What will you be doing on January 20, 2009? With almost a quarter million tickets being handed out for President-Elect Barack Obama's swearing in as the forty-fourth commander in chief and a crowd of four million expected, chances are Sasha and Malia won't be the only kids on the national mall. As for the rest of us? The 20th is a school day this year; not to mention a work day.
In fact the noon-time ceremony will be hard for all by stay-at-home parents with non-school-aged (or homeschooled) kids to watch. I'm crossing my fingers for a snow day, so I won't have to make a mad drive across town from nursery school pick-up to settle in in front of the TV. I expect my three-year-old will only have the patience for a few minutes of President Barack Obama before she's ready for me to flip to Noggin or play the ladybug game, but parents with older kids have an incredible opportunity to share history with their kids on a frosty Tuesday that's fast approaching.
Every inauguration's a teaching moment, but this is a day more akin to Kennedy's swearing in than Bush 2's second time at the podium (which I skipped, by the way - although I did watch the first). It will be the one and only time we will watch the first black president of the United States sworn in. When our kids are old farts like us, will they be able to talk about the day they watched it?
Is it worth it to you to make the drive to D.C.? Will you keep them home from school just to watch it at home? Or will the day be business as usual?
Image: Official Inauguration Site of the U.S. Senate
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