Lindsey Cormack is the author of How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It's Up to You to Do It) and an associate professor of Political Science and Director of the Diplomacy Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
506: How to Talk to Kids About Politics
Lindsey Cormack
In the United States we are in the middle of a heated presidential election and our kids are going to hear about it. How should we talk to them about politics? Hunter talks to Lindsey Cormack, Author of “How to Raise a Citizen,” about how to talk about government and politics in an age-appropriate manner.
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*This is an auto-generated transcript*
[00:00:00] Lindsey Cormack: And now I'm working at a school where I'm around really good students, like so bright, go on to great careers. But they oftentimes have enormous gaps in what they know about the very basics of U.S. government or how to wield their own power.
[00:00:16] Hunter: You're listening to The Mindful Parenting Podcast, episode number 506. Today we're talking about how to talk to kids about politics with Lindsey Cormack.
Welcome to The Mindful Parenting Podcast. Here it's about becoming a less irritable, more joyful parent. I'm Mindful Parenting. We know that you cannot give what you do not have, and when you have calm and peace within, then you can give it to your children. I'm your host, Hunter Clarke-fields. I help smart, thoughtful parents stay calm so they can have strong, connected relationships with their children. I've been practicing mindfulness for over 25 years, I'm the creator of the Mindful Parenting course, and I'm the author of the international bestseller, Raising Good Humans, and now, Raising Good Humans Every Day, 50 Simple Ways to Press Pause, Stay Present, and Connect with Your Kids. Hello, and welcome to the Mindful Parenting Podcast.
So glad you're here. Listen, if you love the podcast, please make sure you're subscribed, make sure you tell a friend about it, and I have an awesome episode for you today. I'm going to be talking to Lindsey Cormack, author of “How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It's Up to You to Do It)”, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Diplomacy Lab at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. And we're going to be talking about politics. We're in the middle of a heated presidential election in the United States and our kids are going to be hearing about it. So how should we talk to them about it? We talk about how to talk about government and politics in an age appropriate manner. So join me at the table as I talk to Lindsey Cormack.
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Lindsey, thank you so much for coming on the Mindful Parenting Podcast. I'm excited to talk with you too, because I don't know, since all the changes in the political world happened this summer with Biden dropping out and all of the stuff happening, like it's become so interesting and dramatic and I've suddenly become like a political junkie in my life, which is unusual. And I think that this is, kids are obviously going to be like hearing parents talk about this race in the United States. And I think it's so important to talk about how to talk about kids, how to talk to kids about politics and things like that. But, before we dive in. What got you so passionate about teaching this and this, doing this work in your own life?
[00:03:51] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah, so I don't think I knew that I wanted to be someone who was in the education field. I didn't know that I wanted to be focused on politics. This all happened over time. When I went to the University of Kansas, I asked myself, “what do I not know a lot about?” And political science was something that I knew almost nothing about. It was like it seems like they have people here who can teach me, and that's how I selected a major. And then from then, I went to D.C., I got to see what federal politics was like, and then I ended up at NYU for grad school. And now I'm working at a school where I'm around really good students so bright, go on to great careers. But they oftentimes have enormous gaps in what they know about the very basics of U.S. government or how to wield their own power. And so after doing that for about 10 years, I was like, I think we got to figure something out here. And that's what started me on the process of the research about looking at how do kids know what they know and how can we help them know more so that when they turn 18, they can be as powerful as possible.
[00:04:44] Hunter: And was, were pol was, so was government and politics. And how, this was something you've talked about in your own family growing up. Did you know much about it?
[00:04:53] Lindsey Cormack: No. No. I actually didn't talk with pol about politics with my own parents probably until the Obama election. And I was a full adult then. I had a child at when, in his second term. So that wasn't a part of my upbringing.
[00:05:06] Hunter: Yeah. I don't think- as I was looking over your book I was like, I wonder how much of this I knew. I wonder if this, how much of this I actually know now, as far as like how our government is structured and all these different things. But when we think about, parents we're raising the next generation of citizens. A lot of kids aren't going to be necessarily going any kind of political classes in college. We don't know, I don't necessarily know exactly what they get taught in high school. A lot of listeners have kids who are homeschooled. There's, it's all across the board, but your, you contend that we need to be at home kind of teaching our kids about the the basic political structures, et cetera, right?
[00:05:55] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah. And one of the reasons that I know this to be true is because I'm with such good students. I'm able to think about, they all had different home lives. They come from different states. They went to different sorts of schools, private, public schools. But I have not found anyone who's yeah, I know all of this already. And in doing the research of the book, myself and six research assistants went out and did tons of analysis, tons of interviews. And in a nationally representative survey, we found that only 25 percent of kids report that they've ever had any intentional conversation about politics or government with their parents. And so I just know it's not really happening. And that's what was one of the starter pieces for the whole project.
[00:06:32] Hunter: Okay, so let's start like earliest ages, like I'm assuming with our three year olds and under, it's just four year olds and under, it's just going over their heads. We're not thinking about it. We're not like letting them, necessarily letting them know what's happening unless, I don't know, we happen to be at a political rally. When is it something that we should be starting to talk about with our kids, especially in this election season where there's a lot happening?
[00:06:58] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah what's actually funny is our kids do get messages, even if we're not explicitly doing that sort of work with them. So when we talk about young children, a lot of times they'll either read books or watch shows where there might be some sort of government figure, like there might be a mayor. And oftentimes the narrative around that mayor is either that they're like a bumbling doofus or they're out to do harm to the city. And so they do get this anti-politic socialization, even if we're not explicitly saying something to them. Yes, it's. There's no need to sit your three year old down and try to explain to them checks and balances. That's not realistic. But, I do think it's important that they see us care about these things, and they see us model how to have sorts of discussions, whether it be with friends or neighbors or other family members, instead of thinking Oh, we better not do that, the kids are around. Because they learn from what we do and what we don't do. And if they never see us prioritizing things, or if they always see us saying, Oh, politicians are liars, or I hate this system, or it's all corrupt, that trickles into their brains. They soak that stuff up. And so I think it's important to just recognize our role. Like, we are their role models here and we can do a little bit better by being more intentional about it.
[00:08:03] Hunter: Yeah, I remember taking my daughter who was one and a half into the voting booth in 2008 I guess. Yeah, she was like one years old. She was born in 2007. 2008. Wait, 9, 10. Anyway, whatever that was, that very early age, I remember taking her and thinking oh okay, she wants, I, every year. I would take them and I would, I would bring them in and I'd want them to see me voting and doing the act of voting, but I'm not sure I've ever had intentional, too many intentional discussions. But you tell us it's important to start discussing, having political discussions at home. How exactly do you do that, say, like with maybe an eight year old or seven year old?
[00:08:48] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah. So first of all, it's great that you're bringing kids to vote. That's something else that I talk about in the book. It's it's tradition. It's, you have to show them this is a thing that we do. It's habit forming and they can't become familiar with it unless they see it themselves. And so I think that's a great thing for people to do with kids of all age. But let's say you have an eight year old. Right now is a really good time to talk about a lot of processes because we have this sort of media environment that's going to be. So about the presidential election and you know every time this happens, there's what is the electoral college? That sounds really weird and instead of using this opportunity to say this is a candidate I like or I really don't like this candidate. I think it's a great time to talk about how do we do these things? For instance, if someone, a child, asks about the Electoral College, you can describe to them that it's different than every other election, because in every other election, whoever gets the most votes wins, and so for, like, all of our House races that are happening at the same time, 34 of our Senate races that are going to happen this year, whoever gets the most is going to win. For the president, we have this other sort of system that aggregates votes at the state level so that we get a different sort of outcome where sometimes someone will get more votes but they won't win because they're allocated in different ways in different states. Eight years old is not going to probably understand all the math of that with you, but to start that vocabulary, to start that as a small little piece is important because every other subject we start in kindergarten with like little concepts and vocabulary and then we build in those middle ages with bigger concepts and we move to like advocacy and problem solving and critical thinking and the way that we do a lot of government at least in a lot of U.S. schools is, we wait until you're a senior in high school and in the second semester we throw a government class at you and say Okay, learn everything now. And it just doesn't blend. Cause they don't have the fluency with the concepts. They don't understand the vocabulary and it's too much to ask. And so that's why I think it's important for parents to start dropping those little seeds around. Just be like, oh, okay, this is an opportunity to talk about that.
[00:10:41] Hunter: Stay tuned for more Mindful Mama podcasts right after this break.
Okay. Yeah. I think if I were having a conversation. About the electoral college, I'm sure I'd get the question of, why? Why did they do it that way? Why is it different? I can imagine what my answer to that would be, but what do you, what would be an answer that you would give Lindsay to that question?
[00:13:24] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah. So if I was- if you'd asked me this 15 years ago. The thing that I would say to a version of myself right now is I'd say, I don't know, let's go figure that out together. And so I think that's important for parents to recognize is that they don't need us to know everything. They need us to show them and model a process of it's important to figure this out and I'll show you how to do it with me. And I think now if I say, if someone said to me like why is that way? I'd say, let's go back to the constitution and see what it says about this. And it's really spelled out and it says, here's how we're going to do these things. The question of why is more of a what did the people who are in the room think about this? What did they think about states rights? And so you can like really get into a richer conversation, but most of us don't have the tools to just answer all these questions. But we do. Have the tools to change our brains about this and say, instead of saying I don't know, instead to turn it into you know what, I'm not sure, but I do think it's important we figure that out. Let's go learn it together.
[00:14:14] Hunter: Okay. Alright. And, you might have some guesses or you might, I might imagine I might tell them what I know about it and say, yeah, and I'm not sure beyond that yeah, let's go look at it together. I think that's a really smart. Way of talking about it. Okay, so you have a 12 year old daughter. When did you start to teach her about, like, how our government is worked? I have. Yeah. Because you've been planting the seeds all along, I bet. But what were some of the, what were some of the earliest things you told her? And then how'd you build on that?
[00:14:44] Lindsey Cormack: I think she, she had to get a lot of things by being in places with me. So I was one of the moms who would bring her if our city council was having a meeting. Or if a local state rep was going to do some sort of presentation, I would bring her. And I was very lucky to be in a district on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where we had a council member who would hire child care for his events. And he would say, you want to come? And that is a prohibitor to a lot of parents. It's you don't necessarily want to bring your kids to these things. You might think it's boring or they'll be disruptive. But I do think a more welcoming politics is one that says no, young moms, single moms, young parents, they have a say in this too, let's make it a little bit easier for them to get at it. And so I would, I have benefited a lot from that. And in terms of political discussions in front of her she's seen these before she probably can remember, there's nothing that's really off limits and in talking about this with her. And I think the thing that's been important to me is to model that. Just because someone has a different opinion than I do, doesn't mean they're stupid, doesn't mean they're evil. It means there's something that I have to learn from them, and hopefully they have something to learn from me. And so I think she doesn't, I'm hopeful that she doesn't see politics in the way that a lot of our national media does, which is like everyone's yelling at each other, and you're wrong and I'm right, instead to understand like it's much more fluid. We're not all right about everything, we're not all wrong about everything, we just have different experiences and we should be able to talk about them.
[00:16:03] Hunter: Yeah. I grew up with some very heated post-Thanksgiving discussions. There was like, my grandparents were Republicans and my dad and my uncle were Democrats and they would just go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Yeah. It was really interesting to me as a kid and it got ugly sometimes, but it was really fascinating to see people, care about things so much. I don't know that we're, maybe like in families we're having that where you don't seem to be like people who are On opposite sides of the political bipartisan divide, I don't seem to be having a lot of dinner table conversations with each other right now, I think, but imagine, if there is family discussions you talk about like, how to, how could we have how can we have a debate that is a discussion rather than a fight, maybe, especially if our kids are around?
[00:16:53] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah, so I, I think that's right, and I think you touched on a good point, though. When you're a You don't necessarily see it in the same way that we see it as adults, because all they're doing is making sense of their world. And so when we're like, oh, that's got to be really scary for them. I don't know that's true. It seems like they're just like taking it in and being like, okay, let's try to figure this out in a better way. And family dinners can get heated. Thanksgiving, I always talk to my students around then and we talk about what are they going to talk about? What are they not going to talk about? And I know that a lot of us don't want to turn like family things into argumentative or fractious things. And so something that I like to do, the question that I like to ask if someone brings up a is I say, what have you heard about that? And the reason that I like what have you heard about that is it releases you from the expectation of I have to defend an opinion or I have to justify what I think about this. And instead you just let everyone put this out on the table. What have they heard about it? And then once you have those different sort of pieces out there, I think you have a better ability to get into a discussion because it's not necessarily, my sincerely and strongly held belief. I've heard this.
And yeah, sometimes you hear something scary, it's oh, if I had heard that seems scary. Where did you hear that? Oh, that's not what I'm hearing. And so I think like setting the tone up front about I'm not going to convince you, you're not going to convince me, but why don't we figure out what we all have heard about this? And then we can probably think about it in a richer and better way instead of fighting with each other over it.
[00:18:17] Hunter: I love this question. I think it's a great question, but then I'm trying to imagine it in using it practically and I know my father is he's he thinks there's going to be at some point a few months ago, he's there's going to be a civil war either way the election comes out and was quizzing me on like, where am I gonna- what country is friendly to us that we could live in after the election, and just is very dour. And I can't imagine. I'm actually- I'll be with my parents this week with my oldest daughter, and I, if he brings up the “oh, this country's gonna devolve into a civil war conversation”, I don't know. I can't imagine myself saying what have you heard about that? And then wanting him to talk more about it. Honestly, I would want to shut it down because it's so just ranty and curmudgeonly. I don't know. What do you think about a situation like that?
[00:19:11] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah. You know what? I was out doing some community stuff in my town yesterday and we had plenty of people. It's just an organization that cleans up the streets, but we have people who come up to us and they like, just tell us their political opinions. And I'm not sure why this happens. But I have been in that setting where it's if that person is not in good faith, willing to go into a discussion with you, that's a different thing. And so I think really being upfront and being like, I want to figure out more of this with you. And that is a different conversation than, Dad, here's a runway. Just tell me whatever you think. And I think that can be hard, especially with generations who didn't have this tradition. And that's something that I think we need to change. And I talk about this in the book is like for a long time. This stuff was taboo, and we got to like get in our own heads about it, and then I think we can come up with stories, and we can say things that go on and on. And we didn't think this is a conversation, this is a back and forth. That's one of the reasons that I want parents to do this work with their kids, because we have to have an idea that we are conversing. We are a community, whether that be your local, your state, the federal United States community. We have to figure this out instead of just shouting at each other. Because we know what shouting at each other feels like. We've been living in it for the last 30 years or so. No one really likes it. So we have to approach it different.
[00:20:25] Hunter: So if the other party is willing to not go on and on, let's have that discussion. Yeah. One of the things I'm hearing you say is like you're bringing in The attitudes of mindfulness which is curiosity, right? Can I understand where you're coming from and modeling maybe that curiosity for, for your kid if they're around?
[00:20:45] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah, I think that's absolutely true. And I think, part of that is also, let's say you were in a headspace where you did have a lot of really strong held opinions. I asked people in the book to take a minute and check how their experiences might be different than the people who they're talking to. Because we all live different experiences, and we do need to take a breath on politics. Just going into something that's just gonna be like, I'm saying something to you, you're saying something back at me, that doesn't feel that good to that many people. There are some kids who I find in my college classes do want to spar, like they want to intellectually debate. And I talk about that too. I say, you've got to just figure out what you're going to do together. If it's someone wants to do that, then let's go. If not, make sure you make that clear. So no one feels like they're having a conversation they didn't want to have.
[00:21:27] Hunter: Yeah. Yeah. I've been pulled into a lot of conversations that I've not, didn't necessarily want to have. So in these In political discussions there's- you want kids and parents to be educated about the structures of government, but then there's also things like there are issues that come up when we're in an election cycle like we are now, like issues that are really serious, like gun violence, war, poverty, things like that. And do you have any tips about talking about that with our kids, if they see things in the news, what to, how to approach very serious and potentially really scary things with our kids?
[00:22:09] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah, so I think the first thing is just to make sure that they know that they can come to you. Because it is unavoidable. Our kids are going to get this input, whether it's on anything that they're streaming, or stuff that's in apps, or they're going to hear things. And we can't have it be an off limits topic. That's like my very first ask, is make sure it's okay for them to come to you and talk to you about this.
But I think the second thing that's important that gets overlooked a lot is the idea that not everything happens at the federal level. Like for instance, when we talk about gun violence, a lot of that is state politics. A lot of that is the laws that are set down in different states about who can purchase weapons, what sort of registry has to happen, if there's limits on these things, if there's background checks. You don't really have federal provisions for a lot of these things, even though it's going to be a topic for the federal election. And so when we understand at what level these decisions get made, I think it becomes easier to have realistic expectations of what you want out of your candidates, but also it lets you shift focus to things that might actually be more pivotal. Most of our states are going to have state legislators and state executives who are up for election this year too. We can't pin everything on this presidential race. That's not the only thing that's happening. And so figuring out all those other entry points is a good way to lower the temperature, but also really hone your focus on things that might matter a little bit more for that subject.
[00:23:27] Hunter: Stay tuned for more Mindful Mama podcasts right after this break.
Okay, I like that. So to just look at, where, because I know here in Delaware, there have been state laws enacted recently, etc. And that may be a more fruitful place for if kids are interested in making change and doing things to, to doing that. What if a parent is not, hasn't been very active politically and maybe has a kid who is interested or maybe gets interested in an issue I think, yeah, gun safety, gun laws are one of the most important things for us. For if parents are interested in safety in the United States, like this one of the most, most important issues for us to do, like, how can parents start to get a little understanding under their belt and maybe start to get involved at a local level and bring their kids or model that for their kids?
[00:26:20] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah so the way that the book that I've written structures this is the first half is here's the problem and here's how I think parents can help. And the second half is a primer. And I go through all the basics that'll help someone better understand our system, better understand the issue space in our system, what levels are controlled at or what things are controlled at different levels. So I think it's a good place to start, but let's say you have a kid who comes to you and says I have a question on this or a question on that, and you don't know the answer. What I write about is we all can figure out so much in just 10 to 20 minutes, say, hey, let's see what I can figure out. Let's see what you can figure out. And we'll come back on this because we all have, like a little internet machine in our phones and we all have like computers. And so we have the ability to do this work. We just have to recognize that it's on us to do it because a lot of times we think schools will teach it or they'll figure it out somewhere else and that's just really not true. They don't have a lot of other places that they can talk about this that feel like safe. They trust us. And so I think if you find yourself on a topic that you don't know, admit it. And then say, let's go figure this out and talk about it with them, because you're going to get different search results than they're going to get. We all have different algorithmic feeds to send us different things. And so it's neat to say, here's what I found versus here's what you found. And I wonder why that is. Okay. I see. I hear you.
[00:27:33] Hunter: Yeah. And are there any good resources that you like? Like my kids bring me things like Kyrgyzstat videos that they love and watch, which I Kyrgyzstan explains all kinds of things in the world. Any resources like that just off the top of your head that you love?
[00:27:47] Lindsey Cormack: I have a list of resources that I put up on my website, which is just HowToRaiseACitizen.com. And I think there's not a shortage. We actually have a ton of different things online and the real challenge Is being able to sit with it, have the attention span as they get through a whole thing versus just whatever that first turn on Google is. We have to like just be willing to do a little bit more, but there's plenty of great stuff out there.
[00:28:10] Hunter: Okay, model the patience for your kids, people. I think so. What are the five basic civic skills that kids need to have?
[00:28:18] Lindsey Cormack: Yeah, so these are the things that if you have kids who are leaving your house to go on to college or to go on to life, these are the things they have to know before they get out.
The first one is very simple. They need to know how to register to vote. They need to understand what the process is and that it happens every time they change their address. Because what I have in the college classroom is I have kids who will think oh, I get to vote for the first time. But they don't realize that when they register it in their home county, that's not going to work in their new county because that's not how our registration system works. It's very place dependent. So they have to know the specifics on that. I think it's important that you talk to your kids at the second piece, which is the difference between a primary and a general election. And this is not only important because it really matters for our politics. When we were interviewing teachers around the United States, this is part that really doesn't get covered in schools. A lot of us don't know anything about our primary elections, and we see that in voter turnout. Oftentimes, fewer than 15 percent of people turn out to vote in primary elections. And in many places, whoever wins the primary for one given party is going to win the general election. It's a very important one that there's just like a really big hole in what our young people don't know.
The third one is this idea of federalism. Different levels deal with different things, and you're much more pivotal at your local level. So for instance, if you have zoning things that bother you, if you have in New York City, we're dealing with marijuana licenses and dispensaries and stuff like that. That's a quality of life thing. Happens at the local level. The president's not going to deal with that. That's just, letting them know there's different levels of politics. The fourth one is, I think it's important before your children leave your house to have read the Constitution at least once. And you might think, oh, that's going to happen at school. Oh, that sounds really boring. No one likes to play a game that they don't know the rules to, and the Constitution is not that long, and it's not that hard, but once you understand it, once you've read it through, there's so much that happens in the media that is not outrageous, that is not surprising. You're like, Oh, yeah, okay. I understand how that system works. And so I think it's really healthy to root yourself in that and be like, okay, yeah. And that's not something you do, in a week. That's something you do over an extended part of their high school and say, okay, maybe we'll talk about this.
And in Chapter 7, I go through, here's the questions. And the last one is they need to know and practice how to have hard conversations. And this is because by the time they get to college, the students that I see are very scared to have hard conversations, both because they don't want to offend other people, but also because they themselves don't really like sitting in discomfort. And nothing gets better if we're unwilling to talk about it. So we need to have this practice with them. And that's like the overarching one that underlies everything. Talk about things. Even if you don't know it, even if it feels uncomfortable, we have to start to do this.
[00:30:47] Hunter: Couldn't agree more about the hard conversations. Some of the things that I've been hardest to talk about things that I've learned here on the podcast from experts like sex education experts like Amy Lang have been the most fruitful and it opened things up for me and my daughter to be able to talk about them, even though it's uncomfortable, very uncomfortable at first. Although I've tried to think about the, I like the idea of reading the text. Declaration of Independence, but I don't know if I've ever read that and I'm really think it would be a hard sell for my 14, 17 year old to say, let's read the Declaration of Independence. Maybe if we read an article a day or something, or an article a week at dinner or something, go through it and I don't know how many articles there are.
[00:31:32] Lindsey Cormack: So, there’s seven articles in the Constitution and that's what I thought people were going to be like, I don't want to do that. When I'm talking to PTA groups and parents thoughts here, that's like the one that people are most receptive to. And I have people who are like buying copies of the Constitution, then going and doing it with their kids. So I hear you on the hesitation, that's really what I thought, but it's not what I'm seeing in the talks that I've been doing over the last six months.
[00:31:52] Hunter: All right, let's, I, this is probably a good challenge for you and I both dear listener, yeah. Okay. And a lot of us have young kids, but a lot of us have teens. And I know at least for my daughter, she's going to be voting in the next election cycle. We want to then help first time voters understand You know, that to get registered, they can maybe register, can they register in their home, if they go to college, can they register in their hometown and then just go home to vote if they're close enough?
[00:32:24] Lindsey Cormack: They can, but I got to tell you, as someone who works on college campuses, they oftentimes don't want to go home on a Tuesday in November. It's like midterms happening then, and so it's not what I encourage them to do. It also is the case that if they're going away to college, the politics that most affect them are the politics of the place that they live, not the place that they grew up in. And so we used to have this advice of register at home and then vote absentee or go back home and vote on election day. It's not realistic. It's not something that is easy for them. It's much easier to say, Figure out what the laws are in your state, once you've established residency, because they're all different. Every state has different requirements. Get registered there, because that is where your politics matters, that's where your power should be, instead of saying make sure you keep caring about where you used to live. And yes, they can do it, but it's not what I tell people to do.
[00:33:12] Hunter: Okay. All right. So I guess that's something you need to figure out on your own, dear listener, where you're where they're going to get registered. Is there anything else that we missed that you want to share with the listener about how about getting our kids and being involved, engaged citizens?
[00:33:30] Lindsey Cormack: I think the biggest thing is that we have to do this. I think sometimes a lot of us feel like our politics isn't functioning that or it doesn't feel that good and nothing's going to change unless we're willing to do it. There's no one coming from the outside to save us. And so even though it's uncomfortable. Even though it seems boring or hard, we do boring, hard, uncomfortable things all the time. Why not do this here so that we can leave a better politics for our kids, and they're better equipped to wield their own power as they inherit the system.
[00:34:00] Hunter: Just talk to your kids a little bit about these things. Yes. And in Lindsey's book, there's so much here. There's we, there's the details the Second Amendment, the, how to have these conversations, going into depth, the primer part about how our government is structured so that we can we can talk about it. The different articles are here for instance, under article six, you have three things to know about article six about national debt, supremacy clause, and no religious test, et cetera. So it's I think this is, I think this would be really helpful for us all to get our civics a little firmer under our belt. And then also then to share it with our kids. I bet your kid is like the most informed 12 year old in the school about politics, although you live in New York, so maybe not.
[00:34:53] Lindsey Cormack: yeah, she goes to a school with a lot of really interesting, bright kids, but she does know a lot. She comes to the first day of class when I teach because her school always starts later than mine, and she's blown away with how much of the pre test she knows that the college students don't know, so she feels pretty secure in a lot of this.
[00:35:09] Hunter: That's so cool. All right. May we all raise citizens like that. Lindsay McCormick's book is “How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It's Up to You to Do It)”. And it's everywhere books are sold. Where can people find out more about you if they want to continue the conversation?
[00:35:24] Lindsey Cormack: I'm always around. I have a Instagram that's just @howtoraiseacitizen. And I take questions and I answer them. And I talk about topics that are Whatever people want to hear about or things that they've thought about and don't have anyone to suss it out with, I'm always happy to do it there.
[00:35:38] Hunter: Thank you so much for your time and for writing this book and helping us to raise better citizens. I think this is so important, so I'm really glad you were able to take the time to come on today. Thank you so much for chatting with me. This was nice.
Hey, I hope you found this episode helpful. I think Lindsey’s book is very helpful and it's so important. Another thing to think about, oh my goodness, another thing to think about if you were struggling or you're thinking about, oh my God, how do I get through the day? And the Mindful Parenting podcast is a resource for you, as it should be, on MindfulMamaMentor.com. We have a personal playlist quiz that you can take. So if you're new to the podcast, check it out. You can just go to the podcast link, and there's this link for personal playlist quiz, and what we do is we have this quiz for you to give you, basically, instead of hunting and pecking through all the episodes, we have so many episodes, you're going to get a five episode personalized playlist of the podcasts that are picked for you to become the best parent you can be. So anyway, check it out. It's at mindfulmamamentor.com/quiz, or you can just find it under the Quiz tab, but that's pretty cool. So if you're struggling and you're like, Hunter, boy, I just listened to this wonderful episode about politics, but I can't even get there. Go to the quiz. Listen to something that maybe might help you. Get to that more grounded place. So you're like, yes, I'm ready. I'm ready to take on politics as a parenting goal as well. So anyway, hope this episode was helpful for you. I hope did something good in your life today.
And I'm going to be reviewing Lindsay's book to think about how I can talk to my kids about this and maybe reading that constitution. Oh my goodness. Anyway, I hope this helped you and watered your good seeds. I'm wishing you a beautiful week. I hope the politics doesn't make you crazy and you stay grounded and peaceful, regardless of whatever you're thinking about all the things. And then yeah, wishing you peace, wishing you ease, and I'll be back to talk to you again next week. Thank you so much for listening.
[00:38:07] Mindful Mama Member: I'd say definitely do it. It's really helpful. It will change your relationship with your kids for the better. It will help you communicate better. And just, I'd say communicate better as a person, as a wife, as a spouse. It's been really a positive influence in our lives. So definitely do it. I'd say definitely do it. It's so worth it. The money really is inconsequential when you get so much benefit from being a better parent to your children and feeling like you're connecting more with them. Not feeling like you're yelling all the time or you're like, why isn't this working? I would say definitely do it. It's so worth it. It'll change you. No matter what age someone's child is, it's a great opportunity for personal growth and it's a great investment in someone's family. I'm very thankful I have this. You can continue in your old habits that aren't working or you can learn some new tools and gain some perspective to shift everything in your body.
[00:39:10] Hunter: Are you frustrated by parenting? Do you listen to the experts and try all the tips and strategies, but you're just not seeing the results that you want? Or are you lost as to where to start? Does it all seem so overwhelming with too much to learn? Are you yearning for community people who get it, who also don't want to threaten and punish to create cooperation?
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[00:41:01] Mindful Mama Member: Hunter's program that really drew me in was that it wasn't just on like, how do we practice mindfulness? It incorporated the communication and the problem solving and went a lot deeper. It was really amazing to be going through this process and have that like weekly support that extended beyond just our teacher training really. The whole process was really well laid out and organized and having the materials from a teacher perspective was really nice as well. The course is so thorough like you're given every single bit of material that you could possibly need. This is really a community reaching far and wide. And I think that this program, because it works on decreasing your inner stress response and taking care of yourself, so then you can give that back to your children and model that behavior for your children as they're growing up into adulthood. Just seeing the positive changes in my own family and knowing that as I continue to spread that into the community, that will be, like, just even more far reaching.
[00:42:00] Hunter: Enrollment is open now and there are limited spots available. Step into your dream of becoming a Mindful Parenting coach. Find out more at mindfulparentingcourse.com/teach. That's mindfulparentingcourse.com/teach.
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