An Unsealed Room

February 12th, 2009 3:47 am

Can YOU Explain the Israeli Election Results to a Four-Year Old? I Can’t.

Meet my daughter Tamar.

In addition to being outrageously cute, she is exceptionally intelligent (being her mother, I clearly am completely unbiased and objective on both points, right?)

Really, she is very bright. Bright enough to understand that on Tuesday, Mommy and Daddy went to vote to decide who was going to be Prime Minister – she knew that either Bibi or Tsippi was going to win. And that both Mom and Dad wanted Tsippi to win.

All day Tuesday, she asked who won, and we told her that we would find out after she went to sleep that night, but when she woke up on Wednesday, we would be able to tell her who won.

But, of course, when she did – we couldn’t. We didn’t know yet. While I offered this explanation in order to simplify what is going on now for a grownup who has seen the proper Mafia films, it doesn’t exactly translate into kindergarten-speak. So the poor child kept asking all day without getting a proper answer.

And she’s doing the same today. She’s thinking that even she knows how to count faster than these silly grown-ups…

If somebody doesn’t put together a coalition soon, I’m going to have to think of a new analogy that suits her age level. I’m sure I can figure out how to compare the current political dynamic to children in the sandbox fighting over the available pails and shovels. That shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

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1 Comment

1. Yair:

Hmmm.. a challenge:

Tzipi and Bibi are trying to build a castle from Lego blocks. Tzipi has one more Lego block than Bibi, but it’s not enough to build a castle. Bibi has friends with Lego blocks, so it’s likely he’ll build the castle first.

Feb 15, 2009 - 10:47 am

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Allison Kaplan Sommer

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