The Obama Puppy

The buzz on most animal friendly sites is all about what kind of puppy the Obamas will bring with them to the White House. Yes indeed, the President-Elect upheld his promise to his daughters to get them a puppy regardless of how the election turned out. And he even mentioned the promise in his victory speech on Tuesday night.

I was struck by this, of course, but not for the reason you might think. Or course it is adorable to ponder those cute little girls with an even cuter puppy (rumor has it that they will try to adopt a pet from a shelter but they will have to find a hypo-allergenic one), but to me this sounded more like a dad upholding a promise that the kids had to earn. Did anyone else catch him saying that his daughters had "earned" this puppy?

I can see the value of such a promise. "If you girls put up with all the distractions of the campaign, including the fact that mommy and daddy might not be around as much as you would like, and you do what we ask when we are in the spotlight, such as wear things you might not like all that much, and if you continue to keep up with your schoolwork despite some late nights and lots of time away from your friends, we'll get you a puppy. But you have to keep up your end of the deal and we will keep up ours."

Sounds like a fair exchange to me. Demonstrate responsibility and reap the rewards. Sounds like a great way to parent--work for something you really want rather than have it handed to you--and an even better way to govern. Could we be sensing a trend here?

In other words, this president-elect will uphold his end of the promises he made but its a two way street. We are gong to have to make some changes as well and be patient. Those girls waited two years for that puppy. And I am sure they will tell you it was worth it.

I hope we have similar fortitude because the future, as bright as it looks, is going to necessitate a lot of give and take on every one's part.