helping good parents become great parents

The story of Raising Parents… who we serve, why we seek changes, and the changes we aim to make…

Who is it for? Our grandchildren

 

Who is it not for? Our grandparents

 

What is it? Leadership for raising a generation without childism, and  ending child abuse in our lifetime

"Like the vast majority of people, I have spent the vast majority of my energy stopping other people from noticing that I am THIS messed up, hoping they believe the lie, ‘I am only this messed up.’

"Part of that lie is covering up the mess made in me from living in a childist culture, where casual child abuse and neglect is completely normalized –to fit in. To promote the lie, 'I am only this messed up,’ I have to act as if 'the way I was raised and the culture I was raised in was only this messed up' were true.

"If I notice, or comment on, how truly messed up the culture and how I was raised is, I uncover my darkest fear: that people will find out how messed up I truly am, and how deeply that messed up, childist, abusive and neglectful this culture really is." ~Linda Clement, ThriveParenting coach

When a huge part of everyone’s security and sanity seems to be tied up in ‘this culture is us, this is what we do and do not do, this is who we are,’ stepping out of that mainstream to really see it is hard. It means risking rejection, isolation, abandonment, loneliness and the shocking loss of longstanding relationships.

It helps to have support, the wise counsel of folks who went before, and a burgeoning community of people out here on dry land with us, seeing the stream for what it really is and portaging to a different way of living for ourselves, our children and, hopefully in time, our world… a way of living that spans how people need groups of people to thrive, how stress really doesn’t make children into better adults, and where the realities of modern life from the digital world to education and economics are recognized as available to be used as we choose, not necessarily only how they have been used to date or what the designers thought they were making them for.

We are creating a responsive population that can more readily adapt to change than people who were raised in the mainstream of This is How It MUST Be Done, struggling and stressing over the inevitable shifts in the real world, as if holding back the tide were ever going to be possible.

We seek to raise children who will be the movers and shakers, the change agents who adapt to the changes made to meet real human needs, centering people (and their real needs) rather than the imaginary needs of systems, ideas or traditions.

Come join our community on dry land, outside the mainstream, where we stumble and strive to a world kinder and more respectful of children and adults.