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Friday, August 8, 2014

Libertarian parenting - how do libertarians raise their children?

While I am pretty indifferent to the idea of having children (I have never really liked them all too much), I cannot help but be paranoid about studying up on how to properly raise them. It is a huge fear of mine that I will not be able to control them. I do not want to be one of those people who criticize bad parenting at a young age but am little-to-no different when I have my own kids, whether it be because of exhaustion, it was harder than I thought it would be, etc.

Here is where libertarianism comes in...

Surely, I want my children to be safe and successful, but I do not want to be sheltering, nagging, and overprotective. I also do not want to be so chill with whatever that they put themselves in reckless danger and/or become juvenile delinquents.

How can a parent effectively provide a guiding hand without overstepping their children's personal agency?

(I am aware that it is up to the parents to decide how to raise their children, and that political ideology or party does not necessarily mean being "consistent" with those beliefs concerning the government's role in personal affairs. However, I would say that believing the government do one thing and then doing something else is sometimes hypocritical in certain instances.)

Libertarians who have children - how have y'all found fair ground between the two extremes?

Libertarians who do not have children yet, but are like me and have given this some thought - how do you see yourselves handling this?

EDIT: While on Liberty.me, I discovered Free Your Children: A Guide for Liberty-Loving Parents by Justin Arman. If you do not have an account yet, use SEXILIBERTI as a code and get a $5 discount each month.


1 comment:

  1. Long story short, it all comes natural. Ask my son, libertarian parents are not easy on their kids but they're not unnecessarily hard on them either. I gave him the freedom to be himself but made sure he knew how to respect others, and what he was responsible for -- and held him to it.

    For example, he only had to wear a dirty uniform to school one time after I warned him that midnight is not the time to tell me you need clean clothes for school tomorrow. He even asked if I would teach him how to do laundry the next day. ;)

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