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Taking Children Seriously

practicalities

New parent? Planning to have a baby and questioning the standard parenting ideas? Don’t miss this critical discussion!

Screens as a natural, integrated, positive part of life

“If you do X, I will give you Y”

What if your baby keeps grabbing your nose ring and cannot be reasoned with?

Instead of Cry It Out, try bedtime anarchy

Limiting your children’s screen time?

What if your child runs into traffic?

Reluctant at drop-off yet later does not want to leave?

The can-do attitude versus the can’t-do attitude

A commitment to figuring it out

The relationship-building power of explanations

What do you mean by non-coercive? What is the difference between coercion and non-coercion?

How is she sleeping?

Surely it is cruel to force people to live with the consequences of the ideas and preferences they had when they were children?

Surely kids need to be forced to learn maths?

How do you handle the issue of other people coercing your child?

Unnatural consequences revisited

How can I drop the anti-rational part of my mind that interferes with me taking my children seriously?

How can I become more aware of anti-rational parts in my mind?

How can I overcome the antirational memes disabling my creativity, with my disabled creativity?!

Surely we should communicate our disapproval to our children?

Does taking children seriously mean not influencing them?

What do you do about vaccinating your children?

If you are not coercing your child, what do you do instead of coercion?

How do you teach table manners?

How do you determine what food to give your children?

What if my child both hates school and likes being in school with all his friends?

Is Taking Children Seriously only for the rich?

Our 15-year-old wants to hitchhike to Outer Mongolia by herself. We think she is not yet “street-wise” enough. What should we do?

Surely it is not coercive to have a rule that whenever our child goes out, he must first tell us where he is going and for how long? What about being a responsible parent?!

If my five-year-old were allowed to open the garden gate, she would be off wandering all over the neighbourhood and might be run over or kidnapped or murdered etc.

At what age should children first leave the house on their own, visit their friend next door on their own, go to the cinema on their own, hitchhike from coast to coast on their own, etc.?

What to do when your child says “Go away” or “I don’t want to talk about it”

“What if…?” questions revisited

Is hiding medicine in your child’s food wrong?

Surely it is necessary to coerce children to avoid them doing unsafe or unethical things?

How can we communicate urgent information to our pre-verbal toddlers?

How do you take babies seriously?

Surely children need discipline to teach them self-discipline?

Surely children need to learn to deal with restrictions to prepare them for life in society?

What if your child wants to drive?

What if my child wants me to help her murder someone?

I’m a vegetarian. What if my child wants to eat meat?

How do you intervene non-coercively when one child is attacking another?

Is coercion always wrong?

What if my child wants to buy every toy in the shop, and does not consult me?

What do you have against gentle coercion?

Do children not taught that they can’t always get their own way become entitled and inconsiderate?

How can I tell if a proposed solution is a real solution?

How do you solve problems where there is a conflict of interest?

If I am not allowed to coerce my child, surely I am being coerced myself?

Does Taking Children Seriously mean children always getting their own way?

Which parenting style is Taking Children Seriously? Authoritarian, authoritative, permissive, or uninvolved?

Children fending for themselves like adults?!

What is Taking Children Seriously?

Why does parenting feel so hard?

Taking Children Seriously: a new view of children

The Taking Children Seriously survey

Bedtimes and ill effects of lack of sleep

Help! Child hates eyepatch!

How to get enough sleep with a toddler who does not sleep

Ideas for parent whose toddler does not want to go to sleep

Taking sick children seriously

Creativity and untidiness

It is impossible to control for all the variables in any experiment involving human psychology

Why giving children rules and boundaries is a mistake

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