Editor’s note: This week’s guest post is written by Sarah Vacchiano, an entertainment lawyer, author, toddler mom, and founder of Civic EQ, a Substack that empowers parents to raise civically curious, engaged, and emotionally intelligent humans.

The 2024 presidential election is less than a month away, but you don’t have to be a news junkie to feel how heavy things are.   

Let’s face it. Most millennials entered parenthood at a time politics had already become soul-sucking. As much as it’s human nature to romanticize the good old days – be it a juicy presidential sex scandal or the Obama hope era – most adults (and kids) don’t know what “civics” actually means. And because there’s an 800-pound gorilla (politics) taking up all the oxygen, most of us now solidly identify as being part of the “Exhausted Majority,” which refers to “Americans that are fatigued by the polarized state of our society and eager for change,” according to More in Common.

It’s undeniable that politics takes up a lot of space, but the practice of civics isn’t supposed to be political. Not if we’re doing it the right way, at least. And this is a message most millennial parents are wired to hear, even if we have no idea what “civics” means outside of politics.

For the majority of us, a tiny amount of civics was wedged into our U.S. history or social studies classes, but what is civics, exactly? Simply put, it refers to the rights and responsibilities we have as citizens. I like to reference Ben Sheehan’s more detailed explanation from his book, What Does the Constitution Actually Say? “Civics is our participation toolkit, the study of government, and the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen,” he writes. “These include understanding how government works, at all levels, and knowing how we can use it to better our lives.”

So, with just weeks to go until we vote for the next leader of the free world, what’s an earnest millennial parent to do? We don’t have an extra hour in the day to re-learn civics. I can’t even find time to watch a three-minute educational Schoolhouse Rock clip on YouTube. And I don’t know about you, but I tend to kick the can on things I don’t feel confident about (he’s only two right now, but I’ll be the last person offering to help my son with math homework, because I care deeply about his math journey).  

But here’s the good news: talking to kids about what’s happening in the world doesn’t require us to know everything. In fact, learning together could make our kids feel even more confident when they start discussing these issues in school or amongst friends.

Sure, there are certain things we should all have in our civics “toolbox.”  It’s important to have a basic idea of what democracy means, be able to identify the three branches of government, and know that the Constitution is America’s instruction manual (Ben Sheehan’s book comes in handy here too!)

There’s civic knowledge, and then there’s what I like to call a civic ethos. And this is where millennial parents are set up to succeed.  

Civic parenting is a lifestyle.

We brought the millennial playbook to parenting; Information-driven and enthusiastic with an uncanny ability to filter through the noise. A ”fake it till you make it” philosophy isn’t in the playbook (if you haven’t read Caitlin Moscatello’s New York Times piece “Welcome to the Era of Very Earnest Parenting”, it’s a must).  

Regardless of politics, we all want to be the best parents we can be, and we all want our children to be the best humans they can be. I’ve been theorizing for a while that civics is inherently social and emotional, but I didn’t fully understand it until I became a mom.  

To put it in millennial parlance, civic parenting is a lifestyle. It’s about magnifying the small kindnesses that make us feel connected. It’s about leaning into our immediate community and focusing on the foundational values – what I call the “pre-civics skills” – that we all need to brush up on; things like civil discourse, tolerant disagreement, compassion for others, and so much more.   

That’s what civics means to me, and the simplicity of it is energizing. It’s something we can explain to our children, even if imperfectly, and it’s a way of life we can practice for ourselves and model for our kids.

How do you practice “civic parenting?” with your kids?

In addition to being an entertainment lawyer, Sarah Vacchiano has served as an adjunct professor at Duke Law School and is a frequent guest lecturer for NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Stern School of Business.  She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son and their sweet rescue pup, Josephine. 

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Then check out the rest of Starglow’s election coverage, including election conversation starters for kids by age, 5 ways to involve your kids in the 2024 election, and the most reputable news sources for kids, and stay tuned for more.