In a cruel twist of fate, my children suffer from having a historian for a mother. Consequently, we have never listened to Kidzbop or Disney soundtracks in the car; instead, a steady stream of NPR stories often provides the background banter to our travels. Naturally, this has led to some challenging discussions with my 7 and 9 year old about things like the debt ceiling (not a real ceiling), the World Bank (no, they won’t give you all the money in the world), and the subtle pronunciation difference between Volodymyr (as in Zelenskyy) and Vladmir (as in Putin).
Our playlist also includes songs with connections to history. It should come as no surprise that my children have a unique choice for their most requested tune: “Leningrad” by Billy Joel. The historian in me loved that they were interested in a song that explores Cold War tensions, until my young daughter so sweetly sang the lyrics, “I was born in ’49, a Cold War kid in McCarthy time, stop ’em at the 38th parallel, blast those yellow reds to hell…” Then came the questions. What are “yellow reds?” Why did we want to send them to “h-e-double hockey sticks?” I feared I had created a monster, and my kids would begin spewing racist language at school for all their friends and teachers to hear.
Then I remembered that the study of history is the study of context. Could I provide a contextual framework for my kids to understand the song more clearly, address the racist language, and provide them with historical empathy so that they would not only understand conflicts, such as the Cold War, but also learn to feel an appropriate connection to people in the past? I gave it a shot. Soon, conversations emerged about how short-sighted it is to hate an entire nation based on its style of government, just like it is equally inappropriate to hate a group of people based on their skin color. Our discussions grew even deeper. Questions like “Who was more scared, the Soviets or the Americans?” led to us to contextualize the fear of war, the role of weapons and propaganda in spreading that fear, and how, despite their many differences, in some ways the Soviet and American experiences in the Cold War held similarities.
Ultimately this story of raising children as a historian is illustrative of a larger narrative. As a parent, I want my kids to have the tools to live happy, healthy, and successful lives in which they treat others with dignity and respect. As a historian, I know how context can help us better understand historical events and their connection to the present. At the intersection of these two roles, I’ve learned that open and honest conversations about the past inform our kids’ abilities to make sense of the world around them, without fear or prejudice, and grow into individuals who can confidently navigate whatever the future holds.