I was trying to explain to Alleia (3 years old) what was happening as we watched the protesters marching and chanting in the streets of Cairo with fires burning in various buildings, and I was having a hard time finding an age-appropriate way to say it.

“They have a mean president, who is kind of like a king, but a little different. They are saying that they don’t want the mean king to make all their decisions for them, they want to make their own choices…”

At this point she piped up loudly, localizing this concept to her own context: “They can’t have gum?”

I guess that makes me Mubarak in her world.