If you believe liberal writers’ and pundits’ apocalyptic post-election musings, “Donald Trump’s America” is no place to raise a child.
The latest of these was in Elle magazine last week. In her piece titled “I’m Terrified of Raising a Boy in Trump’s America,” Jo Piazza claims to be afraid of how her son will turn out with a man like Trump as president.
“How can I explain to a little boy that the year he was born, the president of the United States was an admitted sexual predator who treats women (including his own daughters) as ‘pieces of ass’? ”
That’s her unborn son she’s worried about, by the way. Even if Trump serves two terms, Piazza’s boy will still be under 8 years old.
This isn’t the first time Elle, ostensibly a fashion magazine, has tackled the issue of raising children in the supposedly terrifying dystopia of Trump-era America.
The day after the election, Megan Angelo wrote about teaching her 2-year-old to say “Madam President” the night before the vote. Angelo wrote: “When you’re staring down the barrel of your kids’ formative years coinciding with a Trump presidency, it’s hard not to flip half your Facebook friends the finger and move out of the country.”
Spoiler alert: She decided to stay in America.
“The children” are not a new prop in political discourse, of course. Former Sen. Harry Reid, in one of many displays that show we should be thrilled about finally putting the word “former” before his title, reported that seeing Trump bumper stickers made his 10-year-old granddaughter “tense.” Ali Wentworth, wife of ABC News chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos, said her 11-year-old is so scared, she’s sleeping in her parents’ bed.
And these stories are just in the last few weeks. The immediate aftermath of the election had parents struggling to talk to their toddlers about life under a Donald Trump “regime.” Yes, toddlers.
As 2017 kicks off, we would all benefit from a New Year’s resolution to take a deep breath and acknowledge certain reassuring facts about our country.
Here’s one: There’s no such thing as “Donald Trump’s America” — any more than there has been a “Barack Obama’s America” for the last eight years. Our president is not our king — no matter how often he may be tempted to act like one — and American history should not be reduced to mere reigns of one would-be potentate or another.
Beyond politics, it would be helpful for us to notice how often we take non-problems and turn them into crises in our minds. Piazza wrote of her son: “As a white boy who will become a white man, he’ll be starting with a lot of privilege; how do I make him realize that? This is what keeps me up at night, and the truth is that I don’t have the answer yet.”
That’s what keeps her up at night?
Look, teach your kids to be good people and be grateful. If they get to be born in a free country where they pick their own leaders, they’re already way ahead of the curve. Know there are parents across the world raising their children in true oppression; they’d give anything to be kept up at night by worries of their child having too many opportunities or having a president with a potty mouth.
People have raised children during famines, war, exodus. A Trump presidency is survivable — yes, even if he uses vulgar language from time to time. If you find yourself worrying that your kids just have it too good, take a stroll outside your bubble. Let 2017 be the year that Americans seek to keep things in perspective.
My mom reads a Russian-language newspaper that features a section of “anecdotes” opposite the horoscope section. They’re wry, as Russian humor tends to be. She read one to me recently that said: “Those who have a good life in Russia have moved to London already.”
Those who have a good life in America aren’t stampeding for the exits, and there’s a reason for that (many reasons, in fact).
So raise your kids however you were planning to raise them before the election. Teach them to manage disappointment so that someday, when their preferred candidate doesn’t win an election, they’re able to look at their own kids, shrug their shoulders and tell them everything is going to be OK.