Dragging my Children Down

Well, we went through the second phase of interviewing with the Rotary club for my daughter's possible overseas experience next year. It went well but I must admit that I had a brain freeze when they started asking about "What would your daughter do if she were put with a host family that is very strict in the area of religion or politics, or very loose." This was a question for me, my daughter was not in the room. I was able to handle the religion question with the answer that I thought she would view a religious family as an interesting cultural experience and she would go along with their wishes, realizing that it was a good learning experience.

My brain kind of locked at the political aspect though. I must admit, I wasn't understanding the question. I was looking at it in terms of a Japanese family discussing Japanese politics. Well, how would my daughter react to a Japanese family that didn't like their new Prime Minister? I couldn't fathom how she would react. It wasn't until they brought my daughter back in the room and phrased the question differently that I had a real Homer Simpson "DOH!" moment.

"How would you react to people that didn't like the current American president and held it against all Americans?"

Well, Duh!

She answered perfectly and said that she thought that once they got to know her, they would realize that not every American agrees with the president and that hopefully they would judge her on her own merits.

I'm such a dead weight for my kid.

If I would have understood the question, I probably would have said something boneheaded like, "Just start singing O Canada and expounding on the many useful resources provided by the moose. Yes, FAKE BEING A CANADIAN."

Actually, my husband and I were not allowed into a restaurant in Japan once because we were American. And this was well before Shrub came into office. As much as the youth of Japan likes American pop culture, the elders in Japan remember our shared history and it's a bit of a crap shoot as to what kind of a reception that you will get.

Oh well, I hope I didn't screw anything up. Maybe they'll give her a pity pass...