Talking With A Teenager...

*may contain swear words*

Watched the news tonight with our teenage step-nephew and talked about politics.

Man, can kids fucking talk...

We were watching CNN, so he was "forced" to watch it with us. Granted, we know CNN might not be the greatest,  but it's better than local news, it's better than MSNBC, and it's fucking hand over fist 100% better than Fox.

We talked to him a bit about the important of this election, from our personal perspective. We also made sure to tell him everything we said carried a bias (we hope he knows what bias means, now that we think about it)...and then explained why we had a bias.

We said because his mother has a pre-existing medical conditions that is draining Angry Brother's (our brother, his step-dad) wallet, and doesn't have insurance for her...without getting into too much detail with readers...that the benefits of Affordable Healthcare are clear for those like her who have pre-existing conditions.

We also told him our "bias" lays in our own pre-existing conditions (severe back problems) and desire to have affordable healthcare in the future, and the fact that we are female means it's important to us that other women can retain their reproductive choices. (we are pro-choice, though abortion would never be a choice for us, but a talk about abortion has it's time and place, and this was not one of those times)

We told him that the things that are happening in the world, as we watched a report on Syria, are important, and foreign policy is important; but to us things that will effect Americans (like women, and the poor...we didn't mention gays to him) directly and immediately are what is most important to us.

We're not going to pretend how we feel about the election is the end-all to the issue, we can only explain why we support who we support.

Later he talked to us about a rumour on Facebook and in school that Bill Nye, a scientist and educator, best known as 'Bill Nye The Science Guy' on Disney/PBS in the late 90's, had died (good to know "death-hoaxes" are not limited to the ignorant on Twitter). We laughed, told him that Bill Nye hadn't died, and made sure to tell him, as we did when we talked to him about the upcoming election, that it's important to look at the facts and information, to look into things that seem questionable or that you question, and then figure it out based on that.

He may not be our child, but he is a child going into an uncertain future, and above all it's important that they are encouraged to be inquisitive, and not afraid to think about things...

...but DAMN, can kids fucking talk and be distracting. And we didn't pay enough attention to him as we should have...

Glad we're not going to have any.