Dear Congress...

Dear Congress 

As a mom of two young children, a wife of a government employee and a college educated woman, I wanted to thank you.

I consider my job as parent to be an extremely difficult job, and I endeavor to participate in as much professional development as possible. I follow the news and I talk to my children about their leaders. I have explained to them, on many occasions, that watching your leaders is an excellent way to know right from wrong. 

Recently, my children have learned many valuable lessons from watching you. Let me provide you some examples. 

1-      They have learned that when they don’t agree with somebody, they should stand their ground. To the end. Never negotiate. Regardless of the cost. Thank you for bestowing this lesson on my children. It will serve them well on the playground when their entire class gets grounded for their behavior.  

2-      They have learned that apologizing or stepping back to reevaluate an earlier choice is a sign of weakness and that they should NEVER do so. This is working especially well in their battles with me and their father in the house.

3-      They have learned that communication is important, except when they really care. Oh, and when they know they’re right. Like, when my daughter KNEW that she had been playing with the toy cars before my son entered the room. On that occasion, or occasions like that, she doesn’t have to communicate. Yelling and stomping is significantly more successful.

4-      Blaming your opponent is far more important than understanding and/or fixing the problem. For example, my son successfully spent a significant time crying and whining about how he had been wronged by his sister. At no point did he work on sharing or taking turns. We were quite proud of him. 

Raising my children right is important to me and I sincerely want to thank you for helping me impart these lessons to my children. Without your guidance and representation, I may have mistakenly asked them to communicate or negotiate. They may have shared or apologized, and that would be terrible.

After all, aren’t YOU in the job of representing us and who we strive to be? 

Sincerely,

Lisa Booth

Stay at home mom of two young kids and wife of currently unpaid husband