+
upworthy
More

How 5 parents and teachers are talking about Trump with children this week.

Late on Election Day, as victory slipped further and further out of Hillary Clinton's reach, CNN commentator Van Jones had some powerful words.

"It's hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us," he began. "You tell your kids don't be a bully. You tell your kids don't be a bigot. You tell your kids do your homework and be prepared. And then you have this outcome."

"You have people putting children to bed tonight, and they're afraid of breakfast," he said. "They're afraid of, 'How do I explain this to my children?'"


Clinton supporters were devastated by the loss. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Truthfully, this is hard to explain. In many cases, you might feel like you can't explain Trump's election to your kids. But as any parent or teacher knows, you also can't crawl into a hole and hide away during dark times. Our kids need us to be brave, to explain things to them that may not make sense, and to give them some sense of hope.

So I talked to five people who are helping our kids this week. I asked them how they're handling those difficult conversations. This is what they said.

1. Meet Leyna Odell and her 6-year-old daughter, Piper.

"I talked to my daughter about it and said I was sad my side lost but that now we have to try more than ever to be kind and helpful to people," Leyna wrote.

She told her daughter that she needs to be a friend to everyone and help people who might be scared of hurting. Then she encouraged Piper to draw out her feelings.

Photos by Leyna Odell, used with permission.

Leyna explained, "It's 'the week we don't like,' showing Clinton supporters in the rain, her voting for Clinton, and then a picture of an angry guy saying he doesn't like anyone with her asking, 'Can I help?'

2. Meet Lindsay Reno, a sixth-grade teacher outside of Boston.

Lindsay said most of her students are immigrants or children of immigrants, from places like the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Haiti. About 80% of them speak a language other than English at home.

"What made today really difficult is, as a teacher, you have the obligation to be a calming force among your students," she said. "But it was hard not to show our feelings on our faces as we talked to our kids (on Wednesday)."

"There were some kids crying really hard because they were worried about their parents being deported."

Lindsay said she did not tell her students that Donald Trump should not be president. That, she said, would be crossing a moral line. Instead, she wanted them to understand how the electoral college works, what the Constitution says, and how the system can improve.

But after she explained that, it was pretty obvious that the conversation would need to go further. "There were some kids crying really hard because they were worried about their parents being deported," she said.

So she and her fellow teachers did the best they could to be there for the students, listen to them, answer their questions, and above all, show them that they are loved.

"We didn't really know what we were doing," she said. "It wasn't perfect."

But it was a start.

3. Meet Genevieve Fitzgerald Davis and her 4-year-old son, Jonah.

Photo by Genevieve Fitzgerald, used with permission.

Jonah is too young to follow the election closely, but even he could see Trump's unique brand of hatred and bigotry.

"At one point he was with my mom, and they were watching the news, and Jonah said, 'Oh, that's Donald Trump, he doesn't like me.'" Genevieve said. "He made the connection himself; he said, 'He doesn't like me because I'm brown, and Donald Trump doesn't like brown people.'"

The day after Trump became president-elect, Genevieve said she and Jonah only briefly touched on the results. "I didn't want to ruin his whole day," she said.

But she did tell him two things. First, when Jonah was confused because "Donald Trump is not nice," she told him that it didn't matter because they were always going to be nice to people. And second, she wanted him to know that just because the result wasn't what they wanted, it didn't mean they weren't going to fight for something better.

"The more I can help out with my local government or donations or volunteering, I want him to see me as an example," she said. "I want him to be proud of me."

4. Meet Patrick Wilson, a high school teacher.

Photo via Patrick Wilson, used with permission.

"Kids are definitely more informed than they used to be," Patrick said of his ninth-, 10th- and 12th-grade social studies students.

So he didn't hold back on diving into the nitty gritty with them. As each period entered his room, they were met by the full electoral college map on the front board. Patrick led discussions on how Trump won key battleground states and how his election might affect the Supreme Court and the actions of Congress.

But the nuts and bolts of the election wasn't the only thing on the kids' minds.

"The hardest question I got today, one that took me back, a kid said, 'I don't understand how the country elected a racist.'" Another girl was worried about Mike Pence and his harsh views on abortion rights.

Patrick didn't know how to answer. He just tried to be a comforting presence as much as he could.

"I said, 'He's going to be President Trump, not King Trump,' He's not going to be able to do whatever he wants."

5. Meet Emily Ellsworth and her 6-year-old daughter, Abigail.

Photo by Emily Ellsworth, used with permission.

Emily has spent the majority of this election cycle actively campaigning for Hillary Clinton. So her 6-year-old daughter, Abigail, quickly became enamored with the idea of our country's first female president.

It gave her hope that she, too, might one day run the country. "She told me several times that she thought she'd be next," Emily said. But it was not to be, at least not this election cycle.

"(Wednesday) morning she woke up and ran into my room and asked me who won, and I had to tell her," Emily said, holding back tears of her own. "She didn't believe me. She was in shock. And she cried."

Emily says she had planned on talking to her daughter about the importance of hard work, preparation, and kindness. About how people came together to vote for what was right. Instead, she's giving her a lesson on how to deal with crushing disappointment. But Emily is determined to find a positive lesson in all of this.

"We're going to have some hard conversations about protecting and being there for her friends who are scared," she said. "Children, and adults, who are scared of what a Trump presidency represents for them."

The one common thread I found is that we can't hide from this.

But that doesn't mean we have to accept it. We can fight back by being kind to one another, by maintaining hope, and by continuing to work toward a better world.

Whatever we choose to do, America's children will be watching.

Family

Mom calls out teacher who gave her son a 'zero' grade for not providing class with supplies

Her viral video sparked a debate as to whether or not providing school supplies should be mandatory for parents.

@shanittanicole/TikTok

A zero grade for not providing school supplies?

The debate as to whether or not parents should supply classroom supplies is not new. But as prices continue to rise, parents are growing more baffled as to how they can be expected by teachers to provide all the various glue sticks, colored pencils, rulers and other various items the incoming students might need.

What’s even more perplexing, however, is penalizing the children of parents who won’t (or can’t) provide them.

This was the case for Shanitta Nicole, who discovered her son received a zero grade in his new school for not bringing school supplies for the entire classroom.
Keep ReadingShow less

A group of men look at paperwork.

The massive changes to the American workplace caused by the COVID-19 pandemic invited many to reconsider their professional lives. This reevaluation has led people to push for improved work-life balance, and many now are looking for work to provide a greater sense of meaning and purpose.

When the world returned to work after COVID, many believed they deserved to be treated better by their employers. This resulted in many taking a break from the workforce or changing professions altogether. It also helped usher in a more comfortable culture for calling out companies that don’t treat their employees respectfully.

Recently, a group of thousands came together on Reddit to expose the common mistruths that people often hear at the workplace. It all started when a Redditor named PretenstoKnow asked: "What's the most common lie employers tell their employees?" And over 2,600 people responded.

Keep ReadingShow less

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo Credit: William Fortunado via Canva

Amanda Seals breaks down history of DAP handshake

We've all seen people do it. Anywhere from basketball players on television to kids meeting up at the skating rink. Even former president Barack Obama when greeting a mixed group of men gave "DAP" to the Black men in the group, yet switched to a firm handshake when greeting the other men.

It was almost like watching the president code switch, but with body language, in a move that many Black Americans recognize as a gesture of acceptance and comradery. But did you know that there's an actual history behind the DAP that has nothing to do with looking cool? Social justice educator and actress, Amanda Seales, recently re-shared a clip from "The Real" where she was diving into the history of the handshake.

Seales, who has a master's degree in African American Studies from Columbia University, was also admittedly surprised when she learned there was a deeper meaning to the gesture.

Keep ReadingShow less
Health

Neuroscientist reveals perfect amount of time to spend on social media for your mental health

Over several weeks, the participants felt less loneliness, depression and anxiety.

@rachelle_summers/TikTok

Anyone can use this checklist.

There are pretty clear cut guidelines on how much screen time kids should have, but for adults…not so much. And perhaps it’s this lack of clarity that leaves people to go on full blown digital detoxes or get off social media entirely.

And while there is certainly a case to be made for that decision, for many of us, that isn’t quite feasible—especially in certain lines of work.

Luckily, according to neuroscientist Rachelle Summers, there is a way we can still be on social media, without being subjected to its negative side effects.
Keep ReadingShow less
Photo by Kats Weil on Unsplash

Ready for a refreshingly wholesome story?

The stereotypical image we get of bachelor parties is a booze-filled evening of depravity and bad choices. Followed of course by a massive hangover…and some regrets.

And granted, there are plenty of viral videos to show that this is sometimes the case. But there are also plenty of grooms who don’t see it as their “last night as a free man.” On the contrary, they see it as an opportunity to simply celebrate the next chapter with close friends.

Case and point: a husband-to-be named Luke, who apparently couldn’t stop “gushing” about his bride, Sam. This, according to a woman also named Sam, who happened to be at the bar Luke was having his bachelor party at.
Keep ReadingShow less