"Daddy, if I'm president, can I outlaw smoking?"
This sent us our conversation off on a tangent about federal versus state government and ways how the federal government can get the states to make laws. For an example, we discussed how the federal government wouldn't share its money for highway improvements unless the states made their drinking age 21. The states all wanted that money for their highways, so they made their drinking age 21. I told ES that he could do something similar. For instance, he could tell the states he has a bunch of money to share for improving schools and libraries, but he wouldn't share the money unless the state wrote a law that banned smoking. He liked that idea.
Anyway, one of the unintended consequences of these discussions with ES came to light recently when we had some friends over for dinner. ES wanted to be a hermit and lock himself in his room. I told him that was rude and he wasn't allowed to lock himself in his room.
He felt he was being oppressed, so he drafted up his own Declaration of Independence and presented it to me that night just before dinner.(Aside: I meant to take a picture of it to post on my blog, but I got distracted through the course of dinner and forgot, and now I don't know where it is.)
Yeah, so, my son is declaring his independence at the great age of 7 years old.
Is this foreshadowing some more egregious form of civil disobedience in the years to come? I just can't WAIT to see what he's like as a teenager!
Oh, and I almost forgot: That night will go down in history as the first time I've heard my wife quote Monty Python. After I told her about ES's declaration of independence, she said:
'elp! 'elp! I'm bein' oppressed!
Funny thing was, she didn't even realize she had done it. It's become ingrained in her psyche. She's been assimilated by the borg nerd!
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