Written by Kelly Bartlett for Parenting From Scratch. As with any “big picture concept” in parenting, the follow-up question is always how? I love this idea, but how does it work? I agree with this, but how am I supposed to put it into practice? I’m on board with this philosophy; can you give some…
Tag: children
Becoming a Man of the World
Send him mail. “Insight for the Young and Unrestrained” is an original weekly column appearing every Thursday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Gregory V. Diehl. Gregory is a writer, musician, educator, and coach for young people at EnabledYouth.com. Archived columns can be found here. IYU-only RSS feed available here. A few months ago, I was living in…
Stop Walking Into the Abyss
Writes Free Your Kids: The first step is the toughest… Mama told me things had to change. We couldn’t continue this way. We had ceased spanking years before. We were still using a combination of yelling, isolation (in the form of a “naughty step”), and shaming to control the children’s behavior. We were drowning. Our…
Beyond Patriarchy: A Libertarian Model of the Family
Written by Roderick Long, as published at the Center for a Stateless Society. The family is one of the issues that divide liberals from conservatives. In general, conservatives tend to see private associations — the family, the church, the corporation — as bulwarks of freedom against the state. Few conservatives question the need for a…
I’m Not Raising Corporate America
Written by Mandy for the Natural Parents Network. I’ve often heard parents rationalizing punishments and rewards by citing the real world. When the kids grow up, they’ll be in the real world. In the real world, they’ll have to get a job and then, they had better be prepared. Punishments and rewards are everywhere, in…
Play and (Don’t) Walk Away
Written by Nicole Olson for Unschoolers.org. Back in my mainstream days, I was an avid fan of the nanny shows. There were several on at the time, and they all boasted the same thing – that by using their techniques even the most wild of children could be tamed, that houses filled with chaos and…
The Best Way to Solve Your Child’s Problems
Written by Laura Markham for Aha! Parenting. Ever notice how kids don’t really want to hear your solutions to their problems? Teenagers, particularly, often react with downright hostility when we give them our good advice. That’s because they need to see themselves as capable. Every time we tell our child how to handle something, we’re…
Discover Their Own Truths
Writes Free Your Kids: My wife and I are not religious people. We were both raised in Christian homes, but do not currently follow any organized religion. The question before us, then, is how to best allow our children to decide for themselves what they believe. Certainly, a child raised in a Christian home has…
Control is War
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. War is clearly destructive. Even war fought totally in self-defense is destructive; destructive to life, liberty, and property. Murray…
We Can Do Better Than This
Writes Free Your Kids: When we libertarians, voluntarists, and anarchists say that the state should not be providing a service, we are not saying that the service in question shouldn’t be provided. The hungry need to be fed. The disabled need to be cared for. The children need to be educated. The roads need to…