I can picture it now perfectly more than 70 years later. I am holding my mother’s hand looking up at her. I have on a dress as does my mother. We are in the voting booth on Election Day. She is pushing down the levers. There is seriousness and excitement. Every year she and my father always took me with them to vote.
As a certified NYS parent educator (NYSPEP), I know that the most important job of parenting in addition to providing for basic physical needs, protection and affection, is to remember that you are your child’s most important teacher. You are their role model and they want to grow up to be just like you.
To my parents, voting in every election was a privilege and responsibility of being a good citizen, especially to my mother who immigrated to this country to escape the pogroms in Russia at age 11. Becoming a citizen was the proudest day of her life.
What do you want your children to learn from you?
I hope you want them to be responsible members of the community, to believe in our democracy, to prize our freedoms, and to know that their vote matters.
Please vote on November 5 or in early voting or absentee ballot. Please make a plan and tell your neighbors.
Take your children to the polls and show them what good citizenship means to you.
Paula Spector
Chester