Bona Fide Americanos

How do you explain citizenship to a child?

I met up with R and the kids at the US Consulate to register them as US citizens born abroad and get their US passports, and it was interesting to listen as Scott tried to tell me why we were there. He was telling me that he was going to the US -- you could tell he struggled a bit with the concept of citizenship. For a moment, I thought about describing it as teams. My explanation formed in my head as follows:

"Because we live in Canada, we get to be on the Canadian team. But we are also on the US team, because mom was born there and because lots of our family are from there. But until we get our papers here at this building, nobody knows that you and Katie can be on the US team too. They only know you are on the Canadian team."

I thought it was a pretty good way to get the concept across, but I held back because I wondered about the adversarial relationship that is implied by teams and competition. Scott likes to win, and to put it terms of teams would make him wonder if there was going to be some sort of contest to see who was the winner. Well, I guess there is -- you see it at the Olympics, or other the Pan-American games that we watched recently on TV. He cheered his heart out for Kristina Groves in a bike race and for all the Canadian athletes clad in their bright red gear. I wonder how he'll react when he hears he can claim allegiance to multiple teams. Will he cheer for both? We all know he likes red best, so maybe he will be slightly put off by the presence of a bit of blue.

The actual experience of going to the Consulate was pretty arduous. Katie was coming down with something and clinged to me the whole time we were there, which was lengthy. When we got into the waiting room it was packed with people seeking visitor visas. By the time we left there were only two other people still in the room. I guess that's what happens when you do 2 SSN requests, 2 child birth registrations and 4 passport forms. Katie just sat on my lap and Scott passed the time with an activity book. He connected the dots to a picture of the Eiffel Tower, with a word puzzle that spelled "Paris."

"What is Paris, dad?"