Besides a young Chelsea Clinton and Jimmy Carter's little girl Amy, the children of the presidents in my lifetime have been teens or much much older. So it's fun watching this year's campaign, as Political Nanny, as a voter, and especially now as a mother. I know how challenging it can be to take kids to the store -- what new version of hell must it be to drag them all over Iowa and beyond? Yet this election is just littered with little bitty kids! Miss Emma-Claire Edwards and Malia Obama, Hayden Thompson and Mitt Romney's son's son.
Sure, everyone's putting on a good face. And mercifully, reporters haven't run any footage of total meltdowns on the trail (politicians' kids melt down too, right?). It's all happiness and precocious repartee, sledding, eating, pressing the flesh.
So what do you think of this, taking young kids out of school to help daddy stump? Cruel? Selfish? Or opportunity of a lifetime for a two-year-old? What do you think it's like? Do they feel the losses? Stay up for returns? Watch their fathers crumble into a heap on a hotel bed and think people are being mean to him and making him lose? I imagine, from the child's perspective, it's a lot of sweaty adults with bad breath asking you the same questions at every stop.
However, I'm inclined to say that no matter how boring it must get for them, it's got to be better than not seeing mommy or daddy for days and weeks on end. I'm sure the quality face time is also lacking, but who am I to judge? I wave away my kids just to write emails.
In any case, time to say bye-bye to all your new friends in Iowa, young Dodd girls, because that state's history and Daddy's moving on.
