Here is an articulate, bubbly 19 year old girl giving brilliant advice about how to raise a healthy, open-minded child. She was raised with dogma and indoctrination like the rest of us, so I get the impression that she's already come a long way to rid herself of the brainwashing from her childhood. Looks like she's doing a good job at it.
Now, like Laci here, I don't have kids. Unlike Laci I've decided to refrain from being a baby factory completely. But I did manage to survive an extremely dysfunctional childhood full of brainwashing, dogma and craziness, so I'm thoroughly qualified in how NOT to raise kids. If I did have children, I'd be happy to have these 9 ideas from Laci as a starting point for making healthy decisions to raise a healthy, open-minded child free of indoctrination.I tried to do a transcript of her list, but it's not word for word. It's pretty close though. (I ended up with 9 points, because I think she skipped the number 6)
- Raise children with a cultured understanding of world religions. ALL religions from a secular perspective so that they understand the historical and cultural impact that religion has on the world.
- Explain your own viewpoint and why you hold that view.
- From day one make sure that a variety of resources and information are available at the fingertips of your child. Encourage education about everything. Fill their brains with your enthusiasm for knowledge.
- Kids will have lots of questions. Don't Lie! It's really bad to lie! So whenever you're questioned answer honestly, don't avoid it. Answer to a level that will suit them. Don't lie to them and don't dumb it down if it doesn't need to be. Because kids know.
- When they ask questions, try to give an unbiased answer. Unless they're asking about a question in relation to you.
- Encourage the tolerance of diversity: age, race, sex, sexual orientation, weight, whatever it may be. Kids will start making judgments really early. So talk to them about that, and the importance of diversity so they will hopefully grow up as tolerant human beings.
- Going back to education, engage children in conversations about science, social issues, etc., and encourage them to form their own opinions.
- Speak to them in these conversations like a peer, not as an authority.
- Try not to alienate them under any circumstances. This can be helped by avoiding dogma.
General notes:
Overall, if a child is asking questions about a topic, they're probably ready to talk about it. Don't overwhelm them with information.
Use common sense.
Regarding sex and drugs: make sure from day one that you maintain a positive, strong relationship about sex and drugs. That starts with them just asking about their body parts. Don't lie to them, be open about it, and when you do that, you'll have a strong relationship in the future when talking about those things really matters, when they're going to be facing those kinds of decisions. So you can make sure they are safe, and they have that trusting, loving relationship with you. You can't wait till they are 16 to start a conversation about sex. It doesn't work like that. If you don't have a healthy relationship in the beginning, you're not going to have it in the end either.
I found this over at Infidelicacy where I also happened upon the following video. What's kind of interesting is that I've been doing some research for an article for you and I came upon this next video yesterday. But I didn't save it. Seeing it at Infidelicacy helped me decide to share it with you here, because it's also about being Open-Minded and I think it goes together nicely with Laci. :)
This video is 9:40 min. It's good to be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brain falls out.
Let me know if you want me to edit this post with a transcript of this video.
While this topic can be very challenging for most people, my belief is that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can find. I do value that you've added pertinent and intelligent commentary here though. Very much thanks to you!
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