Voting has always been important to me.
My mom would bring my sister and me to the polls every year at our township building in Pennsylvania. The township used these giant, clanky voting machines for people to cast their ballots, and I would get to press the levers down. (This also resulted in me laughing out loud the first time that I filled out a paper ballot here in Vermont. It’s ok, Vermont, no hard feelings).
It’s really important for me to expose my own children to voting, too; in 2008, my oldest kiddo (then a wee babe) helped me to cast my first vote as a mom. Both kids have joined me at the polls since then, and this year due to the presidential election, we’ve been talking about voting more than ever.
It’s inspired me to make my own list: 5 things that are harder than voting (mom life edition):
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Packing lunches
I hate packing lunches. Each kid requires 57 different containers, in unique arrangements, everything needs to fit in the lunch box and stay cold, and the kids have to be able to get as many bites as possible down their gullets in the 7 minutes that they have for lunch. Wait, you’re buying hot lunch at school today? YES!
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Sleeping
10:42 pm- crawl into bed
11:27 pm- woken up by kid #1 (sleep-walking and mumbling incoherently)
1:36 am- woken up by kid #2 (accident in bed)
3:12 am- husband snoring
4:48 am- woken up kid #2 (nightmare)
Good morning! -
Managing the family calendar
Alright, it’s Tuesday, so that means I get the kids off the bus, but not this Tuesday, because I have a late afternoon meeting, so my husband, Jeff, is getting them, which means he’s working late tomorrow, and my daughter, Celia, has dance class in the evening, which means I won’t have time to make dinner, and school is closed next Friday, and I have a staff meeting next Monday, and…
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Keeping a straight face during the endless streams of poop jokes
I’m the mom, so I have to be a role model of “appropriate behavior”. But come on people, poop is funny!
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Talking about current events with children
This stuff is hard. Just in the past week, my husband and I have covered sexism, racism, and why people have disabilities. Oy vey.
No excuses, everyone. Get out on November 8th and vote. Bring the whole family. Be active citizens. Cast your vote.
