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Wasteful, Entitled, and Inconsiderate
I was so ready to jump on Facebook and ask my fellow unschoolers how to deal with my child and what’s happening in our house around food. I was already writing the post in my head: “We’ve done a lot of deschooling and releasing of control around food in my house lately. We no longer require everyone to sit at the table and eat dinner at a certain time, my daughter often makes her own plate, she eats when she wants, and snacks all day. Full disclosure: we are still working through that one. But nevertheless, we have come a long way. But lately, she makes a plate and then…
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Getting Past No
In order to really raise free people, including myself, it takes a LOT of self-work. It’s deep work, it’s continuous, and it can be overwhelming. Who knew I had so many personal challenges?? But the steps forward feel so GOOD! I’ve mentioned that I, and other people in my household that shall not be named, have control issues (and communication challenges) that show up in various ways. We aren’t abnormal or strange. We were taught that being a good parent meant having your kid under control. And we are some good ass parents because we control the shit out of everything! What time she wakes up, what time she goes…
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When Your Partner Has Different Parenting Practices
I thought I would share a few things that I am learning, living, and growing through while parenting with a partner that does not fully align with your parenting philosophy. Around August, we decided – well, I decided and pressured him – to unschool for the 2020/2021 school year, which starts with a period of deschooling. The words unschooling and deschooling are SCARY for most people, so let me give you a couple of definitions from Akilah S. Richards, author of Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work. People typically think unschooling is letting your kids do what they want and not parenting appropriately. Akilah, ‘cause she’s my…
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Choosing Beyond
“To truly be free, we must choose beyond simply surviving adversity, we must dare to create lives of sustained optimal well-being and joy.”~bell hooks Never has a quote resonated so deeply with me. It was like she heard my morning meditations and took all my beliefs and desires and wrapped them into one beautifully articulated gift. Each word felt specially chosen for me. I felt heard. For the first time, I understood what my body had already known, where my feet had been stumbling for a path, where my words had failed. I want to be free. Free people have choices. I’ve been in a space when I felt like…