Free Children

If there is one thing I'd do differently today from 40 or 50 years ago it would be parenting. This short entry personifies what I'd like to emulate as a parent if I could retrace my steps.

We libertarians and anarchists often get derided for our "utopian" philosophy -- our promotion of the idea that "...everyone would be good if they were free to be good...", etc etc. Now I know that's baloney. Kinda.

On the other hand, what if all kids had to opportunity to grow up in households described by "Free Your Kids"? Would a few bad eggs emerge? Probably -- for one reason, parents (regardless of "all-holy-resolutions") are not always as even-handed as they set out to be. We ain't always perfect all the time. Many of us have frustrations and anxieties -- sometimes coming from parental concerns -- that might be subtly taken out on the kids now and again. Unfairly.

But I've come to see that nothing -- nothing -- can replace liberty. Children growing up sense that. And "good" kids tend to correct "bad" kids in a way that authoritarian adults can't grasp.

If there are parents of young kids reading this, I have one hope for you: set 'em free! Lovingly -- guardedly.

Sam

**Sam may have a point, but in my case was a failure. At that time I was nothing, maybe independent. I forged one developmentally disabled kid and became his teacher. I was never a father to him I was teacher. The man he came to too learn something, or was corrected from a behavior unbecoming of a normal person. I taught and taught and never fathered him. Our relationship is still on that basis but he is free of me and makes his own choices, lives in the community, works. In my eyes he is a success. My second son I fathered, loved, avoided teaching (for the most part) he lead his life and right now he is a miserable failure, a useless human being draining his mother an I dry after 35 years. My fault was noto guarded.
Sam. Where were you 35 years ago when I needed you?