The Sovereign Child: How a Forgotten Philosophy Can Liberate Kids and Their Parents

There is nothing wrong with exposing a child to your preferences. Quite the opposite. The key is allowing them to reject your preferences. If they aren’t allowed to opt out, then your preference necessarily disrupts their understanding of the world. If vegetables are unwanted, then being forced to eat them would cause resentment toward the person d

Instead of focusing on rules, Taking Children Seriously focuses on fostering understanding. Parenting is the process of supporting a child until they understand the world well enough that they can support themselves. What is the best way to foster understanding? To provide freedom and security for a person’s creativity to discover how the world wor

avoiding or overcoming bad habits requires understanding, not mandatory avoidance. For example, to avoid overeating cookies, you have to understand that cookies can be delightful with tea after dinner but don’t satisfy hunger enough to substitute for a real meal. To discover this about cookies, you need to try them out.

have a trusted and knowledgeable person available for questions. This lifeline can only work if this person has the child’s best interests at heart, and only if the child believes this.