Election season. An exhausting ride where we are all bombarded with campaign ads, controversial discussions, heated debates, and a barrage of political humdrum.

After we’ve been swept into campaign mayhem for many months, Election Day is a welcome respite. The polls are bustling with long lines, exit pollers, and a flurry of media. Yet the rest of us are watching time pass slowly, the hours laboriously trudging forward as we wait, patiently or not, for the clock to signal the closing of the polls, when we can resume our anticipatory viewing of the news.

In the daylight hours as we await definitive updates, by and large, we are no longer focused on specific issues and debate performances. Instead we are drawn back to the simplicity of our emotional attachments to the candidates themselves. We focus on the eagerness for our candidate’s win, the dreams we have for the changes he or she will make, and the promise for what we see as a better future for our children and ourselves.

No matter where we fall on the political spectrum, it’s hard not to feel at least some pang of pure innocent hope today, a reminder of what we knew before we knew so much.

As you grow, you learn about the complexities of politics, move beyond naïve ideas of changing the world seamlessly, and navigate adulthood by forming realistic dreams and goals. But here, in the quiet of Election Day, I feel that simple hope again. I want my son to feel it too. Today he accompanied me as I let my voice be heard through my own vote so that he too can charge forward knowing he has a say.

How do you share the election with your children? Do you find that hope and excitement return when you teach your children about politics?