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In case you missed Discovery Health's "Radical Parenting" last night.
There were three families featured on "Radical Parenting." The first family was an un-schooling family (no school, no homeschool, no rules, no hierarchy, we learn from our surroundings). The second family was an attachment family (baby wearing, co-sleeping, nursing until ages of four, placenta freezing in the fridge for six years). The third family, a blogger, was a gender neutral family (boys played with pink castles, wore stilettos, helped bake, pretended to nurse their dolls).
Besides the first family, the show was far from radical.
Speaking just for myself in middle America, I was able to identify with the later two "radical parents." No, I have not frozen or kept any one of my placentas. But... I've co-slept with all of my children, not on a regular basis but out of pure exhaustion and loved it, I potty trained them at the earliest signs of readiness and also "wore" my kids in slings. I've tried hard to stay away from gender stereotypes which is why my three year old daughter had a reptile birthday party, blew out the candles on her dinosaur cake and chased after the boys with a foam sword in a pink tutu. More so my seven-year-old son watches his father do the laundry and does a better job sorting than me.
By far the most radical family featured was the un-schooling family (no school, no homeschool, no worksheets/textbooks, no schedule, no discipline, no rules, no hierarchy, we learn from our surroundings). I'm not quite sure what to say about Mr. and Mrs. Parent (real names) so I am sitting on my hands tonight and providing you with summarized quotes from their twenty minute TV debut.
"Can you read this to me?" A mother points to a sign at a children's museum.
"You read it for me." A child answers.
"Ok." So, she reads to her seven-year-old son.
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"No, I love being the outfielder. I hate being the pitcher." A five year old child screams.
"Ok. Than don't be the pitcher."
"Elijah's gonna be the batter, I don't want to be the outfielder. HAHAHAHA."
"Ok."
"Outfielder is my favorite but I don't wanna do it now."
"Ok. That's your decision."
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Cut to the scene of the mother working out in the middle of the day and her daughter enters the room.
"Mom? Can you put a TV show on for me?"
"Sure, honey."
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"I think they learn most about math from money." The mother says while visiting a farmer's market where her seven-year-old brings one dollar to spend and she tells him he doesn't have enough.
"Elijah also has learned numbers from the video games he's played. Figuring out scores of the games he plays."
"Elijah got himself to read (six months ago - age 6.5) using a variety of video games."
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I missed the quotes from the food segment "we provide our children with healthy choices.... they tell us when they are hungry.... they tell us where they want to eat.... feeding their bodies.... healthy choices (said three times)" because the kids were eating donuts and cereal for breakfast and ice cream for dinner while their parents had a real meal.
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I also missed the quotes from their bedtime ritual segment (my husband came home and told me to STOP watching because I was thrashing around in my seat screaming at the TV) but it pretty much said they go to sleep when they want to and where they want to and usually sleep on a "bubble mattress in-front of the TV" and just recently they started to "teach hygiene because the kids started to smell and all you need to say is honey you smell and I can't cuddle with you and they will take a bath!"
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It's TV. I know. It's only 20 minutes. I know. Sitting on my hands. Sitting on my hands. Sitting on my hands.
I've erased the ending of my post a dozen times. Twenty-one times to be exact because I really do try to be open minded and respectful of most parents. The content on this post is just my opinion. But. Well. Gah. Staying true to my word I will sit on my hands and not let Mr. and Mrs. Parent know what I really think. (JUST ADDED: my very good online friend Terra who unschools wrote a post in response to mine)
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