. But she was down with the part where I made it sound really exciting. "It's in a FIRE STATION!" "We'll get a STICKER!"...and this was all she needed to hear! Disneyland? Feh. Voting rules! Not only were we, indeed, in a fire station; and she did get her own sticker, but the volunteer let her insert the ballot into the super secret secure box through a little scanner thingy (technical term) that resembled the dollar slot on a vending machine. This man tells Girl-Child, "If this little light turns green that means Mommy did it right!". I had a sudden onset of feelings of inadequacy. I'm standing there sweating and praying that the little light will not remain red because how stupid do you have to be to not master this? A red light would surely say: You're too dumb to vote. Go home. Stop trying you might hurt yourself. And what seemed an eternity later with me starting to fidget, it turned green. To which Girl-Child exclaimed, "YAY MOMMY!". Yay Mommy indeed. We left the building and she was wrapped in a sparkley cloud of positive giddiness and vocal about it, "THAT WAS SO COOL!" "THAT WAS SO SO FUN!" (yes, 2 "so's" worth of fun). Her enthusiasm was met with smiles, laughter, one outright guffaw, an "aww", and kudos from the handful throng of new arrivals. Yes, yay Mommy. Inspiring the masses one child at a time. MTV's Rock the Vote should be contacting me shortly.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

We used to take our kids with us when we voted every year. Now the oldest two will vote for the very first time. It's really exciting.

Monica said...

Hey! thanks for your dry-heaving props on the new look. Eventually, I'd like to get a custom cool template, but for now - eh - it works I suppose.

I too voted! My kids particularly loved the sticker idea. I even got to go to a certain candidate's results rally - very fun, but I pretty much fell asleep on my feet with a glass of wine in my hand (all the while complaining to myself about how much my feet hurt in my friggin heals) for the 90 minutes until Mr. Frontrunner came out... for a whole 10 minutes.

Jennifer S said...

Yay Mommy, indeed. Weren't there any cute firemen to distract you while you were waiting for the light to turn green?

I posted a story today about my daughter's reaction to my voting sticker.

MTV is waiting on line 2, Mrs. Farklepants.

A Mom Two Boys said...

SO cute! A fire station! A sticker! Dylan is SO jealous!

Super B's Mom said...

HAHA Super B can't resist the sticker either. I am cracking up about the "red light", because last night I not only got the red light, but also the "LOUD BEEP".

SON OF A!!!

"Well son..it looks like YOU put it in upside down."

*glancing around the room*

"Let Mommy try it this time...."

We rocked the vote fo sheezy.

Paula Lynn Johnson said...

Hee hee! I also had that "Daaaar!" moment, looking at the red light . . .

Yolanda said...

Hey, thanks for voting.

Anonymous said...

It's hard for me to comment on this post considering that your young daughter faux voted, and I did not. Faux or otherwise. I am hanging my head in shame now.

Melanie said...

Oh, that's adorable. And I'll bet you felt like a Good Parent teaching Really Important Civics Lessons. I love those kind of moments.

When I voted in 2004 with a weeks-old infant Ellie strapped to my chest, I couldn't top tearing up. Aaaah, the heady combo of patriotism and hormones.

ALF said...

Way to go!

Madame Queen said...

Is it wrong that we gave Punkin our "I voted" sticker as a reward for going poop in the potty?

AutoSysGene said...

LOL! You go mama!!

Mrs. G. said...

Way to make voting look as cool as it is. Excellent mommying.

Tootsie Farklepants said...

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one freaking out a little about the red light. LOL!

Madame Queen~ Whatever works!

Jennifer H~ nary a one in sight. Darn it.

JCK said...

Thank GOD it turned green! :) Way to bring in the little daughters!

Karen said...

Way to go, mom, teaching her the American way! That sticker makes it all worth while. And thank goodness for green lights!