parents

Who are you? (Part II)

I tried to point out in Who are you? (part I) how civilization plays a major role in ‘educating’ its citizens who they are and who they should be. This contrasts sharply with the natural intuitive way our ancestors previously acquired a secure sense of self. Religious stories have been central to every civilization’s agenda. […]

Science’s Baby Steps

Every now and then I’m bowled over by the “well duh” discoveries science finally gets around to making. My ‘well duh’ relationship with science began early. As a preteen child who liked to play with fire, I discovered that putting ice or cold water on a burn worked great. However, the standard nursing / medical […]

A Tao of Parenting

Note: First, listen to this NPR research on raising children, The Carpenter Vs. The Gardener: Two Models Of Modern Parenting. It summarized the natural approach to parenting I discuss here. Bringing Up Baby is a repeat of this episode with as extra 28 min section at the beginning. Breeding, and the parenting that follows, are […]

The Family Purse

Our money is family money… really. It is one big pot from which each takes as needed. This is radically different from the independent model my parents used to raise me. I did chores for which I got a salary. I suppose the idea here is to prepare their child for the employer – employee […]

Significant Others

There is a curious thing I notice in the life of my two sons. They are not chasing girls like I was at their age. They aren’t gay either, so what gives? I look back on my youthful lust and see a disconnected lad looking for companionship that my independent upbringing never provided. All I […]

Innately Ethical

Chapter 38’s A man of the highest virtue does not keep to virtue and that is why he has virtue served as a model for raising my sons. This worked really well. Yet, given this ‘Taoist’ upbringing, it is odd to see how rigidly law abiding they are at times. For example, we headed down […]

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