Pants-Free Parenting: A household in need of a revolution

I live in a house divided. My husband is a Republican and I am a Democrat. We have known each other since high school and together have survived four election cycles. I mean, there was the time in high school when my husband and his friends put Republican signs in my yard. Then, there was the time, when I got up with the baby in the middle of the night only to discover she was wearing a Romney onesie. Besides those moments, which are completely his fault, we have made it work.

But now we are parenting two mostly sentient beings and we will have to navigate that divide without making them feel like they have to choose sides. The good thing about parenting our children in a bipartisan household is that they cannot rebel from us politically. Want to join Greenpeace? Please, your mother in college wrote a paper in defense of armed resistance against the oil companies. Want to join Wall Street? Your dad will be so proud.

The only way they can truly disappoint us is if they advocate for the return to the monarchy or just completely stop caring about politics altogether. In that case, good luck accessing your college fund, kids.

While our kids are too young to have an informed political consciousness, we have noticed inherent personality traits that seem to sway them toward certain political affiliations.

For example, our daughter loves rules and she knows all of them. From don't color on the walls to no throwing popcorn, she's a rule follower and loves to enforce them. She has even invented a few rules that I have fallen afoul of, like when you play chase you can only walk slowly and mom is not allowed to sing in the car. You might think this would make her pro-Government intervention, but you would be wrong. It just makes her tough on crime and tough on moms. She is also against free handouts especially to little brothers who try to take her snacks. So, she seems strongly Republican. Although she does not enjoy having her parents tell her to wear pants or underwear, so that's going to be a problem.

My son on the other hand is an anarchist. He believes law and order are constructs designed to keep the 2-year-old down. And he's not wrong. I really do want to keep him down, specifically in bed. But the 2-year-old respects no law. He's also a big believer in the equal distribution of a wealth of M & M's and does not believe M & M's should be held in the hands of the capitalist, by which he means us. Further, based upon how many Band-Aids he constantly demands, my son is a big fan of free health care. So, I'm pretty sure he'd go for Bernie Sanders. But he does have this libertarian streak that is hard to quell.

Only time will tell, but for now, I need to abolish this 4-year-old monarchy, that keeps rising up and demanding more fruit snacks.

• Lyz Lenz is a writer, mother of two and hater of pants. Email her at eclenz@gmail.com or find her writing at LyzLenz.com.