Thanksgiving: What does it mean for your kids?

Thanksgiving - what a wonderful holiday! We hear that more people travel for this yearly celebration to be with family and friends than any other during the year. Its traditions, wonderful food, reconnecting and bringing out the fine china. For our kids it's time to play with cousins, greet grandparents, get dressed-up, hear their parents exclaim over a beautifully cooked turkey, and feel connected to family.

And - that's about it. Or, is it? Do your children really know what we're giving thanks for?

At school, especially if they are preschoolers or in kindergarten they will reenact (and probably invite you) to a presentation of the first thanksgiving, with some playing the parts of Native Americans, some the pilgrims.

Older kids may get a geography lesson on Jamestown or the colonies to learn about life at the time of our country's birth. They'll hear about the difficulties on the Mayflower and the other two boats that brought new inhabitants to a new land and a new way of life. They'll hear about oppression and the lack of freedom under a king and why these brave folk took the risk and made the journey.

So - is that it? Is that all they know about why our nation sets aside a day to say, "Thank you?"

Let's be sure it's not. Having just finished an election that even our youngest kids are aware of, let's insist they understand what that means. I'm not talking about whether we're happy or sad with the results. Talk with them, young and old, about the privilege we have to cast our vote, how our legislation happens and how we can each work to make this the country of the "land of the free, home of the brave."

Help them recognize that at least two of the state measures that passed will affect them. If they are a fifth- or sixth-grader they will benefit from Measure 99, which creates funding to provide outdoor school statewide. If they are a high school student they'll have the benefits from Measure 98 which will fund dropout-prevention and career and college readiness.

Whether we agree with our citizens' choice or not, let us teach our kids to respect that choice. Of course, many of you are disappointed. Many of you feel the change that is promised will not be the change for which you hoped. In respecting the fact that we all could voice our opinion, that we all still have peaceful ways to let our leaders know what we want or don't want, we teach our kids the reason this is a great country and how it can be even greater, no matter our political views.

Many years ago, one of our daughters was aghast at the fact that her friends had marched in school with candles, as if at a wake, the day after a national election. It wasn't that she disagreed with them, it was the fact that, "this was the President! You don't treat him that way." She was talking about respect for the position and for what it stood. My answer to her was that this is how parents feel when we are disappointed with our kids. Disappointed doesn't mean we stop loving them. Disappointment doesn't mean we stop working to make things better.

Perhaps you aren't feeling respect for the person we elected. Perhaps you, too, want to march through the downtown streets of Manhattan. How wonderful we have the freedom to do that. This Thanksgiving season, make sure your kids understand what that means.