Sunday, November 25, 2007

Shhhh...Don't Tell the Kids

Mitt Romney criticized Senator Obama for revealing that he used drugs in high school.

"I agree with the sentiment that nobody's perfect and most of us, if not all of us, in our youthful years have engaged in various indiscretions we wouldn't want to have paraded in the front of a newspaper," Romney said. "On the other hand if we're running for president, I think it's important for us not to go into details about the weaknesses and our own failings as young people for the concern that we open kids thinking that it's ok for them."


This is most definitely not the thing to do with kids. You don't need to glorify your indiscretions, but you do need to be open and honest. Kids are not stupid. They know that adults were kids at one point and they are going to wonder about mistakes their parents and other adults made. If you try to cover it up, you're going to end up looking like a holier-than-thou hypocrite because nothing stays hidden forever. I have tried to be open with my daughters about mistakes I made when I was young. In fact, I think it helps me bond with them because they can see that I am not that different from them in that I was young once and faced similar choices and that I wasn't always perfect.

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