I’m working on family planning with my partner, and we want to have children within the next couple years. While I’m definitely an anarchist, I’m not a ‘studied’ anarchist and don’t know as much as I’d like about the political theory. I watched a video from Andrewism on the topic, which made me think about this topic. I largely agree with his assessment, and want to raise my children without a hierarchy because I believe that it’s the best method of raising children. The problem is that I don’t really know how to go about it or how to bring it up to my partner. Obviously there isn’t a ‘right’ way to do it because each child is their own person and I’d need to balance that with the responsibility of being the parent, but I’d love to know some guidance from other anarchist parents.
Trying to do this ourselves. It’s certainly harder when they’re younger, as you can’t really have conversations of reasoning and have to make top down decisions for safety a lot. That being said once they’re older, say 4-5 we will certainly be turning to conversation and reasoning with their reasons held in high regard. Let them lead their day as much as possible if you don’t have strict schedules or obligations tying you up that day. You might also like to look into the montessori education style, to use at home, if a Montessori school isn’t an option. Basic stuff, live as an example, share your reasons for your way of life and philosophy. You might like books such as “The modern school movement: anarchism and education in the United States” if you’re from the states, and “the universal declaration of human rights: an adaptation for children”
This is exactly what I was hoping for, thank you! Assuming they aren’t also an anarchist, how did you bring this up with your partner?
My partner is a democratic socialist (not a socdem) and is very open and an ally. I’m actually a Mutualist getting into the nitty gritty but still. We both stay open and realize when revolution happens we probably wouldn’t get either of our “perfect” ideals anyway so give and take as with everything else in the relationship, although very similar.
Andrewism has a pretty great video on the topic of parenting.
