I like to think that the significance of this day will travel to the future and remain a strong turning point in our country's history. I hope the "Where were you when Barrack Obama became President" will not fade and people will continue to share their stories to the younger generations.My husband and I went back and forth in our decision to keep the children home from school to watch the entire Inauguration. Being on the West Coast, we would reach the broadcast earlier in our day and I thought the parade led up to the oath which then would lead to the speech. So, I felt it would be an important "first" that our children should stay home to watch; to capture the moment's significance and not worry about school.
Then, I heard that the kids were going to watch the speech at school; which they were more excited to be in the buzz of the moment grouped in school with classmates and teachers; and ... Uh, watch TV in school?!. So, then my mind changed, and they were going to go to school. Thinking that in reality, they would not want to watch the parade and oath out of boredom, and what really mattered was just the speech, which they would catch at school.
But then, just last night, my husband went on the handy internet and looked up the specific agenda for the day. The parade was after, the ceremony was first, and the speech was to begin promptly at the moment we were to be in our car traveling to school; 9:00am PST. Selfishly, I knew I was not going to be driving during President Obama's speech. Secondly, even if the kids were to arrive at school, the speech would have been ten minutes old and I could foresee the scene of disruption trying to get arriving students to be quiet and listen.
The final answer was we were going to stay home as a family and watch it together. After a quick run down of how the morning was going to work, the kids were on board with the idea. Lunches packed, dressed, and ready to roll as soon as the President was finished with his speech, we all sat together in our family room to watch the pomp and circumstance, the oath, the speech, and we DVR'd the celebration for a later viewing.
I like to think that when my children are adults they will remember this day with a smile and understand the significance and importance of why they got to stay home to watch it Live as a family. In my mind, it was a good decision.
Where were you when ....
9 comments:
I caught the speech over my lunch hour (I came home for lunch.) The kids watched it school.
watched bits and pieces of it tonight after work. No where memorable.
Not everyone is caught up in Obama Mania.
Anonymous ~
Agree ... not every one is caught up in Obama Mania. But regardless of political views, one could perhaps see the historical significance of this day and celebrate how far as a nation we have come.
Hmmm... I am most definitely not an Obamaniac, either, but enjoyed what I saw of the ceremony. No matter what people believe, the president has a lot of hard work before him and all people who call themselves Americans should back him up.
Jon had a snow day so we were all here to watch. The musicians in us were bummed that the USMC band was fake-playing to a recording, but all the musical shortcomings of the day were made up for via Williams' beautiful arrangement of "Simple Gifts." Truly touching.
And, as a side note, it's always so interesting to me that people who speak with forked tongues often prefer to keep themselves anonymous. :O)
I was at work; listening to as much as I could on my computer with head phones on; while I worked. They had it playing in one of the conference rooms but we could only go on there during our breaks and my lunch was at 1:30 so I would've missed it all! Luckily, Jason recorded the whole thing and I went over to his place last night and watched the whole thing with him. A very historic day, indeed!
I took my 4th graders to the library to watch- I was sure it was better than anything I had to offer in music class that day- only to be shocked disappointed and entirely off the deep end when my principal (also presumable watching) chatted it up with the kids the WHOLE time it was going on!
no way! we watched it at our school, and no one talked. I too enjoyed william's arrangement of simple gifts.
My friend lives in WA and kept her daughter home from school too, she wanted her to remember watching it with her mom.
I watched it at home while folding laundry. My husband refused to get up off the couch the whole morning, cause he didn't want to miss any of it, and he is definitely not an Obama Maniac.
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